Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black) Reviews
Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black) Reviews
Other products by Archos Ratting 3.0 Out of 5.0 Special Offer Total New 8 Total Use 2
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Amazon.com Product Description
ARCHOS once again is leading the way in innovation with the introduction of the Netbook of the future, the ARCHOS 9 PCtablet. The new ARCHOS 9 PCtablet combines the performance of a high end netbook with breathtaking aesthetics, excellent ergonomics and a tactile interface on a superb screen.Pure lines, extreme thinness (0.67"), 800g and a stunning black finish, the ARCHOS 9 PC tablet pushes the boundaries of elegance and simplicity on a Netbook, fulfilling the expectations of the most mobile users. It provides all the power and comfort needed for daily usage. With this ultra-light and thin PCtablet, you can watch you videos (including Full HD format), browse the web, "video chat", or write your mails or documents. Play all your multimedia content including HD videos Use all your daily software such as Windows Live Messenger or Skype with Windows 7, or Lotus Symphony as a productivity suite . Stay connected to Internet and your emails with the built-in connectivity."Offering breathtaking design, excellent ergonomics and an impressive touch interface, the Archos 9 PC Tablet lets you take all your favorite entertainment with your wherever you roam as well as work in an entirely new way. Powered by Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system, the Archos 9 enables you to do the things you do every day more effortlessly with fewer clicks, faster searching, easier browsing, and simpler ways to connect.
 The Archos 9 PC Tablet. |
 The optical trackpoint and integrated mouse buttons make it a breeze to navigate the Archos 9 (see larger image). |
 The adjustable leg stand allows the Archos 9 to be positioned to suit a range of uses. |
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You'll also enjoy brilliant video playback on the Archos 9 thanks to the gorgeous widescreen, LED-backlit display, which provides a full HD 1080p resolution. And you can set up video conferences (using the 1.3-megapixel webcam), chat with friends and surf the web on the go via the integrated 54g Wi-Fi networking (or tether to a compatible mobile phone via Bluetooth and surf via cellular connectivity; additional charges applicable). Other features include a 60 GB hard drive, 1 GB of RAM, built-in speakers, and up to 5 hours of battery life.
Smart Features for Intuitive Use
The ARCHOS 9's controls are ergonomically placed for comfortable and natural use.- On the right, an optical trackpoint for finger navigation replaces the big touchpad of a laptop to ensure you can precisely point to any position on your screen.
- On the left, screen brightness, Wi-Fi control, and left/right mouse buttons complement the virtual keyboard, so that your regular mouse controls aren't left aside.
Designed for Portability
The Archos 9's form and design breaks the rules of the conventional laptop design. Its edges fan out from an already thin structure (0.67 inches or 17 mm at its thickest). And since it weighs less than 29 ounces, you can easily carry it with you in your handbag or backpack and use it any time. It also features a two-position leg-stand that best positions the device depending on how you are using it:- The upper position is best for viewing videos on the go, surfing the web, or reading
- The lower position is ideal when you need to type memos or web addresses, send an email, or chat with your friends.
Windows 7 Starter Edition
With Windows 7 on Archos 9 PC Tablet, accessing files regardless of where you are in the interface is easier than ever. Windows Search will transform the way you search and find your documents. It's simpler and much quicker than previous versions of Windows. Handy widgets can now be placed anywhere on the desktop. Whether you are looking for the weather forecast in your hometown, or a stock value in your financial portfolio, or the latest movie theater program, it's right at your fingertips.
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Key Specifications
- 8.9-inch LED-backlit resistive touchscreen display (1024 x 600 pixels)
- Optical finger navigation system (trackpoint) as well as integrated left and right mouse buttons
- 1.2 GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor (400 MHz front-side bus speed, 512 KB L2 cache, 2W maximum power consumption)
- 60 GB hard drive
- 1 GB of installed DDR2 RAM (400 MHz)
- Integrated Intel GMA 500 graphics
- 1.3-megapixel webcam with built-in microphone for easy video chats
- Built-in stereo speakers
- 54g Wi-Fi networking (802.11b/g)
- Bluetooth 2.0+EDR connectivity enables you to connect to peripherals such as mice as well as tether wirelessly to a compatible mobile phone's cellular connection (additional charges applicable).
- Fast Ethernet (10/100) via optional port replicator
- One USB 2.0 port with additional two USB ports via optional port replicator
- VGA video output via optional port replicator
- Up to 5 hours of battery life via removable Lithium Polymer battery
- Dimensions: 10.07 x 5.28 x 0.67 inches (WxDxH)
- Weight: 29 ounces (1 pound, 13 ounces)
Pre-loaded Software
- Microsoft Security Essentials (antivirus/antispyware) provides real-time protection that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.
