ARCHOS 7 Home Tablet 8GB (Flash Memory)

Certainly not an iPad but then again it's not supposed t be. For me, it does pretty much everything I need it too. It plays all the popular audio formats, displays photo images, show pretty high quality video, does basic email and web surfing, plays web radio (through Deezer), allows book reading and, best of all, connects to various Android repositories to allow various apps to be added (currently I've added some games, an audiobook player, a medical dictionary, etc.).

Yes, the resistive screen takes a little getting used to but it's easier than you would think (which is good vas almost all the controls are virtual rather than hard wired, e.g. volume control, etc.).

The bottom line is that, over the 3 weeks I've had this machine it hasn't had a problem with any files I've throw at it, it's been in places I wouldn't dare take an iPad (in the back garden, next to the bath) and been a lot of fun!

No, it's not an iPad but it's not mean't to be.

Oh and if you're interested ... this whole review was written on my Home Tablet as I looked at Amazon with the on-board browser and listened to a few mp3s!!!

Archos Tablet
Archos is a good company and its MP3 players and most of its products are great but NOT Archos 7 Tablet. And you are probably reading this review because you really wanted to buy this one because it's cheap and you are thinking instead of that iPad this one is a better buy. It's NOT! It is probably one of the worst Tablets in the market, and yes, you'll find it under £99 in Amazon and other sites.
Why I am giving it a two star is because of the following reasons:
Touch Screen
The resistive touch screen is a pain and it often fails to respond. I tested three Archos 7 tablets and found all three has the same problem. Many positive online reviews mentioned it saying "it will take a little getting-used-to-it", however it's so dull and difficult even after three months. When you touch an icon it takes some time to activate, so be patient. At times the touch screen is so resistive you have to touch again and again, and scrolling will make you think about that iPad. Since its not capacitive touch screen you can't pinch and zoom the display.

Operating System Freeze
This tablet is good for practicing your patience, as the Android Operating System freezes a lot. It has Android 1.5 as an operating system which is pretty old as the earliest release.

WiFi is Practically Useless
This is one of my biggest complaint. Archos 7 tablet proudly acknowledges WiFi support but it take ages to open a page. One of the slowest WiFi ever, Archos 7 is always slow no matter how close you are to the fastest router. It does have an 802.11b/g but either it crash or take a long time to load even the google page.

Absence of Android Market
Since Archos 7 is not a phone you won't find Android Market in this tablet. Instead it has AppsLib which is the application market place for Android tablets. At times you have trouble to download an item directly from the application site, for example if you want to download an office suite compatible application like QuickOffice, you'll find a message that you'll have to use a sim based gmail account for downloading the application which is quite irritating. So you might need to register for AppsLib with the slow WiFi it's quite tedious. Worse, you won't find many good Android Market applications in AppsLib even the popular ones.
Forget Youtube
Since the Operating System is Android 1.5, there is no Flash support so forget about the major video sharing sites like Youtube.

Updates
Archos usually offer firmware updates for their products, but unfortunately Archos 7 has very little updates, which means you are not going to get any improvement on this system.

Micro USB Port
It has a Micro USB Port, so get an adapter for it, which is not that easy...and from the review comments, Alex said it's not possible for this tablet to read USB memory, so that (the adapter) is out of the question. You can't use an adapter, which makes the tablet even worse than it ever was....

Good Video Player
The video playback is quite good - the colour is really good and the 800 x 480 TFT display sometimes looks as brilliant as HD display especially when I played the integrated Big Bugs Bunny animation... The supported video formats are confusing, because some Archos 7 tablets has .mov (Quicktime) and .mkv (Matroska) video support but the Archos 7 tablets I have tested only have decent video playback for .avi and .mp4 files only.
Audio
Archos 7 has stereo speakers, but it's just okay and you might need to use that earphones to have a better audio experience. The music software is quite good, it can play album, song, playlist, search and functions like that. You can loop, select recently played selection, fast forward the songs with onscreen buttons displayed in the player. It also has various modes like classical, pop, jazz, rock, heavy bass etc. There is a custom equalizer too.

