Archos 101 Now Shipping, One Of The Best Android Tablets Out There

The Archos 101 that we reported on a couple of weeks ago is finally shipping for just $300 for the 8 GB version and $350 for the 16 GB version, which is a relatively good price considering all of the the other features of the Archos 101, which include a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024x600, 802.11n WiFi, a front facing camera, the capability to play 720p HD video and a wide variety of video formats and codecs, an HDMI output, and a pretty good battery life of up to 10 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours of video playback, and up to 36 hours of music playback. You can see all of the features of the Archos 101 in our previous post about it. The Archos 101 is currently shipping with Android 2.1 but Archos has said that it will be updated to Android 2.2 Froyo by the end of the month. The only drawback of the Archos 101 is the lack of the Android Market, but that can be easily fixed with the multitude of Andorid Market hacks that are out there. The Archos 101 is shipping now and it is one of the best Android tablet choices out there.

Archos 43 And Archos 70 Now Shipping, Still No Android Market

The Archos 43 and the Archos 70 that we posted about previously have finally been released. The Archos 43, featuring a 4.3 inch touchscreen display, Android 2.2 Froyo, WiFi, and HDMI output, and 16 GB of storage, is finally shipping for $250. This seems like a fair price to pay, but unfortunately there is still no Android Market support. The Archos 70, as you might have expected, features a 7 inch touchscreen display with a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, 8 GB of storage, a microSD card slot, Android 2.2 Froyo, WiFi, Bluetooth, and a front-facing camera. All this comes in an 11 ounce package that is just 0.43 inches thin. Unfortunately, as with the Archos 43, the Archos 70 does not have Android Market support. The Archos 70 has been released and is selling for $280, which seems like a great price to pay considering that the smaller screen Archos 43 is going for $250. A 250 GB hard drive version of the Archos 70 should also be released shortly for $350. If you would like to see the full specifications of the entire line of new Archos tablets, please visit our previous post. Overall, at these price points and boasting the specifications that they do, the Archos 43 and the Archos 70 seem like pretty good competitors in today's tablet market, except for the lack of Android Market support, of course. 

Five New Archos Android Tablets For Any Type of User

Archos has released a new range of tablets and they are both cheap and fully featured. There are five tablets in total, all of them running Android 2.2 Froyo. Only one of the tablets has actually been released, but the rest are soon to follow. 

The first of the five Archos tablets is the Archos 28 Internet Tablet. As you might have guessed, the Archos 28 features a 2.8 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 320x240. There is no word on whether the display is resistive or capacitive, but looking at the price point it is most likely restive. The Archos 28 runs on a 800 MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and also features WiFi 802.11n, a built in microphone, an accelerometer, and it runs on Android 2.2 Froyo. The Archos 28 doesn’t seem to feature speakers, though. If all this wasn't enough, the device also supports a large number of video and audio codecs and formats. An interesting feature is a USB 2.0 port with USB host capabilities. As for battery life the Archos 28 gets up to 16 hours of music playback, up to 4 hours of video playback, and up to 6 hours of web browsing. The device also comes with your choice of 4 or 8 GB of built in flash memory. Unfortunately, the Archos 28 doesn't support the Android Market, and neither do any of the other Archos Android devices. In terms of size and weight the Archos 28 is 100x54x9 mm and weighs just 68 grams. The Archos 28 hasn't been released yet but Archos is marketing it as being under $100, presumably for the 4 GB version. 

