Archos 7 Tablet Pc Review

For Archos a not-so-well-known hardware manufacturer the Archos 7 is yet another try at hitting consumers with a device that matches their expectations and delivers a low price point. The Archos 7 is stuck between the Archos 5 and Archos 9 tablets, a junior brother with a 5” display and the bigger bro running Windows 7 Started Edition on an 8.9” display.

The Archos 7 is one of many 7“ Android tablets but perhaps it’s one amongst a very very few category of full scale tablets offered for a lowly $199. That’s almost the same as an Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook and these devices are only e-readers so indeed the Archos 7 has much more to offer.

Hardware Goodies

At 8 x 4.2 x 0.5 inches (HWD) the Archos is small sized and really light weight at only 13.7 ounces (less than a pound). Holding it up in bed to surf the web or read a book shouldn’t pose a problem. It offers a 7inch touchscreen that’s resistive and without an accelerometer.

Externally, the Archos 7 spots double speakers on both sides of the screen (holding the tablet in landscape mode) with a power switch and microSD card slot on the sides. As for ports there’s a mini USB socket, a headphone and composite video out jack. Archos includes a mini USB to USB cord in the box but the composite video out cable would cost some extra dollars.

Archos 7 Display

The 7inch resistive display on the Archos 7 is as good as it comes. While it stays responsive in use, it doesn’t support pinch to zoom and a number of hand gestures being a resistive and not a capacitive touch display. We gather that resistive displays are cheaper than capacitive ones and that’s probably the reason Archos chose to go with a resistive display on this one.

Processor

An ARM 9 600MHz processor does the computing on the Archos 7. Apps may take a few secs to open but you get used to after a while and then it seems normal. However operating multiple applications and processes makes the device run slow.

Storage

The Archos 7 comes with an 8GB storage capacity and 128MB RAM. It also supports MicroSD’s up to 32GB for added storage.

Battery Life

Battery on the 7 is quite good. With WiFi turn on and a video playing in the foreground, you can expect a bit more than 7 hours. It doesn’t match up to the 10hours offered on the iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 but it’s still a good offering.

Software

Archos decided to go with Android 1.5 on the 7. If you’ve up to speed with Android, you’d probably know the world left version 1.5 a long time ago and if you are a techie you’d know that Android 1.5 doesn’t include the famous search bar on Android, advanced battery usage (to see how apps and devices consume the battery) and then multitouch support (which is probably another reason Archos put a resistive display on the Archos 7).

Users will not have access to the Android Market but would have to make do with the AppsLib store from Archos which contained 1,000 apps at launch with many more expected to be included in the future. Preloaded apps on the Archos 7 are eBuddy, Aldiko, ColorNote, DailyNote and Deezer. More apps are available at the AppsLib store or Over The Air (OTA).

Summary

At $199 the Archos 7 is an Android tablet on the cheap that delivers just what you pay for. It lacks a number of features many are accustomed to having on traditional tablets. For example, there’s no access to the Android Apps Store and the lack of an accelerometer means you may not be able to browse the web in portrait mode. The less intuitive resistive screen takes one back to the days of hard taps on a touch screen although this screen is quite response, it’s still not up to a capacitive touch display.

The Archos 7 however is a great device for book reading, browsing the web and doing other stuffs you might as well do on a full tablet like the Motorola Xoom or iPad. And for $200 to $300 less than the average tablet on the market it’s a money saver if you must have a tablet on the cheap.