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Archos announces 7 and 8 Home Tablets

post #1 of 10
3/1/10 at 4:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Archos announces 7 and 8 Home Tablets promising more powerful tablets for the summer

By Jeremy To
Categories: Android | MID

Following the report two weeks ago of the impending introduction of new tablets from Archos, the company today announced the new Archos 7 and Archos 8 Home Tablets with the emphasis clearly being on affordable, simple tablets for home use rather than more full featured, powerful MIDs in the vein of the existing Archos 5 Android in the Internet Tablet family.
The new home tablets both run Android powered by 600MHz ARM9-based Rockchip 2808 CPUs and have 128MB RAM, WiFi and USB connectivity, microSD support, and in-built speakers. The Archos 7 HT (top) features a similar design to the Archos 5 Android and seems to be the product previously leaked by DataMind. With a 7" WVGA touch screen, the device is impressively light and slim at 12.35oz and 0.47" respectively. The battery life is rated at 7 hours for video playback and 44 hours for music playback with two options of local storage capacities: a 2GB model priced at €179 in Europe and $179 in the US or an 8GB model for €179 (approximately US$211 excluding European tax).


The Archos 8 HT, as seen above, has identical specifications to the 7 HT with the exception of an 8" touch screen and a large picture frame form factor with a spacious bezel surrounding the screen, reflecting its additional use as a digital photo frame. The device is also 0.47" thick, weighing under 14.1oz, with 4GB local storage and costing €149 (likely also US$179 excluding European tax).
With the emphasis on home use, the tablets feature comprehensive media playback and streaming capabilities including HD video and support for a large range of codecs, web browsing, information services, social networking, and Android applications through Archos' AppsLib online store. Unfortunately there is no mention of whether these new tablets will be able to access the Android Market app store, and hence I assume this feature hasn't been worked out between Google and Archos yet.
Although the Archos 7 and 8 Home Tablets represent good value for casual home use, it is disappointing they are not the products many of us were hoping for, namely the tablets to follow on from the Archos 5 Android. However, there was some good news regarding those next generation products with Archos also announcing that it would be launching a new range of tablets using ARM Cortex A8 processors up to 1GHz this summer with screen sizes ranging from 3 to 10"!
So there is definitely more to look forward to from the French company in the coming months. In the meantime, check out the additional "in the metal" image of the Archos 7 HT below and a great preview video shot by Charbax over at ArchosFans.com, giving a good overview of the tablet and showing decent web browsing performance and impressive 720p HD video playback.
C/O Pocketables.net

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post #2 of 10
3/1/10 at 5:40pm
The Archos 8 looks ridiculous with that ginormous bezel, geez!! The Archos 7 looks okay (esp. for the price) but after the lack of enthusiasm for the recent Archos tablets (5, old 7, 9), I'll wait for solid reviews before getting excited.
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post #3 of 10
3/1/10 at 5:49pm
I wish Archos was a little more focused on sound quality. They are one of the FEW DAP\PMP makers that still produce high capacity devices but everything I've read about any Archos is they have crap sound quality to the point you'd be better off using a netbook as a DAP if you want high capacity compared to an Archos.

They actually produce Touch screen devices with hard drives in them, imagine that?
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post #4 of 10
3/1/10 at 7:20pm
WEll I have the original 7 right now but it's got 160GB. One of the main reasons I've got it. A little dissapointed they decided to stick with flash only, but it's good in a way that it'll make the player lighter and no hard drive noise.

I'll probably buy it (7) if the price doesn't get too high for UK.
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post #5 of 10
3/1/10 at 9:17pm
I'm definitely thinking about getting that Archos 7 after selling my xbox 360 (which is for sale BTW if anyone's interested lol (oh and it's new;just got back from repair and it's a new one).
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post #6 of 10
3/2/10 at 6:39am
The price is attractive, and if we could get USB DACs working I think it would make a fantastic "transportable" player - not ideal for carrying in your pocket, but great for using around the house or on trips, etc.

Who knows, maybe this time around they'll even have decent SQ with out additional hardware...
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post #7 of 10
3/2/10 at 10:09am
I would hope that Archos would really REALLY run these new players through some heavy testing so when the time comes and they hit the market, they are not added firmware updates the day it hits the shelf.

This seems to be a company that's cutting edge and right on the verge of huge breakthroughs. They just have not delivered a really stable product yet. Give them a couple of better programmers and some time and they could really put a huge dent in the market. Time will tell......
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post #8 of 10
3/2/10 at 5:18pm
Yea... I have the 250gb Archos 5 right now and although I love the device for holding tons of tv shows and movies, it does have a little problem with crashing and whatnot; I wish I had the Archos version....

But yea if they can get a stable firmware and good sound quality this time around they'll definitely sell more models.
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post #9 of 10
3/2/10 at 6:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Young Spade View Post
Yea... I have the 250gb Archos 5 right now and although I love the device for holding tons of tv shows and movies, it does have a little problem with crashing and whatnot; I wish I had the Archos version....

But yea if they can get a stable firmware and good sound quality this time around they'll definitely sell more models.
I get freezes and have to turn the player off so it can reset (Archos 5 250GB as well). I do hope this device doesn't suffer from the same issues.
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post #10 of 10
3/2/10 at 6:38pm
Yea... I don't like it but it doesn't really drive me crazy or anything.... however it does aggravate me when I'm surfing the web and it happens multiple times :/

Other than that a great player.
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