Review by Apierion for Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black)
Rating:
Note: This is a total revamp of this review, after having had it a few days.

The Archos 9 in a neat little device. While it’s not going to be an “iPad killer”, it does seem to straddle the middle ground between a pc and a mobile device a little better.

The Archos 9 is effectively an EXTREMELY compact pc. And by extreme, I mean this thing is SMALL! And by PC, I mean it runs Windows 7, so in theory if the app works on a home pc, it’ll work on this. There are obvious performance issues which we’ll get to, but in general, it’s code compatible with all Windows 7 software.

First off let me say I really like this device, but it is not flawless. The main flaws seem to be in the preinstalled software, which frankly suck, and the touch sensitive screen, which is only `alright’, although I want to talk about what I like about the Archos 9 first, since, after all, I do like it.

What’s good about this thing is the aforementioned PC-compatibility, the similarly aforementioned compactness, & the ton of built in hardware. This thing has built in WiFi & Bluetooth, which pretty much lets you connect it to anything you need to connect it to, even without the (sold separately) port replicator. The built in face-forward webcam is nice, I suppose, but not something I would really use. Same goes with the built in microphone, although I could see this getting more use. The built in speakers sound good considering their size. It has an HDMI output on the bottom of the device, which is strangely NOT advertised! Considering the potential of this device as a media player, I don’t understand that at all. Also, the display is true 16×9. Despite all this, it seems to get some serious life out of the batteries – while I haven’t totally drained mine, the 5 hour advertised lifespan seems reasonable given my experiences. What’s missing here is a DVD drive, which of course makes sense for a device like this – and you can plug an external USB drive into the single USB port if necessary.

Now here’s the bad news. The 32-bit, single-core Intel Atom Z510 processor is pretty lame, and gets a Windows rating of only 1.3. Now the Atom line of processors are designed for power savings, and compactness, but for those looking for a laptop replacement, beware: this puts it on par with 6 year old machines. The single gigabyte of (non-upgradable) ram isn’t overly generous either, and leads to page-flipping, which further bogs the machine down. The 60 gb drive feels a little claustrophobic by today’s standards, and is made more so by the ridiculous partitioning of the factory install, leaving only 25 gigs of useable space, and lastly the screen is only “OK” by today’s standards, although those standards have been set by the iPhone and the forthcoming iPad, which legitimately have fantastic touchpads. Speaking of which, the touchpad on this device is resistive, which means single-touch (unlike the i-stuff), and feels a little “mushy”, for lack of a better word. Again, think of a 6 year old PDA in this respect. The Archos 9 comes with a built in stylus, which given technology on display here, makes sense. One other hardware-related issue I’ve had is occasionally plugging a drive into the USB port seems to short the whole machine out randomly, forcing a cold reboot. Sometimes this happens, sometimes it doesn’t, and I can’t seem to determine what causes it. It’s happened both when plugged in and on batteries, with a USB hard drive, and a USB DVD drive, but at other times (most of the time in fact), worked fine with both devices.

The biggest failure however isn’t the hardware, it’s the pre-installed software, which is terrible. Windows 7 Starter sucks. While the Archos is capable of running the Aero theme, windows 7 starter doesn’t come with it, you need to upgrade. There are a handful of other missing features, but that’s definitely the most visible. The installed media software is called vTuner, which in my opinion isn’t terribly interesting. Going back to the lack of hard drive space, there’s a 20 gb partition for backups, but from the factory there’s NOTHING IN IT! In the fine print of the manual (really, it’s all fine print, another gripe), you will find that it says to do a backup upon first starting the machine, but that’s just lazy on Archos’s part. If you’re going to provide a backup partition, it should come with a “factory presets” image, ESPECIALLY if your device doesn’t come with a DVD drive! I found this out the hard way when I tried to update the operating system to windows 7 ultimate and had a failure – I ended it having the wipe the machine and install from scratch, which also meant all my preinstalled software was gone, with no way of recovering it.

