- 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
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 expe… More >>
June 14th, 2010 at 21:16
When I pull out the Archos, people think I have an iPad, but it doesn’t take them long to realize that the Archos is SOOO much BETTER than an iPad! First and foremost, the Archos comes with Windows 7 installed on it, there isn’t an app for that on an iPad!
The Archos is small enough and light enough that I keep it in my purse as it is not much bigger than an a paperback book. I can check my emails (an iPad can’t do that), I can surf the web (an iPad can’t do that), I can use the built in web-cam on a video chat (iPad can’t do that), I can watch movies and TV with the built in tuner (iPad can’t do that), I can use my blue-tooth with the Archos (iPad can’t do that), I can use Microsoft Office (iPad can’t). You get the idea…Archos does what iPad only wishes it could do, AND it can do all the things that an iPad can do as well, you just have to download the app you want to the Archos (such as a book reader app)!
The Archos has an incredibly long battery life, and it so light and small it can go anywhere with you.
The only two slight flaws I have found with the Archos are so minor, I even hate to mention them. The Stylus is not as sturdy as I would like to see, it is not much heavier than a cocktail skewer, and it only has one USB port. The USB port can be easily fixed with a USB splitter that costs under $20 to add more ports.
I HIGHLY recommend the Archos over an iPad due to the ease of use, functionality and familiarity of Windows.
The Company is also wonderful! The first Archos I received would not start up, so the Archos company asked that I ship it back to them, and in less than a week they sent me an all new (and improved) Archos! The replacement Archos had a bigger processor than the original!
Rating: 5 / 5
June 14th, 2010 at 21:45
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.
Rating: 2 / 5
June 15th, 2010 at 00:05
This device is so weak, thus so slow. You could fall asleep waiting for it to boot up or perform any function. It could not download anything including itunes, MS office 2007, upgrade to windows 7 home premium, etc. Customer support is the worst. You have to wait on the phone for more than 30 mn to get to someone. Don’t make the same mistake I did by investinng on this abysmal gadget. By the way, the keyboard is so obstructive as to mask half of the screen. This expensive gadget does not even come close to the speed and performance of an apple ipod touch/phone! A biggest disappointment!
Rating: 1 / 5
June 15th, 2010 at 00:52
The Archos 9 is a little misleading. Don’t get me wrong. As a Window’s tablet running the latest 7 Operating System it is amazing! But as an Archos product, (which I LOVE) it falls extremely short. The only thing it shares with the past archos product is its vTuner. (which came bundled, by the way) If you are looking at this hoping to get the latest and greatest Archos product, don’t. This is a Windows tablet. As I’ve already stated the WINDOWS 7 tablet is amazing. The ability to place shortcuts on the taskbar is awesome. This leaves your desktop free of icon clutter. The task manager is designed so that you are able to shut down only the programs you are running and not critical system which can cause a system restart. These are just a few of the many new things I’ve appreciated. If you are searching for the best Archos player stick with the Archos 7. If you are searching for the best Windows tablet pick up the Archos 9.
Rating: 4 / 5
June 15th, 2010 at 02:12
I think it is important to note that the Archos is NOT a laptop replacement. If you are thinking that it can replace a laptop you will likely be very disappointed. The one thing that makes this clear is the Windows Experience Index–it is 1.7 so that puts the Archos in perspective.
If you think of the Archos as a large smartphone that is running Win 7 Starter edition then I think you’ll have roughly the right image in your mind. It will render webpages fine and even full-screen Netflix movies run OK (with some jitter/pixelation here and there). The touchscreen does require a pretty heavy touch but you get used to it after a while. The processor/video are so slow that you have to learn to click and wait because it sometimes seems like the click didn’t register but it did.
For standard web browsing and movie watching you be better served by a laptop in almost every way. My sense is that after playing with this for a while it will wind up gathering dust on a shelf. I can’t think of even one thing that I’d rather do on my Archos that I can’t do better and more easily on my laptop. I really want to love this product because I’m a huge fan of touchscreens. But the really poor processor power, poor video graphics, and extremely poor battery life mean that there is almost no reason to use it. Archos pretty much proves that you can’t just slap Win7 on a tablet/slate and call it a day. It would really help if there were some apps pre-installed that are meant to specifically work on a tablet PC that does not have a keyboard.
Rating: 2 / 5