Archos Unveils $99 'Arnova 7' Android Tablet

[JMcEntegart]

Archos has unveiled a cheap-as-chips Froyo tablet for those that don't care for the $400 price point that most tablets seem to carry these days

Archos Unveils $99 'Arnova 7' Android Tablet : Read more

 

[joytech22]

Even for 720P video playback you need some decent hardware in there.
Not bad for $100. I do wish that there were specs floating around somewhere.

 

[christop]

Cool for 99 bucks I might buy one for the hell of it.

 

[dalethepcman]

Exactly how can you claim to have 720p video playback on an 800x400 screen? you can't even claim 480p on that res. That's almost SVGA quality, but for $100 i'm not complaining, I just think its wrong to mis represent any device.

 

[Pyree]

This will be great for people who already has a phone, a laptop and a desktop. You use phone on the street actively moving. You use a laptop when you are not at home but at a place where you can stay for a relatively long tome. Obviously, you stay at home to use laptop. But there is still a gap, that is when you are outside, not actively on the move, but stationary for short time. This tablet will be great, as long as it can go online and play some video. I think it is worth it to have larger screen to watch video and go online when commuting on public transport. The cheap price persuade me to fill in that gap because I can afford it.

 

[stingstang]

Uuuuugh... The reason the Archos tablets aren't any good is because they have 128mb of RAM. They can't do two things at once, no matter how fast the processor is. Stick more RAM and BAM! Instantly awesome.

 

[lolyumadbro]

[citation][nom]dalethepcman[/nom]Exactly how can you claim to have 720p video playback on an 800x400 screen? you can't even claim 480p on that res. That's almost SVGA quality, but for $100 i'm not complaining, I just think its wrong to mis represent any device.[/citation]

Perhaps it's capable of hooking up to a TV and sending a 720p stream?

 

[kinggraves]

Use it as an mp3 player, problem solved.

One thing about most tablets is the price prohibits people from taking them to work or on a hike or anywhere else they'd get smashed. I'm glad at least one company covers this angle, even if they don't sell to the hype crowd that buys iPads.

 

[Camikazi]

[citation][nom]dalethepcman[/nom]Exactly how can you claim to have 720p video playback on an 800x400 screen? you can't even claim 480p on that res. That's almost SVGA quality, but for $100 i'm not complaining, I just think its wrong to mis represent any device.[/citation]
It's actually 800x480 not 800x400 and 720p playback most likely means can stream 720p to a TV.

 

[Camikazi]

Well the 10 inch one is running a 1 GHz Rockchips A8, so guessing this one is running a similar chip maybe 800MHz? At that price it might be using older non A8 chips though, which will affect performance a lot.

 

[stonedatheist]

This is pretty cool but it doesn't bode well for the resale value of tablets. Not that I was thinking of selling my TF101 any time soon, but I might not be able to resist upgrading to the kal-el successor, especially if it has higher clock speeds =)

 

[Guest]

The problem with Archos is their stock and supply. I was amazed when archos 10 was showcased for 300$. Amazing when others were almost twice expensive. The only problem... supply. They are making them in small batches available only in some countries and you usually have to wait 2-3 months for the next batch.

But on the other hand, it just goes to show how much cashe Apple, Samsung and the others are making in tablet world they earn 5x, 6x times what the actual hardware costs.

 

[xrodney]

[citation][nom]dalethepcman[/nom]Exactly how can you claim to have 720p video playback on an 800x400 screen? you can't even claim 480p on that res. That's almost SVGA quality, but for $100 i'm not complaining, I just think its wrong to mis represent any device.[/citation]
Perhaps it can do it thru external output ? If it have one.

 

[Guest]

sounds like the AndyPad or the Kogan Agora 7" tablet - which are based on the Emdoor 73 and other clones. They are better than you think - sometimes a cheap one is all people want and need and get alone fine with...

 

[Guest]

Actually it is entirely possible for $99 tablet to have 720p playback. I have owned one, which is a clone tablet made in China. In fact, there are several such tablets in China. The spec is not high, just a 800MHz CPU and a mali video chipset. And it plays every MKV, MP4 etc smoothly, due to video hardware acceleration. It is just sad that Honeycomb and Tegra2, despite having better spec, have not been optimized for video playback. Let's hope HC3.2 finally does that.

Of course you won't really see the resolution of 720p on such a screen, but it can play the content smoothly, which beats those more expensive tablet which cannot. And it is completely due to hardware acceleration because if you turn that off, the video is just as choppy.

 

[daglesj]

This is the kind of thing that would be perfect for taking on a flight to watch a couple of movies on.

At $99 you cant be hyper critical and as long as it would have around 6 hours of playback time and half decent video quality it would do the job to pass a good chunk of a long haul flight.

That and Solitaire/Moo2.

 

[sliem]

Yes, I'd buy it.

 

[belardo]

Playback? limited memory, crappy low-res screen (less than typical cell phones).

Of course Froyo... it doesn't have the horse power for anything else. Another crap device that rarely sells and drives people to iPad.

 

[maddy143ded]

even a decent Portable dvd player isn't that cheap....
i might definitely buy this one if the reviews are not to adverse on its performance.

at present i have to carry my netbook all around just to be able to watch movies in travel(long train journeys) or read my ebooks. but this one would most definetly replace the netbook.

i wonder if it is possible to replace the OS?
may have to try by pluging in a ubuntu omap version preinstalled on a sdcard.........

 

[Guest]

Having had experience with Archos in the past wouldn't waste 1 dollar on anything they made let alone 99. My experience was with a 300 dollar internet tablet that blew the speaker out in the first week... was returned for a replacement which arrived all scratched to hell... which was returned and then became a replacement with dead pixels... and after numerous calls, reporting them to the BBB I finally got a replacement product that worked. Well it worked some of the time... it locked up for no reason... had a horrible user interface and now sits in a drawer collecting dust... did I mention the way they nickle and dime you? You want to play a video? well fork over $40 bucks for a plugin... want to browse the internet $40 bucks for a plugin... everything you want to use it for will cost you more money. They could give these away and still make money because you can't sure them out of the box until you purchase more plugins that only they sell at 40 bucks a pop.