In the end I DID succeed in installing Windows 7 Ultimate, along with a standard suite of productivity apps (office 2007, adobe reader, itunes, chrome), and after experimenting with some of the settings (particularly the touchscreen & display settings, along with turning Aero back off), I’m getting acceptable performance from this (again, extremely compact) device. It won’t run World of Warcraft (in any playable sense, anyway), but with the right software suite, it serves its purpose quite well. Realistically, I probably didn’t NEED to put Windows 7 ultimate on it (if I hadn’t messed up the previous install), but leaving out all those other free apps (neglecting Office) seems like another oversight to me, especially Adobe Reader, this thing is BEGGING to be used as an e-book reader!

Speaking of performance, while does technically do 3D, it does it poorly. I loaded a 6 year old 3D 4X space conquest game, “Hegemonia” on this machine and while it ran, it was very choppy on even the lowest settings. Maybe this isn’t the best test program, but it does tell you something. Baldur’s Gate(1) seems to run well enough. One non-performance software-related issue I’ve had is that after about a week the onscreen keyboard software seemed to stop working. I reinstalled it and all was well, but if this is going to become a regular occurrence, it’ll definately be irritating.

So what is the purpose of this device, might one ask? Well, for me, again, because it runs Windows 7, it’s an extremely portable PC. It works well as a media device as well, because of the inherent compatibility of a Windows PC, and here it might even have the iPad beat. Non techies will probably not like this however, as you definitely need to do some tweaking to get the most out of it, and in this respect, Apple will definitely win the battle of the tablets, but really, is anyone surprised by this?

At $549, you can definitely get more pc bang for your buck if you’re not looking for ultra-portability, but then again, if you’re in the market for a tablet, you probably are. In that respect, the Archos 9 wins hands down. Cheaper than all but the cheapest iPads, able to hold its own with netbooks & laptops, and useful as a media device, the Archos 9 PCTablet is a cool tech device, but only for those not afraid of mucking with the installed software. 3 Stars.

Review by Isaac Kim for Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black)
Rating:
Bought this for minor word processing and spreadsheet work. Watching movies and Wifi was just a side bonus.

Screen: You can watch movies on it, very clear in door screen/monitor. however Glare is bit of a problem when you are outside. Even when screen is at brightest, you will have some difficulty with the screen when you are outside. Touch screen isnt as sensitive as the ipod. You are going to need your stylus or push bit harder w your fingers.

Also get a screen cloth if you dont want smudges on your screen.

Opitcal mouse: really pointless. but better than nothing.

Camera. good for on the go video conferencing. emergency photo taking; i suppose.

Speakers: Not really worth mentioning. although its better than what i expected. Buy seperate speakers if you plan on watching movies/mp3s or buy a good set of ear phones.

Processor: bit disappointed at the lack of CPU power. cheaper tablet modles have more powerful CPU. but is more bulkier. its a give and take.

Noise: no fan = no noise. minus some hard drive noise the unit is noiseless.

Heat: left side of the tablet gets warm. just bit annoying. guess thats where the processor or video card is located.

WiFi: Solid at home. Avg outside, was 2-3 bars at starbucks and slow data DL/UL. maybe Starbucks wifi sucked.

Battery: With normal use (running 2-3 programs, word) lasts about 2.5 hours; also takes 2 hours to fully charge. Havent really tried Stand-by. Only can be charged via wall outlet.

Kick Stand: looks very flimsy. probably end up breaking in the near future.

Comment: When you use the touchscreen keyboard. you lose 1/2 the screen. keyboard size can be adjusted, its still bit annoying. Wish it was bit lighter so i can hold it in 1 hand comfortably.

The system Hard Drive is partitioned. 15g for backup. and 40 or so for main. you hae 25gigs free on your main patition. After your Win-7 update. ull have 24gigs free. You might wanna get a larger HD/USB drive.

Also, you will need to buy a USB DVD Rom. you cant install any programs w/o it. i recommend [...]usually 55 bucks. on sale for 40 bucks. glossy black is nice.

Boot up takes longer than i thought it would cause of system security program. Also went into setting and put it on Best Performance rather than look. Only comes w 1 USB port. if you might want to get a USB spliter. It comes with a coupon for 35 free MP3s off of archos’s site.