The second Archos tablet is the Archos 32 Internet Tablet. As you have probably already predicted, the Archos 32 features a 3.2 inch resistive touchscreen display with a resolution of 400x240. You might think that being resistive the touchscreen won't be very responsive, but there are reports that it feels like a capacitive touchscreen display. The Archos 32 also features 8 GB of internal flash memory, Android 2.2 Froyo, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, a built in microphone, an accelerometer, and the same 800 MHz ARM Cotex A8 processor as the Archos 28. A disadvantage of the Archos 32 is that there are no built in speakers.  Another feature that the Archos 32 shares with the Archos 28 is a USB port with USB host capability. The biggest improvement of the Archos 32 from the Archos 28, aside from the increased screen size is the addition of a camera with the ability to record VGA video, but no still images. Battery life on the Archos 32 is also slightly improved from the Archos 28, and you will get up to 24 hours of music playback, up to 6 hours of video playback, and up to 8 hours of web browsing. The Archos 32 also supports a large range of video and audio codecs and formats and as with the Archos 28 and all of the rest of the Archos Android tablets does not have access to the Android Market. As for the size of the Archos 32, it measures 105x55x9 mm and weighs just 72 grams. The Archos 32 is also the only Archos tablet that is currently available for purchase, and it goes for just $150. 

The next Archos tablet is the Archos 43 Internet Tablet, and you guessed it, it features a 4.3 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 480x854, and Archos is also saying that the display is high resolution. There is no word on whether the display is resistive or capactive. The Archos 43 also features Android 2.2 Froyo, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, a built in speaker, a built in microphone, an accelerometer, a built in kick stand, and a camera capable of recording HD video at 720p. The camera is also capable of taking 2 megapixel stills. A big improvement from the Archos 28 and 32 is that the Archos 43 features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. As for its similarities, the Archos 43 features a USB 2.0 host device and has support for a large number of video and audio codecs and formats, and the Archos 43 is also capable of playing 720p HD video. Another feature that differs from the previous Archos tablets is that the Archos 43 has a mini HDMI output and an external microSD card slot. Battery life is also improved and you get up to 36 hours of music playback, up to 10 hours of video playback, and up to 12 hours of web browsing. The dimensions are 135x65x9 mm and it weighs just 130 grams. The Archos 43 will be available with either 8 or 16 GB of built in flash memory, but the 16 GB model is available for pre-order now for just $250. There is no word on how much the 8 GB model will cost.

The next Archos tablet is the Archos 70 Internet Tablet with a 7 inch capacitive multitouch display and a resolution of 800x480. The Archos 70, like the previous Archos tablets, runs Android 2.2 Froyo. As for the specifications it features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, built in speakers, a built in kickstand, a build in microphone, an accelerometer, and a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing. An interesting thing is that the Archos 70 has “speakers”, versus a “speaker” on the rest of the tablets. This leads us to think that the rest of the tablets have a mono speaker while the Archos 70 has stereo speakers. There is no back camera on the Archos 70, which is a surprise. The Archos 70, as with the previous Archos tablets, supports a large variety of audio and video formats and codecs, and also plays 720p HD video. A mini HDMI output is also included as well as a USB 2.0 host port. Battery life on the Archos 70 is great with up to 36 hours of music playback, up to 7 hours of video playback, and up to 10 hours of web browsing. An interesting thing about the Archos 70 is that there is a model with 8 GB of flash memory built in and a model with a 250 GB hard drive. These models differ slightly because, first of all, one of them has 242 more GB of memory, but also because the flash version has a microSD card slot. There is also a size and weight difference; the Archos 70 flash memory version measures 201x114x10mm and weighs 300 grams while the hard drive version measures 201x114x14 mm and weighs a hefty 400 grams. The Archos 70 is probably the best tablet of the entire lot so far because of the large screen size and resolution, the 1 GHz processor, and the capacitive display. The biggest downside is that there is no access to the Android Market, but Archos does have its own AppsLib app market available, and while it might not be the Android Market there are still some pretty good applications. You can also download applications directly to the Archos 70. There is no word on a release date or pricing for the Archos 70.

