Archos 70 Internet tablet – decent 7 inch Android tablet

Usually, tablets have rather small hard drives and you always have to pay extra for upgrading them, Most come with 8 GB of storage and you can go up to 64 GB directly from the manufacturer or via SD cards. So imagine the shock we’ve had when we saw that that the Archos 70 comes with a 250 GB hard drive. This opens so many possibilities when it comes to enjoying content all the time, without needing an internet connection or carrying around various SD cards. But let’s leave that for now and take a closer look at the Archos 70.

The slate has a 7 inch, capacitive LCD screen with a 480 x 800 resolution and is powered by a 1 GHZ processor. Additionally, there’s a graphics accelerator for gaming and video playback, 256 MB of RAM and Android 2.2 as an operating system, which comes with Adobe Flash Player 10.1 support. Looking back at the specs, it’s clear that this is a slate for entertainment. The screen, processor and video accelerator will allow for flawless HD video playback, gaming (there’s also a gyroscope, which comes in very handy when playing racing games), listening to music or something of the sort.

Archos 70 has a bright screen with a good resolution

There’s also a HDMI port for hooking up the tablet to a big screen TV. Considering the 250 GB hard disk drive, you don’t need a shelf full of DVDs, as you can store all your media on the Archos 70. This way, you can have all your movies and music with you at all time, stacked in a little piece of plastic which weights only 14 ounces and is half an inch thick, easy to carry around in a bag or briefcase.

The tablet supports most types of media formats, including MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, OGG Vorbis, FLAC, and AC3 audio formats; MPEG-4, H.264, WMV9/VC1, Motion JPEG, and MPEG-2 video codecs and you can even use it as an e-book reader. The Lithium battery can hold for about 10 hours of web browsing or 7 hours of video- either way, it’s a pretty good deal. The screen has a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is great for watching movies in widescreen format while keeping the tablet steady on a table thanks to the leg stand located on the back.

The tablet's back is fairly rugged, so you can easily hold it when reading a book or ranting on Facebook

In terms of connectivity, the Archos 70, available from Amazon for a about $320, has a WiFi module for connecting to wireless networks. It would have been great to have also a 3G module, but that would have spiced up the affordable price tag. Alternatively, you can use your mobile phone to connect to the internet via the Archos 70 by blue tooth or a USB cable, as the slate supports tethering. This way, you don’t have to pay an additional data plan.

Dedicated Archos feature include a photo application for synching pictures via Flick or Picasa, as well as 3D transitions for your slide shows. Some might say that the Android version available is sub standard, considering that today we’re surrounded by slates running Android 3.0. But Android 2.2 is good enough if you want to use the tablet mostly as a media center. You can play movies or music with the default players, as most Amazon users said they didn’t need to download separate players for this.

The tablet comes with a stand on its back

Also, there’s access to Android Market, where you can find lots of games you can enjoy on the high res screen, running flawlessly thanks to the video accelerator. A downturn of the tablet is that it might get slower as you install more apps on it. Also, the available RAM memory is pretty low and multitasking will not work smoothly if there too many apps going on at once.

Overall, the Archos 70 Internet tablet is a very good choice for those looking for a high performance media player with huge storage capabilities. It will feed your movie and music addiction, while Android 2.2 lets you stay connected all the time and go for more apps than you can count.

Tags: Android 2.2 Froyo, Archos

Last updated: March 26, 2012 | Published: March 5th, 2011 | Add the first comment!