[kimilseung]

So if I buy an Archos tablet do I go for
a. 16 gig flash mem
b. 250 gig hard drive

I am concerned that the hard drive might not be as robust, might limit the devices longevity, also I do not know if any difference in speed would be noticeable. Anyone any input on speed and reliability between the two options?

[Bob]

I'd think it would depend on what you'd want to do with it and where you'd use it.

For the money of the 16GB one, well I'd look else where tbh, something like the Asus or the Samsung ones.

Advantage of Flash, as you mentioned, likely to last longer, less likely to fail if you drop the thing and if it were to fail it'll become read only, so it won't to completely terminal unlike a hard drive based tablet.

If you were to use the thing mainly to listen to music, then you can just use google music to stream your stuff, you get 20K songs stored for free.

Amazon also offer 20GB storage for $20 a year but you also get unlimited MP3 storage on top, which is a great deal.

[MikeUK]

Sometimes its worth checking how the flash is "installed" if its sitting on a 44 pin ide header, then you may have space to later change between HD or flash or even upgrade the flash?

Having said all that a 44 ide is probally out of date and a laptop varient of SATA would be most likely??

yep a quick scan on google just to show my knowledge of flash drive is out of date, 2.5 sata flash drives all the way up to 512GB

[Aliland]

I use an Acer tablet, so this point might not be relevent. I've tried connecting to a wide variety of devices and find flash sticks the most convenient.. I don't need space, but I do like to have a back up. Everything must be FAT compatible. I found problems with all external hard drives I had except for a really old one which we keep just for major back ups as its too big and heavy to bother taking it out the house. As for transferring stuff, this I do need. At first I tried to be modern by just up loading things to the web. Tried ever note and dropbox as well as some more obscure ones. Ever note gets loads of great reviews so maybe its just me, but the third time it lost all my stuff I stopped using. Its used by a lot of students, so maybe their just annoyed to lose notes as apposed to seriously in trouble. Dropbox was OK, but being stung by cloudy stuff, I didn't much want to be modern if it ment another disaster at work. Also, a couple of times, the internet at work was down and I had to run out to a cafe to get my work (but this was not too bad, I got better coffee!). Small flash sticks are the best solution for me. My co workers have also joined in - a page or two of notes can be emailed as attachments, or in an emergency but we see each other every day, if its really bulky put it on a flash stick!
Back to the point, if you really need the space of an external, is it really a tablet you want? Android apps seem to be reletively small, the Acer (as I'm sure the does the Archonis) takes an SD card - pritty useless for storage, but its a good for moving audio books to my phone. The Acer (unlike any tablet available where I live) has a USB port. When choosing, I did consider space a big issue, but its not.

[kimilseung]

Originally Posted by Aliland Back to the point, if you really need the space of an external, is it really a tablet you want? Android apps seem to be reletively small, the Acer (as I'm sure the does the Archonis) takes an SD card - pritty useless for storage, but its a good for moving audio books to my phone. The Acer (unlike any tablet available where I live) has a USB port. When choosing, I did consider space a big issue, but its not.

Thanks for the reply.
The issue for me is media - movies, I will be using the tablet as a personal media player (amongst other things), and it is nice to have a selection at hand. The optional 3G simm card holder is only good for Europe so cloud storage will not work.
The choice of 16 Gig flash or 250 gig hard drive is not external it is internal.

[Aliland]

OK, don't remember the name right now, but my husband keeps films, programs and stuff on a box that's just for that, has TV leads and USB connection. Its ideal for us - as we go away most weekends and he like subtitles. We keep all viewing stuff on that it works great with my tablet. You probably want to factor in buying a stand though. I couldn't find anything under 90 euros! I'm using a plate hollder which does the job, but it obscures the subtitles. But you probably would prefer answers from someone more knowledgeable than me, as I didn't see any internal options. I got good information going on to Android forums, good luck.

[Bob]

Originally Posted by Aliland Tried ever note and dropbox as well as some more obscure ones. Ever note gets loads of great reviews so maybe its just me, but the third time it lost all my stuff I stopped using. Its used by a lot of students, so maybe their just annoyed to lose notes as apposed to seriously in trouble. Dropbox was OK, but being stung by cloudy stuff, I didn't much want to be modern if it ment another disaster at work...

Been using evernote for ages and it's great, not had problems with it, though you do need to make sure you've synced before closing the window, and that the software is all up to date on all devices.

Dropbox is okay, but limited free space and shit privacy T&C's, though you can get up to 4.5GB free if you take part in the beta.

I use ADrive as a free online backup, get 50GB and it works a treat, it's not meant to be CMS thing on the free account and it doesn't auto sync up for free, but just to dump files to grab later, it's great.

Some others I've not tried, but read about -

http://www.4shared.com/ 15GB

http://www.idrive.com/ 5GB

http://www.teamdrive.com/ 10GB but good team uses, integrated into Office etc

https://spideroak.com/ Friend uses and really likes but only 2GB

http://www.sugarsync.com 5GB free, but pretty decently priced for more space and works great on mobile devices

[MikeUK]

Originally Posted by kimilseung Thanks for the reply. The issue for me is media - movies, I will be using the tablet as a personal media player (amongst other things), and it is nice to have a selection at hand. The optional 3G simm card holder is only good for Europe so cloud storage will not work. The choice of 16 Gig flash or 250 gig hard drive is not external it is internal.

As its a tablet you don't need or want the movie to be even close to HD quality and ,avi file should be good enough most of these will stay at or around a 1g per movie

Flash is more robust than a hard drive and will tolerate much more abuse, if you can work with flash and don't need your entire library at a time, then for me its simple choice

[kimilseung]

Finally put my order in, I have been hanging on for Ice Cream Sandwich, and the specs have gone up to a 1.5 GHz processor 1.O RAM. I went for the flash version, but only 8 Gigs, I am tired of waiting and the rumour is a 16 Gig version might not make the American market. One thing about the HDD version is that you can not install apps on to the HD, only on to the internal flash, it should be enough, but nice to know I can install on flash card if needed.

Anyway, not a bad deal at $250.00+tax