Over all. I wouldnt recommend this to a business looking for tablet PC. BUT i would recommend this to the general public who wants portable/stylish media player/ w some computer capabilities. THIS IS NOTHING like ipad. iPad is designed for solely entertainment/multimedia. if anything. Archos is better; simply because it does everything ipod does + it can do word/spreadsheet processing. that and it costs less. If you want to wait, you can get the MS-Courier, which looks awesome.

Review by Big John for Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black)
Rating:
I have owned numerous Archos products over the past several years and have been very pleased with them. I still use an Archos 5 and 704 for my travels. I was impressed by the description of the Archos 9 eagerly awaited its arrival. At last an opportunity to consolidate the number of electronics I carry on trips! However, I quickly discovered that the actual unit was not going to live up to the marketing claims or my expectations. There were two major flaws that were evident right away. First, a quick peek at the disk drive under “My Computer” revealed that the actual capacity available to store any personal data was slightly under 25 gb. And this was before installing any of the applications that were provided by Archos. The actual hard drive size shown was approximately 55 Gb (not the 60gb claimed), subtract the 15+ gb for the recovery partition and the space used by operating system files and you are left with the 25 gb. My music and video collection, which is not particularly extensive, is around 45 gb. Second, it appears that the actual battery life when using the unit normally was closer to 3 – 3.5 hours than the claimed 5 hours. I suspect the actual life while watching a movie or doing any other video or processor intensive work will be even less. Other less serious flaws included the sluggishness of the device and the inherent difficulties in using the touch screen on content designed for keyboard and mouse such as web browsing, etc. I couldn’t even enter the product serial number during the activation process as there was no way to bring up an on screen keyboard at that point.

Archos envisioned a great product but the technology to build the product just wasn’t there. So, I’m going back to my netbook and waiting for the next generation of this product.

Review by Erich Maria Remarque for Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black)
Rating:
Before I start, I should mention that the current Amazon stock of Archos 9 has the Z515 processor as opposed to the original Z510. Not only do you get a 100MHz increase in clock speed over the original, but you also get Hyper-threading which is bound to help with performance in certain situations. I’ve also uploaded some CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots (found under the main product picture at the top of the page). Now on to my observations:

What was Archos thinking when they decided to put Windows 7 Starter in a tablet PC? It is the only edition of Windows 7 that doesn’t include the tablet PC features, such as the much improved on-screen keyboard or touch gestures. So the first thing I did after getting this device was reformat the hard drive, and install Windows 7 Professional.

I used a 4 GB USB flash drive to install 7 Pro, and the installation took about 30 minutes. I got the latest drivers from Archos, Intel, and Realtek websites. The first thing you must install is the video driver. The screen is almost unreadable until you do that. Additionally, make sure you install the latest touchscreen Beta driver found on Archos website (don’t even bother downloading the “stable” one), in order to unlock full touch functionality (MAKE SURE you check that “Install PS2 Driver” option during install).

After installing drivers, set your components to run in full speed mode regardless of power source (in the Power Options control panel item). Also, if you open Intel Graphics and then click on the “Options” button, you will see an option called “Performance Mode”. Not sure what it does, but it was unchecked by default. So I enabled it. With 7 Pro I was able to turn on the Aero interface, and while it is a little sluggish, it works just fine. I also removed some default Windows programs like Media Center and DVD Maker, while adding others like Games (which were disabled by default in 7 pro). After that I ran Windows Update to get everything there was to get for my edition of Windows.

Also make sure you run all calibration options found in the touch screen driver utility (HIDeGalaxTouch).

I then proceeded to install the essential software:

- Adobe Reader — a good ebook reader if you tweak it a little. Modify the fullscreen options for a better touch experience. Particularly, check the “Show navigation bar” option and set the Mouse cursor to “Always Visible”. Also, add a few buttons to the main toolbar to make the interface more touch friendly.

- Firefox — with “Grab and Drag” add-on for iPhone-like page scrolling.

- Adobe Flash Player 10.1 Beta 3 — for hardware accelerated videos. Download and install both Plugin and ActiveX versions. The latest Flash beta actually adds support for the GMA500 video card found in Archos 9. Make sure you use the latest Intel drivers though.