- Lotus Symphony (office productivity) lets you easily create and edit all your documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
- vTuner (Web TV and radio player) provides access to over 11,000 radio and TV stations broadcasting over the Internet.
What's in the Box
Archos 9, removable battery, stylus, AC adapter with power cord, user guide, legal and safety notice "
Technical Details
- Play all your multimedia content including HD videos- Use all your daily software such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, LiveTM Messenger or Skype with Windows 7
- Stay connected to Internet and your emails with the built-in connectivity
- Includes integrated 1.3MP webcam
- Slenderness and low weight have been the two important characteristics in the mobility market. Only 1.7 cm (0.7") thick and weighing only 800 grams. It's the perfect companion to carry along from room to room or train to plane
See more technical details
By Scott Sherman (Maryland, USA)
The Archos 9 looks slick and feels good in your hand.
Thus endeth the positive parts of this review.
Imagine a turtle racing through a pool of peanut butter, slow it down by half, and then freeze the frame - that's about how fast this PC runs. You can practically feel it straining as it labors to open programs, switch windows or accept input from the touchscreen. Even low-resolution You Tube videos stuttered on it - Hulu was like a flipbook.
The good news is Archos knows there's a problem. While the original Archos 9, which I have, featured a paltry 1.1 GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor, CNET reported on April 21, 2010 that a new version uses 1.2 version of the chip that supports hyperthreading. CNET found that "while that might not seem like a big upgrade in theory, the new CPU actually made a fairly significant difference in our tests."
However, they still couldn't recommend this tablet, and neither can I. Apple's iPad offers a much better, although more restricted, experience. If you must have a Windows Tablet, HP's upcoming "Slate" looks promising, although early word is that it doesn't solve the problem of trying to run Windows 7 on an underpowered netbook-based processor.
It's really a shame. Windows 7 has a lot going for it and the openness of the platform is great. Hopefully, the success of the iPad will make manufacturers realize people want handheld computers that offer a satisfying user experience. Based on the quality of the Archos 9's materials and design, maybe they'll be the ones to figure it out. But they haven't yet.
By J. Plummer (Pennsylvania)
This is probably not what you're looking for. If you intend to use this as a multimedia device then you would be better off getting a similarly priced iPad or HP Slate or even a cheap laptop or netbook. Of course if you intend to watch any Flash videos the Archos 9 will run them, but not well. I attempted to watch a streaming episode of Lost from the ABC website and it was very choppy. It was also choppy watching YouTube videos. I downloaded and installed the most recent graphics drivers and that made little difference. And honestly, having to make any modifications or improvements to make a product usable is a bad sign.
I own an iPod Touch as well and still find myself using it or my laptop to access the internet rather than the Archos 9. The Archos takes about as long to boot up as a regular laptop and I prefer the near instant power on and internet connection of the iPod. For longer periods of internet surfing I prefer my laptop over the Archos. The back of the Archos gets very hot as well, which makes holding it in your hands or carrying it around difficult. There is the "kickstand" that you can use, but then your Archos just becomes a small netbook with no keyboard. One thing to consider is that the older reviews of this product on Amazon are of the older Z510 processor and Archos has recently upgraded to the 1.2 GHz Z515 processor. From looking at the earlier reviews it does seem to have made a good improvement, but not nearly enough in my opinion to warrant paying over $500 for this product. It would help if the RAM was improved to at least 2GB. If the price dropped to the $250-$300 range then this would be worth considering, but as it stands now, there are much better options for the money.
By Grieger (Los Angeles, CA USA)
Try as hard as you want, you can't ignore Apple's brand spankin' new iPad. While I don't have one yet (sorry, not a Mac junkie) I've played around with one enough to know "older" PC tablets like this one are largely dead in the water at this point. Maybe if they released this a year ago when no one knew about the iPad it could've been a killer product.
Your mileage will vary depending on your Mac/PC quotient in your house with this Archos tablet but even before the iPad, the lack of multi-touch support really hampers this device.
At first I thought it was cool since it was touch-based and was a nice sized tablet (not a full sized laptop and not a small smartphone). It runs Windows 7 Starter and essentially gives you a fully functional Windows OS on an Intel Atom-based tablet.
Why would you want to run Windows on a tablet with no keyboard or mouse? Honestly, no reason. You've got the basics: you can listen to music (the speaker quality is fine but without serious bass it's never going to reach its full potentially--i.e. you're not replacing your stereo with this thing), watch video (the screen size is just fine for this), and browse the Web.
