Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
- 8GB capacity for about 4000 songs, 80,000 photos, or seven full-length movies
- Seven hours of video or 42 hours of audio on a single charge
- 7-inch TFT LCD touchscreen with 800×480 pixel resolution, 16m colors
- Supports H.264/MPEG-4/Real video codecs in AVI, MP4, MKV, MOV, and FLV file formats; MP3, WMA, WAV, APE, OGG, FLAC
- One-year limited warranty
ARCHOS now introduces a new large-screen Android-based tablet, the ARCHOS 7 home tablet. This new product is specially designed to enhance the digital lifestyle in the home. The ARCHOS 7 home tablet bridges the gap between the smartphone and the desktop PC to provide constant access to the web, customization through Android Apps, and multimedia content – all in a large-screen format. This new device testifies to ARCHOS’ strategy of offering innovative electronic products with extremely competiti
Rating: (out of 111 reviews)
List Price: $ 199.99
Price: $ 177.89
Review by George Allen Papapetrou for Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
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The 7HT is the fourth Archos product I’ve owned. Aside from the Gen 1 Jukebox, 5IMT amd 5IT, I purchased three 7HTs. Two as gifts for friends. Both my friends are technical types, not your average Home Owner to whom Archos markets the 7HT.
Personally, I am very pleased with the 7HT. It does everything I wanted it to do. However, I’m a retired techie and I found workarounds for flaws which would hamper the average Home Owner. I’m also a moderator on the ArchoFans Support Forum and focus on the 7HT forum.
Flaw 1:
As delivered the Archos 7HT cannot create new folders. This flaw prevents using the 7HT as a Digital Photo Frame with the supplied App – Photo Frame. Photo Frame treats folders as “albums” for displaying slideshows.
–Workaround: Install an App like ES File Explorer which can create new folders.
–Conclusion: Works fine for me now.
Flaw 2:
Archos provides the Aldiko eReader. I downloaded two books before I installed an 8G microSDHC card. After I installed the 8G card Aldiko “lost” the books I downloaded previously.
–Workaround: Don’t use Aldiko before you install a microSDHC card.
–Conclusion: Works fine now and I have over 100 epub formatted eBooks in Aldiko now.
Flaw 3:
The Archos 7HT has an Unexpected Wake from Suspend every two hours. I had a drop from 81% battery charge to 18% after 4 hours and 36 minutes when I had the Screen Timeout set to Never.
–Workaround: Installed FastBright app to switch to a minimum 5% screen brightness and set the Screen Timeout to 1 minute. With these settings I’ve experienced only a 3% to 5% battery decrease.
–Conclusion: Works ok now. Only a firmware update will eliminate the Unexpected Wake from Suspend.
Iffy:
Out of the box Video playback did not work for all the videos I tried which did play on my PC under VLC and on my Archos 5IT. Some folks at the ArchoFans forum have no problems and others have plenty of video problems.
–Workaround: Convert videos via a PC program. I’ve found one group of settings which work and am still searching for more.
–Conclusion: Works ok for me since I’m more interested in eReading and less in video playback.
Note 1:
The 7HT does not support video out despite what you may read at Amazon or elsewhere.
Note 2:
A USB adapter, micro A male to A Female, is required to use the 7HT as a USB Host for thumb drives, USB keyboards, mice, and powered USB hubs. These adapters are difficult to find as not even Amazon has any. The USB receptacle on the 7HT is micro AB and the supplied USB cable is micro B for USB client mode.
Note 3:
Out of the box the 7HT has no support for WiFi file copies. An App like ES File Explorer provides this.
Note 4:
I doubt if Archos will provide additional firmware updates to correct the “flaws” I mentioned above. They outsourced the Android development and are working on the new Gen 8 software.
Note 5: (Update 20100923)
In mid-September Archos did update the firmware. While I’ve seen no corrections for the “flaws” AF forum members and I have found the touchscreen to be more responsive and satisfying.
Conclusion:
If you’re an average Home Owner and want the 7HT to “work” out of the box, I’m afraid you will be disappointed. If you have a gadget or Android or techie background the 7HT should work for you and at $200 is a great value. I recommend you join a forum like ArchoFans to get the most from your 7HT. For example, recently one of our ArchosFans members got the Google Android Market working on the 7HT.
Allen
Review by Kamal Patel for Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
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As others have said, it’s a good value for $200. But I take that a little bit further and say that I’d rather have this gadget than the $500 iPad. Why? Here’s why.
-It is smaller and almost half the weight. This makes it comfortable to hold and view with one hand, which is difficult with the iPad. I plan to hold on to it and watch videos while stationary biking at the gym, which would be difficult with a bigger tablet.
-The screen is matte. It has much less glare than the iPad.
-I use it mainly to watch videos. In this capacity, it excels, supporting more video formats than the iPad, and coming in a widescreen format instead of 4×3.
-It does most things as well or nearly as well as the iPad. Aldiko is a great ebook reader, you can download Swype to make typing super fast, videos and music play great, etc.
-It plays youtube and flash videos if you use the Skyfire browser.
Of course, there are drawbacks. I wouldn’t give it a low rating though because it’s missing features that only come with $500 tablets.
-The screen is resistive, and occasionally doesn’t register your tap. This improves with time, if you turn on the click-on-tap sound setting.
-The Android marketplace doesn’t work from the device. To get apps beyond the basic ones, you must either install another marketplace (like Slideme) or search around the web.
-The chip is supposedly slower to lower the pricepoint. I haven’t noticed this much.