After drivers and software was properly installed and configured, I disabled unnecessary startup programs and services, ran a full check-disk scan, and defragmented the hard drive.

And finally I ran Windows Experience Index. This is what I got:

Processor: 1.7

RAM: 1.8

Graphics (Aero): 2.9

Gaming Graphics: 2.4

Hard Disk: 4.1

About the performance: As expected eBook reading and web browsing is flawless. Even Flash heavy websites such as Grooveshark load fast and work just fine (take that iPad). Youtube videos are smooth as long as you keep the quality at 480p or less. Going fullscreen is not recommended as the video becomes choppy. You can however expand the video horizontally to fill the browser window without any noticeable performance hit.

Hulu is slightly less forgiving even in non-fullscreen mode. The video starts a little choppy at first, but then stabilizes itself after a few seconds. So as long as you don’t go in fullscreen mode and keep your video streams in low-res mode, you should be able to enjoy Hulu as well.

****Performance Tip****

The above observations are made when having the display set at the native resolution (1024×600). Here is a Youtube/Hulu performance increase trick: Lower the resolution to 640×480 (and instruct Intel Display Panel to “maintain aspect ratio”), and you will be able to watch smooth Youtube videos in fullscreen mode. Seriously, you will experience no low FPS or choppy video in fullscreen mode. Hulu is a lot better as well, but still a little choppy when in fullscreen mode (though I haven’t experimented with that yet).

********************

Those two are Flash based services though, and the new Flash is still in beta, so we might see performance improvements in the future, as it comes closer to a final release.

On the other hand, videos downloaded on your computer (Divx, Xvid, etc) are smooth even in full screen mode.

I wish the screen on this device was a little more sensitive. Manipulating Windows using your fingers is painful due to items being too small and too close to each other. Using a stylus however is perfect. You can also use the built in optical touchpad controls for convenience.

However, in my opinion this is better device than the iPad, due to having a full Windows OS, and expansion capabilities via USB. You can do EVERYTHING the iPad can do, plus a lot more. Granted, the iPad has a slightly larger screen which also supports multitouch. But what good is multitouch when you can’t even multitask?

Overall, the Archos 9 is a good alternative to the iPad, at least until HP Slate is released. You have to consider the price as well, which is pretty low amongst full size slates. The Archos 9 costs about the same as the 16Gb iPad, and (judging by the rumors) it’s going to be about 50% cheaper than the HP Slate PC. So, for the price you are getting a very good machine, as long as you are willing to tweak it a little. You must also understand that this is not a productivity device. It’s a media-consumption device. It’s meant to browse the web, read books, listen to music, and watch movies. Yes, there is no instant gratification here like in certain Apple products. You have to charge it for at least two hours before using it for the first time. And when you do turn it on that first time, you have to go through the initial Windows configuration and activation. However, compared to Apple handhelds, you are also getting a superior machine with a full fledged OS.

Review by – Kasia S. for Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black)
Rating:
I really like the Archos tablet, small and not to too heavy, it feels nice to hold while it really looks and functions like a mini computer, you can pretty much do anything you think of on it, within limits of course but still, it gives one great freedom.

Typing is really easy; it takes a bit to figure out how to use the screen key board and set up is fairly simple. I find speed to be sufficient on this, internet loads up without problems, programs run nice, only down side that I hate is this, the tablet comes with Window Starter system, which doesn’t let you customize it at all, you want wallpaper? Forget it, unless you upgrade and pay for versions that they offer you are stuck with that, unless I want to reinstall everything which I think might do the trick, more work but I can use it more freely, after all it’s a piece of art, I want to enjoy it The site shows a Webshots page open, I wish I could say that you can use them with the table without paying for an upgrade, but no such luck, so that in itself is deceiving, hence 4 stars. I also had to purchase a stick on screen to prevent scratches, so there are a few expenses if one really wants to keep it in tip top shape. Other than that I love it, I can browse the web, read e-books for which I have been wild for lately and just check out stuff when I need a computer, easy to take with me, the display is crystal clear, this is a great little item.

- Kasia S.