Of course, that's when you run into problems. I use an iPhone so I'm sort of used to the idea of dealing with a device that a) requires touch to do just about everything and b) isn't a PC. Even so, the touch is tricky since your finger is the mouse on a screen that's still designed for a full-sized PC. Sure the resolution's lower and the icons and the like are sizeable but if you open up a Word doc or view a Web page, your mighty finger is now a super-sized sausage with the precision of a blimp in high winds.
Honestly, I tried and tried but eventually it was more work to navigate around and do stuff on the Web (even playing games) than it was to just walk over to my PC and do it with a keyboard and mouse.
Plus, the Atom processor, for all Intel's marketing, is not that powerful when it comes to running the OS or doing anything non-multimedia-esque. Audio flows smoothly (I tried it wirelessly off a PC hosting iTunes...worked like a charm) but video will depend on the provider. Youtube works fine (yes! flash!) but I couldn't get videos to stream properly from iTunes...just sort of locked up (not the OS, the video).
So, whether I wrote this review 4 months ago or today, the same is true: why would you need this device? It's impractical for business Apps (the onscreen keyboard obscures half the screen! This is regardless of whether you use the Windows one from its accessibility features or the built-in one that Archos moves into place, reducing the size of the Windows screen). You can't rotate the device and get a letter orientation for better reading and (maybe) typing. And, the aforementioned pokey-ness means it'll be a bit slow (not crazy slow but this is no speed demon).
For around the house access to audio, video and the like, it's pretty nice. But, as with the business side of things, why would you need this? You're shelling out $500 for a fancy tablet that has a lot of potential but requires you to do a lot of work to get there. Meanwhile, you could shell out less for an iPad and not worry about installing apps and viewscreen orientation and keyboards and the like.
Sorry, unless you've got a specific need for a Windows device in tablet form (maybe a specialized business app like a warehouse inventory app or something), then you're golden. Except for a little excess heat in the corner where the power supply plugs in, this sucker rocks for that. If you've got an app that works with a stylus and can automatically just orient horizontally rather than vertically, you're golden.
For the 99.9% of the rest of us who don't need that sort of thing and just want a device we can use around the house to listen to music, watch videos, browse the web, and run various apps, games, and the like, there's a nice little device that does just that around the corner at the Apple store. And if you hate Apple/Macs/Creative types in general, there's always the glut of netbooks out there with physical keyboards and probably the same OS and features sans touchscreen.
By Mrs. R. Henderson (FLOMATON, ALABAMA USA)
Initial setup with this computer took 3 hours, and was tricky due to lack of documentation provided. Once set up the computer worked at a slower processing speed than expected. Unit gets expremely hot during charging(maybe a fire hazard), but charge fast in 1 hour. Has a beautiful clear display, and on screen keyboard. However touch control pales in comparison to Ipod Touch. This item needs sometype of case or flip over cover to protect the delicate screen.
Pros:
jacket pocket size
bluetooth compatable
fast wi-fi
touch screen
cons:
took 3 hours to set up
unit gets extremely hot while charging (initial charge was hot enough to change the color of the authentication sticker on back)
onscreen keyboard is not user freindly
slow processing speed
no cover
By ASP (NJ)
The Archos 9 Tablet is a well-built machine, very easy to hold/carry, runs everything you need, convenient, but the PC can be SLOW at times. The slow speed can be attributed to the 1.2 GHz speed of the processor, and the small 1 GB amount of RAM. 1 GB of RAM may seem like a lot to some, but with today's demanding applications, mainly entertainment, a machine needs to have at least 2 to 3GB of RAM.
SPECS of Tablet: Intel Atom Z515 1.2 GHz Processor, 1GB RAM, Windows 7 Starter Edition 32-bit Operating System, and a 60GB Hard Drive (but only about 44GB is available because the other 16GB is used for the recovery drive).
Native Resolution is 1024 x 600, with the possibility of 1024 x 768, but things seem out of proportion. Stick with the 600 resolution.
BATTERY: 2 Hours and 10 Min on HIGH PERFORMANCE mode (before getting the 10% battery power remaining message). Other options include BALANCED (2 Hours 45 Min), and POWER SAVER (3 Hours 10 Min). I don't recommend using Balanced or Power Saver mode because the tablet runs slow as it is, so HIGH PERFORMANCE mode is a must, unless you really need to conserve power.
INITIAL SETUP: Took about 30 minutes to do the initial setup, up to the point where the user is logged into their profile and the desktop is ready. It took a long time to process everything. It takes most computers 5 minutes.
