Archos 70 Android Tablet Arrived Yesterday

[ebusinesstutor]

Just received my Archos 70. Picked it up from the mail, but was on my way to speak at my mentorship group - so denied the opportunity to play with it until late last night.

An initial hiccup - seemed to freeze while installing 3rd party apps and I couldn't figure out how to reset it. Pushing the power button repeatedly didn't help. Finally checked out the Archos Fan Forums who said I needed to hold the power button down for 10 seconds.

That did the trick and I told it not to install the third party this time. Worked like a charm and had no problem finding and accessing my network.

Android Market isn't installed. It uses AppsLib instead. Once again, the forums helped and told me to install the ArcTools app form AppsLib with installed the full Android Market.

Installed Cool Reader as one of my first options as one of my main uses will be as an ebook reader.

My first impresssions?

1. Size and Weight
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Very light - great size for ebooks. The 10.1" would have been too big and heavy in my opinion to hold one handed and read. I chose the 8GB option instead of the 250GB one as I wanted it as light as possible But the 250GB option was a great deal for only a few dollars more.

2. Responsiveness
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Seems very fast and responsive. I haven't used other Android tablets, but I am an iPhone user. The tablet is much faster on reading my news sites.

3. Screen
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Screen is very clear. Enjoying reading my news on a larger device than the iPhone.

4. Media
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Watched a couple of YouTube videos. Looked great and the sound was excellent (the Archos has front facing speakers), better than I expected.

5. App Choice
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I am a star gazer and I was worried that the Android Marketplace may not have as many astronomy apps as I am used to for the iPhone. I was pleasantly surprised. There are quite a few astronomy apps in the Android Marketplace.

That is all for my first impressions. But for $270 it seems to me to be an excellent choice so far and about 1/2 the cost of a comparable iPad.

I think I will have to sneak out to a coffee shop tonight and spend some "quality time" getting to know my tablet.

[wodin]

Thanks for the review, the Archos 70 was on my list, along with a rooted Nook Color and Samsung Galaxy Tab because of the 7" form factor. I ended up with the SGT because COSTCO had one for $399 without a data contract.

It is understandable that the Achos performs well with media, as Archos is/was a portable DVD player manufacturer, and I would expect their heratige to show.

[ebusinesstutor]

Installed Cool Reader on it and managed to get my ePub ebooks moved over. It is great to read them on a larger screen as I used to read on my iPhone.

Now to get my Kindle content moved over as well.

[Brianrh]

Originally Posted by ebusinesstutor

Installed Cool Reader on it and managed to get my ePub ebooks moved over. It is great to read them on a larger screen as I used to read on my iPhone.

Now to get my Kindle content moved over as well.

It will be interesting to see what battery life you get between charges just using it for Ebook use.

[ebusinesstutor]

The problem Brian is that I use it for so much more than just ebook use. It is my newspaper, my music player while cooking supper, and my surfing toy right now.

Same thing happened when I first got my iPhone. The battery life wasn't any less than my previous "dumb" cell phone, but I started using the phone for so much more that I had to pay attention to charging it regularly.

[Brianrh]

I understand what you mean. I have an Android phone which I do use for a lot of the daily things you use yours for except ebooks reading which I use a Sony PRS 300 for. I only have to charge the Sony each week but the phone goes less than a couple of days between charges but if I used this for ebooks I don't think it would go a day.

I was wondering with this tablet with presumably a colour TFT display how power hungry it would be. It'll still be interesting to see how often you need to charge it with your general use once the battery has been cycled a few times and you get a feel of what things are using power wise.

Thanks for your reply.

Brian

[wodin]

I just plug mine in on my nightstand every night, right next to my cell phone.

[ebusinesstutor]

Yes, I tend to plug mine in every night as well. It seems to last the day and evening with normal use - I read a lot.

[wodin]

My caveat is that on weekends when I do a marathon reading session, I run out of battery after about 8 or 10 hours. My work around is that I just plug it in whilst reading.

[darrellstaley]

I agree that the Archos 70 works very well as a reader. I've had mine since last November and I've read quite a few books on it using the Nook App for Barnes and Noble books and Aldiko for public domain ebooks. I like it much better than my wife's Nook, ( I don't see the need for E-ink)

You can preserve battery life by turning off "background data" (settings ->Accounts and sync, uncheck background data). Or just turn off Wifi when you don't need it.

[ebusinesstutor]

Thanks for the power saving tip, Darrel.

I will remember that. Not really a problem right now as I am at home, but could become more critical when I travel.