Archos 7 Home Tablet
When you say ‘a new tablet’ henceforth, there will be no escape from a comparison with the Apple iPad. The Archos 7 Home Tablet also gets this treatment. It is much smaller than the iPad with a 7″ TFT LCD screen. And when it comes to features, the iPad beats it hands down. Then why buy the Archos 7? Well, for its price. It is equipt with quite a satisfying set of features for its price tag. This gadget mainly focuses on entertainment.
Archos 7 specs
The touchscreen offers a resolution of 480 x 800 pixels. It can display 16 million colours. A 600MHz ARM Cortex processor is incorporated within. Internally this tablet has 8GB of flash memory.
The operating system it runs on is from the Linux family (ANDROID™ 1.5). However, this is reportedly not Google-approved. Hence, it does not come with the Android Market built in. It also does not support all Android apps. Instead it packs in access to the Archos application store called AppsLib. Browse the web, email, watch online videos and more with this tablet. WiFi [802.11 b/g] is compliant.
Entertainment – You can watch movies and videos on this tablet. 720p high definition videos are supported too. You can even listen to music on the go. There are 2 built-in speakers and a headphone jack as well.
The interfaces hosted by this tablet are:-
- a headphone jack
- USB 2.0 slave and host
- micro SDHC slot
PCs/laptops running XP, Vista, 7 or higher, MAC OS X and Linux and with a USB 2.0 port are compatible.
This device promises a solid battery life of 42 hours for music and 7 hours for video playback.
Archos 7 tablet price – The price of this tablet is just about £130.
For more details visit the Archos website.
Archos 9 PCtablet
Tablet PCs are slowly gaining ground in the laptop market. They definitely seem like the bridge between the mobile phone arena and the laptop arena. With characteristics and features similar to that of netbooks and a structure like mobile phones, this device offers the best of both worlds. The Archos 9 PCtablet is the latest from Archos. Other tablets that seem promising are the Microsoft Courier, Lenovo ThinkPad X200, Toshiba JournE.
The Archos 9 sports an 8.9”, 1024 x 600 pixels touch-sensitive display. This is a resistive touchscreen which can be operated with a stylus. Handling all the processing in this device is the Intel Atom Z510 processor, which works at a frequency of 1.1GHz. The DDR2 RAM employed, has a capacity of 1GB. The hard drive can store about 60GB of information. Graphics in the Archos 9 tablet is processed by the Intel Poulsbo US51W graphics card. This graphics processor is capable of handling 1080p videos. This means you can watch crisp, clear videos and movies using the tablet. The new Windows 7 OS comes pre-installed in this tablet. This PCtablet is also supposed to have a DVB-T antenna built into it.
Hooking on to the internet can be done at Wifi hotspots or with wired Ethernet. With Bluetooth ability, this tablet can wirelessly connect to other devices. A USB 2.0 port, a microphone jack, a 3.5mm headphone jack and 2 additional ports with a port replicator are housed in this device. A 5-hour life is promised by Archos 9.
Apart from the touchscreen, there are other user interfaces on board too. An optical navigator with a trackpoint and mouse buttons are also present. A built-in leg stand is available too. A 1.3 Megapixel web camera is integrated as well. There are 2 built in speakers also. The Archos 9 Touchscreen Tablet measures 256mm by 134mm by 17mm. It has a weight of 800g. The device has been released in the UK and costs GBP 449.99.
Archos 10 Mini Laptop
Archos, the media player maker has made its debut on the netbook stage. The Archos 10 Netbook that was recently launched in the market, is their first attempt at making mobile computers. This mini laptop features a 10.2” super bright LED backlit screen, which presents a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. The Intel Atom N270 processor which clocks at 1.6GHz, forms the CPU of this netbook. A 1GB RAM is available too. The SATA hard drive has a storage space of 160GB and a speed of 5400rpm as well. The graphics are handled by the Intel 945GSE chipset. The operating system that comes with this mobile PC is Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
Networking-wise, this small laptop supports WiFi as well as wired connectivity. This involves compatibility with 802.11b/g standard for wireless LAN and 10/100 for Ethernet LAN. Other softwares that come pre-installed are Skype, Outlook Express, IBM Lotus Symphony and a six months trial version of the BitDefender antivirus software. Other interfaces present on board are as follows:-
- 3 USB ports
- a headphone jack
- a microphone jack
- a 4-in-1 memory card reader
- a VGA connection
A 1.3 Megapixel web-camera is also integrated into this mobile computer. There are 2 speakers built into the laptop as well. A number of multi-media options are present in this portable PC too. A short-cut to access videos on demand with Archos Media Club is available. A vTuner Player for lining up web channels, podcasts and web radio stations; Deezer access for eMusic and Xnview for photo viewing are also offered. The device measures 10.2” in width, 7.4” in breadth and 1.1” in height and weighs 1.3kg. Archos 10 1.3 Megapixel Camera Mini Laptop, seems to be a good starter for Archos. However, they’ll need stay on their toes, to survive in the netbook market.