The last of the Archos tablets is the Archos 101 Internet Tablet, which is very much like the Archos 70 except for the different screen size. The Archos 101 features a 10.1 inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1024x600, but there is no mention of whether it is capacitive or resistive. It also runs Android 2.2 Froyo, like all of the other Archos tablets. For connectivity you get WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1. The Archos 101 also features a build in speaker, a built in kickstand, a build in microphone, an accelerometer, a microSD card slot, and a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing. Some other features are a mini HDMI output, a USB host, and a USB slave. Like the Archos 70 and the Archos 43 the Archos 101 also plays 720p HD video and supports a wide range of audio and video codecs and formats. The Archos 101 also features a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing. Battery life on the Archos 101 is great and you get up to 36 hours of music playback up to 7 hours of video playback, and up to 10 hours of web browsing. The Archos 101 is obviously the biggest and the heaviest of the range, measuring 270x150x12 mm and weighing 480 grams, which doesn’t exactly make it pocketable. The Archos 101 comes in two versions with either 8 or 16 GB of built in flash memory. As with most of the other Archos tablets there is no word on the release date or pricing of the Archos 101, but I would expect it to be more expensive than the rest of the tablets as it is the largest.

Overall the Archos tablets seem great, but there are a couple of drawbacks. First of all, none of them have support for the Android Market, which is a huge drawback. To make up for this Archos has created their own app store called the Archos AppsLib, which has a large amount of applications but not as many as the Android Market. Another way to install applications to your device is by directly downloading the APK and installing it. Another drawback is the lack of GPS connectivity on any of the tablets, which is a drawback for some people, but could be unimportant for others. Other than that the Archos tablets are great. The best choice would probably be the Archos 70, as it has a capacitive display which isn’t too small or too large. The Archos 70 also has an option for the largest storage capacity. In the end it is up to you to decide which Archos tablet you will get, if any. The Archos line of tablets is great for any type of user.

The Lack of Tablets Available Readily for Consumers to Purchase

Let’s say you want to buy an internet tablet, a MID (mobile internet device), or whatever you want to call it. You go to the usual technology stores and some other stores, but guess what, you are only going to find two tablets, that’s right two. Currently there are only two tablets available for consumers to just go out and buy from the store, at least that I know of. Those are the iPad, and the new Augen Gentouch 78. Those are about the only two you will find. Let’s say that after your little scavenger hunt for a tablet you decide that the iPad is too expensive for you, but you still don’t want something as crappy as the Augen Gentouch 78, so you decide to expand your search online. You go to Google and search for “internet tablets”, you will find two more internet tablets, the Archos line of tablets, and if you delve a little deeper, the Fusion Garage JooJoo. That totals your tablet tally to four. Let’s say none of these tablets meet your needs either, so you look some more. You will most likely find the Nokia N900, and maybe some Vilivs. Other than that, there is nothing, nothing! At least this is what I have found in my experience of searching for a good internet tablet. Then you will decide to spend another 3 hours looking for an internet tablet. At the end of those two hours, you find yourself looking at you computer about to crash because of all of the tabs you have open. The tabs are mostly full of Chinese wholesale sites offering you strange tablets with manufacturers you have never heard of, unclear specifications, and you will have absolutely no sense of wanting to buy any of these tablets. You have never heard of the manufacturer, the OS is probably something you have never seen, or a hacked version of Android, and you are extremely depressed because you just spent about 4 hours of your life looking for a normal internet tablet, which, in the end, you did not find. Thinking of this will probably cause you to start yelling at your computer. This, sadly is how the actual tablet market is these days, and I have experienced this myself. You will only find a few, or five in my case, internet tablets that you have actually ever heard of or you can trust even a little. The rest is Chinese (no offense to the Chinese, they actually make some pretty awesome stuff) craptablets from sites that will probably steal your identity and never even send you the tablet. This is not how the market should be. In my opinion the tablet market should be like the laptop market, except for with a little less confusion. And I think that it is a shame that tablets are nowhere to be found now, but I think that in the next couple of years the tablet market will experience rapid growth. This is mostly because people have a growing need for devices and tablets that they can take anywhere and actually be productive with. So, I hope this has shortened those tablet lovers’ searches for a new internet tablet, and I really hope that tablets become a lot easier for consumers to purchase.