Integrated applications.
The applications include alarm clock, Aldiko eBook reader, photo viewer, , photo frame, eBuddy (mobile and web messenger), Cine Showtime (application for movie theater search), Daily Paper (Newspapers around the world) which are quite good. There is also a sound recorder, music player and video player.
So.... the verdict is?
So my opinion is, this is not an iPad and if you really want a tablet go for either iPad or a tablet with an operating system which is not a lesser version than Android 2.7 (Gingerbread) - Android version 3 (Honeycomb) is the ideal choice, as it's the OS for tabets (the lower versions are for the mobile devices).
It's definitely cheaper than most other tablets but it comes with a heavy price (no pun intended), you have to suffer it at the cost of (no pun intended again) smooth running , decent applications and not to mention connectivity.

If you simply want a video and audio player with a 7 inch screen, or a Digital Photo Frame, then go for it, at your own risk though. As I said Archos is a good brand and most of their products are great, yet, this one is a wimp from the Archos family... So don't get disappointed with this one. Wait and spend a little more to get a decent tablet.

**Pros**
Good Video Playback
Decent Audio Playback
Micro USB
7 Hours Video Playback time (I haven't tested though)
eBook Reader

**Cons**
Really Slow Tablet
No Integrated PDF Reader
No Android Menu Button
No Flash Support
No Cellular Ability
No Camera
WiFi is practically useless
Insensitive Touch Screen
Constant Crashes
Old Android 1.5 OS
Few or No Upgrades

Full Specifications:

Operating System: Android 1.5
Dimensions (WxDxH): 20.3 cm x 1.2 cm x 10.7 cm
Weight: 388 g
Display: 7" TFT - 800 x 480
Processor: ARM 600 MHz
Memory: 8 GB integrated
Supported Flash Memory Cards: microSDHC
Wireless Connectivity: 802.11b/g
Supported Digital Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG
System Requirements for PC Connection: Apple MacOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows Vista / XP / 7
Technical Details

Audio
Audio Input: Microphone
Audio Output: Speaker(s)
Supported Digital Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG
Battery
Technology / Form Factor: Lithium polymer

Display
Video Supported Formats: avi, .mp4 [.mkv (?) .mov(?)]
Display Resolution: 800 x 480
Display Type: 7" TFT
Expansion / Connectivity
Expansion Slot(s): 1 x microSDHC
Interfaces: 1 x Hi-Speed USB ¦ 1 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A

Input Device
Type: Resistive Touch-screen

Memory
Flash Memory: 8 GB integrated
ROM: 8 GB - Flash
Operating System / Software
OS Provided: Android

Processor
Processor: ARM 600 MHz
System Requirements for PC Connection
OS Required: Apple MacOS, Linux, Microsoft Windows Vista / XP / 7

Package / accessories
Cables Included: 1 x USB cable
Power adapter
headphones

So I got the device 2 days ago... 6-8 hours at the computer later and I have a device that is way more portable (and less thievable) than an Ipad for 1/4 the price. It's worth spending time on the Archos user forums and wiki pages and figure out what you want the device to do before you buy it. If there are specific items (like playing back to TV or recording from the TV) that you want to do, then buy one of the more expensive devices. However, in 2 days I have managed to:

- Get the device working as an ereader and opening epub files (using Aldiko 1.1.6 - other versions cut off the last line of text) and being able to read in both landscape and portrait.
- Record TV shows to my computer from Windows Media Center (you need a TV card) and use MC-TV Converter to convert them to .mp4 to view on the device (I need to experiment a bit more as there's a slight delay in the sound when the video is saved on the micro SD card - maybe and AVI format won't do that).
- get my email working (dead easy with gmail)
- get the device to work as an MP3 player
- install Opera to surf the internet
- install an appkiller to shut down running programs (you can simply copy .apk files to the machine)

I haven't had any issues with the screen and find it easy to type and select things. It might be plastic, but it still feels good quality. I don't think the user interface is that obvious or easy and the included documentation is next to useless - it took me many hours to get to a point where it does what I want it to do and I can see a few more hours fiddling with video formats (and that's where it loses a star).

It's not an Ipad or and Ipod and probably isn't as nicely made as either. However, it is far cheaper than both (a little above £100 when I bought it)and does more than an Ipod and less than an Ipad. I don't think it's fair to compare it to the Ipad when it's so different in price. You wouldn't compare a £10k car to a £40k car or be surprised when the £40k car was better.