So for a student, or younger working type without much cash, this is an insane buy. Tons of tablets will be coming out this year, but this one works perfectly fine and may still be cheaper than anything else coming out for a long time. 7 inches is a perfect size right in between small phones and big iPads, and I’ve enjoyed using it in various situations during the week I’ve owned one.
Enjoy!
Review by Diknak for Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
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I got mine last night and I am very happy with it. I gave it five stars, not because it does everything under the sun, but because it is a great value for $200. Some things I write below compare it to expectations from smartphones and tablet standards, but they should be taken with a grain of salt because of the low price tag.
Likes: I love the form factor. Archos has provided a proof of concept and I can’t wait for the 7″ Android tablets to flood the market later this year and next year. It is very light weight and awesome for laying in bed or on the couch while surfing, reading etc. The form factor is just so much more enjoyable than a 10″ iPad. The video quality is just stunning and will make an excellent travel companion just for this feature alone. Typing on the device (with Swype) makes this a great tablet for writing short emails and getting on facebook. The attached kickstand is very convenient and I’m sure it will get tons of use. I just hope that it won’t break since it is plastic. I was pleasantly surprised to find the system very snappy and responsive since I was expecting a little bit of lag time due to the specs. I would have liked to see more processing speed and more memory, but who wouldn’t?
Dislikes: Of course the resistive touch screen is the top of the list. I would have liked to see capacitive, but market limitations just didn’t make that possible. I’m sure there will be a lot of 7″ tablets with capacitive screens released later this year. I would have liked an accelerometer, but I haven’t missed it yet. I’m sure that I will run across an app that will make me miss it, but nothing so far. I don’t have to worry about the orientation changing unexpectedly when laying down, so that is a plus. The 1.5 version of Android was a terrible mistake by Archos and, in my opinion, inexcusable. 1.6 should be a bare minimum at this point and I am going to run into a lot of apps that won’t work. I would have also liked the ability to charge the device over USB (you have to use an outlet).
Other Thoughts: If you are in the market for a great 7″ entry level tablet, this is a great buy and you won’t be disappointed. If you must have top of the line and can’t see yourself happy downgrading services from your Android phone, then you might want to hold off until later this year. I am part of the […] community and that is making this device much more enjoyable because we have a wiki of confirmed supported apps along with other information. Some people have reported defective devices, but it seems like a small portion of the population, so that is nothing out of the ordinary. Archos has already released one firmware update, and I hope more come in the future. With the limited memory and processing speed, a task manager is an absolute MUST have.
Review by Jung Il Lee for Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
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At first, I got this device and felt like returning it. But after using it for like 2 days, I have found that you can view YouTube, other video sites (even porn, just goto the mobile versions) by installing the SkyFire browser.
Also, I own a Nexus One, which runs Android 2.2. The Archos 7 streams videos flawlessly than my Nexus One, I believe that’s due to its added GPU processor.
Other than that, this device is great because you can simply load avi, mov, even DivX files and you can play it back in crisp 720P HD.
The resistive touchscreen was sorta cheapish at first but for the price you pay, I rather have the cheaper resistive than capacitative since you can browse websites without any pinch-and-zoom due to its large 7-inch LCD.
Anyways, I hated it first when I just got the device but after using it couple days, I am lovin’ it as it’s replacing my internet browsing on my smartphone.
Also, internet radio is great too since I can literally put the device anywhere in my kitchen, all while browsing the web too. Multi-tasking is pretty good, although not super fast.
Seriously though, this is the best Android Tablet you can get right now for the money. I know there’s a bunch of larger 10-inch android tablets coming out later this year but the price isn’t going to match up with Archos 7.
Even my kids love it since I can put some Spongebob videos and they can watch it without asking me to boot up my secondary laptop, then play it.
One thing I really love about the device is its fast boot-up time and sleep mode. There’s virtually none so it’s really great portable media player.
Review by Mcdonald Mirabile for Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet with Android (Black)
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So, I have used Archos products for the last 8 years, I used some of their first hard drive based MP3 players and later the PMA-400, which in 2006 had wifi, audio, video, etc. I’ve never been very impressed with their operating systems on their media players, so I was excited when I saw they decided to go with Android 1.5.
Android 1.5 seems to work very well on this system, at least relative to their prior OS. It’s not as fast or as smooth or perhaps as stable as an iPad’s OS, but in my opinion it’s a small sacrifice to save $300+ (to upgrade to an iPad). One of the best features of this device is its use as a book reader. Literally within 15 minutes, I had downloaded an .EPUB file from Barnes and Noble’s website to my desktop and then copied to the Archos mounted on my PC. The preinstalled book application, Alkido, was able to easily import the file and within minutes I was reading. HOWEVER, the only .EPUB files you can view through any Android based ebook readers are ones without DRM (digital rights management). The samples from B&N do not include DRM. The actual books when purchased, however, do. This means you CANNOT USE THIS TABLET CURRENTLY TO READ ANY .EPUB BOOKS DOWNLOADED FROM SITES LIKE BARNES AND NOBLES. There are thousands on non-DRM books available for free which are easily accessed within the Alkido application, however, and this is enough for me.
The screen size on the Archos is just about perfect. The iPad is too big, the iPod/iPhone too small, this is just right for videos, web surfing, and certain book reading. Speaking of web surfing, the interface is a little awkward at first, but you get used to it. It’s also maybe a tad slow surfing the web, though the appslib and slideme android application browers run fine.
The video and audio playback seem to work well too, though I haven’t tested any 720p media. The one final thing I want to mention here is the touch screen — it’s not close to the quality of the iPad, which I have used fairly extensively. It’s crucial to carefully calibrate it at startup or you may have typing issues.