BOOT-UP time: Regular boot-up times take about 3 minutes. Sometimes 4 minutes.
BUTTONS on the side: The KEYBOARD button on the left side brings up the on-screen keyboard quickly.
The A button brings up the Ctrl+Alt+Delete screen. The LEFT and RIGHT MOUSE buttons are on the left side. The 1.3 MegaPixel WEBCAM is also on the left side.
The RIGHT side of the tablet has the ON/OFF POWER button, and the finger mousepad.
LEG STAND: There is a small sturdy leg that pulls out from the back so you can prop the tablet on a table at a 45 degree angle like a picture frame.
HEAT info: The back of the device gets warm, but never hot or uncomfortably warm in case you want to hold it for 2 hours.
TOUCHSCREEN: About 95% of your clicks and presses will register the first time. The remaining 5% is probably because the computer is busy processing. The touchscreen is very accurate and responsive, whether you use a stylus pen or your fingers.
STYLUS: The included stylus is conveniently attached on the back of the tablet, but it is flat, flimsy and not very good as a pointer. The plastic stylus sits flush with the back molding. Easy to slide in and out. I use a stylus from an old Palm Pilot, that has a rubber point, and it works great, but it can't be attached to the tablet since it is round. But the rounded rubber stylus point makes it much easier to drag objects around on the screen compared to the flat plastic tip of the included stylus.
KEYBOARDS: There are two different on-screen keyboards you can use, and one additional keyboard that the PC brings up when necessary. The keyboard button on the left side of the device brings up the TouchIt Virtual keyboard that will take the place of whatever is on the screen. It cannot be dragged/moved, and it takes the bottom half of the screen. The second keyboard is an ON-SCREEN KEYBOARD, and that is the main one I use. It can be dragged/moved, and it takes about a third of the screen, and it overlays on top of anything else. Both are quite good and both have their advantages depending on what you need to do. The third keyboard is also good, but it is only available when the computer brings it up, like at the CTRL+ALT+DELETE screen, and other windows system screens. Entering keys on all the keyboards is responsive and easy.
SCREEN ROTATION: You can rotate the screen 90 degrees, 180, 270, or keep it NORMAL using the menu. NORMAL is great for looking at landscape pictures, and surfing the web. 90 degrees is perfect for looking at vertical portrait pictures and documents (WORD, PDF, etc).
TEXT and IMAGES: Text looks crystal clear when viewing documents, PDFs. Photos also looked crystal clear on the LCD screen.
INTERNET BROWSING: If you want to open multiple tabs or windows in your internet browser, it will take an extra step. On any screen that requires double clicks to activate an icon, you can hold the pointer on the screen for 3 seconds to bring up the menu (same as a right-click on a mouse). But when you are dealing with links that only require a single click, you can't just hold the pointer on them because it will open that link. So you have to click near the link, then use the finger mousepad button (glide your finger over that little square on the right side of the device), and get the mouse pointer on the link, then press the right mouse button (on the left side of the device) to bring up the menu to open new tabs.
NETWORK: The network card easily and quickly detected my Wireless network. I have a N+ network and it gets detected every time and never drops the connection.
USB PORT: The USB port can be used to attach flash/thumb drives and transfer any files you need to.
VIDEO CLIPS: Video clips that are downloaded on your machine, played by Quicktime or Windows Media Player, each take about 5 to 10 seconds to open, but the videos play cleanly. Sound is weak, but use headphones for better quality sound. YouTube videos play cleanly as well, and they also sound clear when you use headphones.
SOUND: The built-in speakers are very weak and small. Sound quality is bad on those tiny speakers. But using the headphone jack and headphones, the sound is clear and quite good. Official Music videos in Youtube sounded clear, just as they sound on TV.
INSTALLATIONS: Files are installed either by downloading them or by using the USB port.
Adobe Flash, Adobe Shockwave, Adobe PDF Reader: The Flash and Shockwave installations are supposed to complete in 30 seconds, but they dragged on and completed in 2 minutes. PDF Reader loads quickly, and scrolling through PDFs is also quick.
MOVIE TRAILERS and QUICKTIME: I played a few movie trailers in 480p in Quicktime, and they did not run smoothly. The sound seemed to crackle, and the video was skipping a few frames here and there.
Overall, the Archos 9 Tablet is a good tablet, but probably slow to process half the things you want to do. The Archos box has the slogan "Entertainment your way", but it may only serve 75% to 50% of your needs flawlessly. A worthwhile purchase, but it could definitely be improved with a faster processor and double the RAM.
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