ARCHOS 70 8 GB Internet Tablet

I own an iPhone 4 and an iPad. I need to clarify that I am by no means an Apple fanboi, quite the opposite, I've been dying for someone to knock them off their perch (Hate Steve Jobs and his crap rollnecks)I've also got previous with archos having owned several of their products, including their first ever video mp3 player (the 20gb jukebox) back in 2002ish, had a few other bits of their as well.So I was excited by this, I'd read reviews, done my research, felt the price was right and though "I'd like an ebook reader, the iphone is too small, the ipad too big, and I don't really want a kindle"This seemed perfectSo whats the problem. I'll do pro's and cons.PRO:- Size : It's lovely, a great size, soooo thin.- Weight : Lovely and light not a pain to hold at all, people are moaning about build quality but if you want it light you have to use plastic, there's no way round it.- Screen : Good colour, nice quality, find it odd that it doesn't fill to the ege and leaves two small black borders but hey ho.- Android market is excellent, much improved since I last used it, some great apps now available.- Value for money, its cheap, no two ways about it, especially as a 16gb sd card is only 16 quid now- Sound quality is actually really nice, and I notice someone on here complained about the volume of this with headphones in, I can assure anyone worried this isnt a problem at all.And onto the cons- Turned up with dead pixel, and archos have a bit of a rep (again basing this on my experience) for not top quality build and very very very poor customer service (in the UK, again my dealings with them)- Build quality, it's plastic, I dont have a problem with that, what I do have a problem with is that I feel that is is "VERY" flmisy and feels like it could fall apart at any moment :(- Tethering to phone for 3g : Really really hit and miss, got it working with me iphone 4 but if it loses tethering the archos has to be reset and then you have to tether again, a real pain- Screen : I know it's not an ipad, but te screen is flat out strange, sometimes it responds fine, other times it doesn't respond at all.- Locking up : Lots, it just freezes for now reason and requires a reset. Again another real pain in the behind.- WIFI : Works okay at home, but in work it wont connect after being away for a while, have to forget network and then try and rejoin, which is a nightmare.- Browsing : Scrolling is jerky. :( Pinch to zoom a bit hit and miss.CONCLUSIONIf you don't own an iphone, or ipad and want a cheap tablet, this is probably for you.If you do you are really really gonna feel just how inferior it is. again can I just say, it's realise its a lot cheaper, and therefore I shouldn't compare, but the fundemental problems I have with this should not have anything to do with the price.

Typical! the price came down just after I bought it.Anyway...the review: I spent a lot of time looking at cheap tablets. I bought this tablet as it had reasonable reviews, was under £200, is from a known brand, supports Flash 10, has a capacitative screen, is a good size and weight, has USB connectivity and may be able to run on Linux in the near future.It arrived yesterday. It does not have the feel of an iPad, but it is solid enough and sits in the hand nicely. The screen is good, although the speed of response to touch is not always perfect. I had a quick play with it, then decided to get Flash so I could watch BBC iplayer. That was when the fun started. I downloaded the patch from Google for the Archos to be able to install Android Market, but it made the tablet totally unstable and I had to do a complete reset, which meant I lost all of the demo apps and files (no great loss to me, but annoying). Then I thought I'd better do the firmware update. I selected update then rebooted. Tried installing Market again, but was still unstable. I tried updating again and found that just clicking on update only downloaded the file, but it did not install it.So this time I installed it and rebooted. But it was still unstable. It was not until I did yet another complete reset that the update seemed to have any effect. Then I found that the wireless connection kept dropping every 5 to 10 seconds and it was impossible to register with Market, even with the app installed, the connection was just not stable enough. I gave up on Market altogether and went to Applib. When I installed the update for Applib, I could then download and install Flash 10.3 from there. I could still not get a stable wireless connection from my work router, but strangely, I had a perfectly stable connection with an open access wireless point and could watch iPlayer fine. I went home and had the same wireless instability with my router there. By this point I had spent many hours messing about and wanted to give up and send the unit straight back to Amazon.I did some digging on the web forums and found many others had the same problem. It turns out that there is some kind of power saving "feature" and this causes the wireless to drop out. In the wireless set up page displaying the wireless connections, touch and hold the active connection in the list. A menu appears, click modify connection and it gives you a few options. Make sure the "disable powersave" tickbox is ticked. I did this and all the connection instability disappeared. I then watched an hour of iPlayer at max brightness without any problems at all and the battery went from 90% down to 60%. So should be good for at least 3 hours heavy consumption. Next day at work, I clicked on the disable power save option for the work router connection and that works fine too now.People say Applib does not have many apps on it, but it has everything I need and you can use ARCTools from Applib to install Market if you really want it, probably more stable than trying to use the code on the Google code website.On the whole I like it, but Archos, come on, you've got to get your act together with the firmware! This sort of thing has to work properly straight out of the box. I don't think you could give this product to someone as a gift, unless they enjoy spending time messing about to get things to work properly.Update:Found that the wifi reception was not great. Even in the next room to my router, the signal dropped to about 60%. At work, my colleague's phone could easily pick up the signal from the router a long way after the Archos unit lost signal completely. Then the unit started rebooting itself at random and getting stuck in a loop of rebooting. So I decided to return the unit for a refund. Such a shame as it ticked all the right boxes in so many ways, but was just not quite good enough. Looks like I'll have a to wait for something better to come along.Further update:I bought one of the cheap Tabtech tablets for comparison and the Wifi range on that was far worse than the Archos. Apparently, tablets tend not very good with WPA2 encryption for some reason and WEP is supposed to work better, but it is a lower standard of security. Anyway, two tablets bought, two returned. Saving up for an ASUS transformer and I'll see how that compares...

My Archos 70 arrived less than a week after I ordered it sealed and boxed as promised.I had carried out quite a bit of research into tablets and decided this one was the best value for money for my requirements, and Archos have a good name.Mine came with Android 2.2 installed and all I had to do was install "market". Don't be put off by having to do this. The Archos forums are probably the best out there with help on most things you encounter.The best surprise with this tablet is the quality of the display. The images and words are crisp and clear & video's are excellent. The screen is capacitive and works really well with your fingers, even with the "pinch" zoom.The performance is good, flash plays well with youtube, BBC and TV catchup. DVD movies ive downloaded play really good, although with some formats you need to purchase the codecs, but these are less than a £10. Browsing is very fast and you have such a wide selection of browsers on Android. Dolphin seems most peoples favourite.Music quality is "OK" through the speakers, just like most laptops, but is I pod quality through some decent headphones. I just dragged and dropped mine from windows. Connection is a mini usb straight to your pc. Mine picked it up right away with no problemsThe build quality seems good so far, the screen staying in A1 condition after a good clean.The unit stays cool during operation even when playing video and browsing. Battery life is also very good. I get about 5 - 6 hours whilst browsing and playing music.All in All i am very happy with the Archos. If you want a unit for web browsing, music and video playback, e mails and games you won't go far wrong.If it had a sim slot i would give it 5 stars.