Archos has been cranking out Google Android powered tablets since they were just a glint in… well, everybody’s eye. Today the company added 5 new models to its lineup, with screens ranging in size from 2.8 inches to 10.1 inches. Every last one of them will come with Google Android 2.2, but the rest of the specs vary from model to model.
None of these tablets have access to the Android Market or Google suite of apps — at least not out of the box. On the other hand, they’ve all got accelerometers and support for a wide range of audio and video formats, which is something that really makes Archos tablets stand out from the crowd. But there are a number of differences in specs, price, and screen size.
The largest model in the group is the Archos 101 which packs a 10.1 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive touchscreen display. It has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, support for 3D OpenGL ES 2.0 graphics and 720p HD video playback. This model weighs less than a pound and measure less than half an inch thick. It has a VGA camera and an HDMI port.
The Archos 101 will be available with 8GB to 16GB of internal storage space. It also has 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity. It’s expected to sell for about $300 in October.
At first glance, this 7 inch model looks a lot like the Archos 7 Home Tablet which is currently available. But the new model features the same 1GHz CPU as the 10 inch model. It also has USB and HDMI ports and a front-facing camera.
The Archos 70 has a 7 inch, 800 x 480 pixel capacitive touchscreen display, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1. This model will be availble either with 8GB of flash storage or a 250GB hard drive. It will sell for $275 in October.
This model features a smaller, 4.3 inch 480 x 854 pixel display. Like its bigger siblings it has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, but it has a resistive touchscreen display instead of capacitive. Still, it’s a lot cheaper, with a starting price of $199.
The Archos 43 featurs an HDMIoutput, a 2MP camera which can handle 720p HD video recording, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1. It will be available with 8GB or 16GB of storage. The device is more phone-sized than tablet sized, and weighs just 4.6 ounces. It’s due out in October.
This little guy features a 3.2 inch, 400 x 240 pixel resistive touchscreen display, 8Gb of storage, and an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor. Despite the slower CPU, this model can still handle 720p HD video playback.
The Archos 32 has a VGA camera, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, and a built in mic, as well as a USB port and composite output. But there’s no HDMI output. The Archos 3 weighs just 2.5 ounces. It’s expected to retail for $150 in mid-September.
The Archos 28 is the smallest and cheapest of the bunch, thanks to a $100 price tag and a 2.8 inch, 320 x 240 pixel display. At that low price, the Archos 28 isn’t poised to be just one of the cheapest Android tablets around, but pretty well priced for a portable media player in general — if you can get over the small display and low screen resolution.
The handheld device has an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor and will be available with 4GB to 8GB of storage space. It can handle 720p HD video playback and supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi. Unlike the other new Archos tablets, this model doesn’t have a camera, HDMI output, or Bluetooth. But did I mention that it’s only $100? This model should be available at the end of September.
Pricing and release date info from Engadget
At first I was stoked and was going to sell my kindle to help pay for one. But then I found out I cant install the kindle app on it or any app from the real app store for that matter. I cant allow myself to buy one unless I know I can get real apps like all the normal androids in the world.
Why on earth would archos do this to us? I just don’t get it at all. Is google extorting them or something or dose archos just enjoy making an epic product then crippling it to the point where no one wants one.
Actually, you can install the Kindle app. It’s one of the 5,000 or so apps available through the AppsLib market which Archos loads on its Android tablets.
Are you sure? because it doesn’t show it as an available app on their website….https://appslib.com/applications/index.html
Hmm, that’s interesting. One of the devices they showed me was
definitely running the Kindle app. I’ll look into this.
Sucks they cut the 5 from the lineup.
How another company makes a 5 inch android tablet with flash.
And no the Dell streak doesn’t count its a giant crappy phone.
As you know, all Archos Android devices support the full Google Marketplace without any problems. All you have to do is find the appropriate application .apk on https://forum.archosfans.com usually called “market4archos.apk” and transfer it to the device using USB and then simply click on it from the file browser and it asks you for your Google username and password to install the full Google Marketplace. It is as easy as installing Adobe Flash/PDF on a Windows PC. Do you say a Windows PC does not support PDF/Flash if that doesn’t come pre-installed for some licencing reason with Adobe?
The Google Marketplace is none other than a simple .apk Android application and Android is built in a way that it is not possible to block the installation of any .apk Android app. So there is no way for Google to prevent Archos Android tablet users from figuring out the way to install the full Google Marketplace on their devices.
Check here a video demonstrating how easy it is to install Google Marketplace with Gmail, Gmaps onto the Archos 5 Internet Tablet which was released 11 months ago: https://archosfans.com/2010/01/22/video-shows-you-how-to-install-the-google-marketplace-for-archos-hack-on-firmware-1-7-33/
That’s kind of like claiming that it’s OK to download pirated Android apps and install them without paying just because it’s technically feasible. Google hasn’t publicly released the Android Market for these devices, and device makers need to license it from Google. While you *can* install hacked versions on Archos and other devices, the truth is that out of the box there’s no support for the Android Market, if you do install it, there’s no guarantee it will continue to work, and some apps won’t be available for download since you’re running an unsigned version of the Market app.
Installing Google MArketplace is not like pirating Android apps. Google should be obligated to allow all Android devices to use their marketplace, and bloggers should be supportive as well for users of Archos, Kmart tablets, $99 Silvana Android laptops or $299 Toshiba AC100 laptops, all those users easily CAN install the Google Marketplace if they want to have it. And I just don’t think it is the right thing for bloggers to say that it is not possible to have the Google Marketplace when any technically savvy user knows that it’s only one Google search away to find the appropriate googlemarketplace.apk on the web on some rapidshare or megaupload link and simply install that one directly on any of these non-certified devices.
In fact, Google should provide their Marketplace to all devices, if not pre-installed, then they should at least host the marketplace.apk files on google.com/marketplace or something like that.
Also, more than 99% of apps in the Google marketplace work 100% perfectly on Archos tablets, even most of all paid apps. The only very few apps that don’t work are those that for example might require a camera if Archos didn’t include one in the tablet or ones that rely heavily on GPS or augmented reality. But those apps are really not the majority of Android apps that anyone can find in the marketplace. So if Google wants to guarantee good user experience, they would simply have to filter out or “hide” those 1% of apps for each specific Android tablet or laptop, according to what hardware features each device is registered to have.
“Should” doesn’t come into it. I might believe I “should” be able to install OS X on any computer that has an Intel processor, and therefore decide that it’s ethical to download the OS from the internet without paying and run it on my machine. The fact of the matter is this is an unauthorized use according to Apple and so they won’t support it — and that’s a big problem whether you paid for the OS or not.
Google created the operating system. And Google has decided not to release the Android Market, Gmail app, and other Google apps for officially unsupported devices. Anything you can do to install them on Archos or other tablets right now is simply a hack. It’s not the same thing as full support. That won’t change until Google changes its position which may or may not happen.
With a growing number of Android tablets coming out in the coming months, I suspect Google might feel pressure to open up the Android Market to non-phones. But they’re under no obligation to do so, no matter whether you, I, or anyone else things they should. I think as bloggers and journalists, we can certainly lament the fact that it’s not available, and suggest that it should be… but it would be a disservice to our readers to claim that devices like these Archos tablets are Android Market-ready just because there’s a hacked, unsupported version available.
Google makes money if we use Google Marketplace and there apps. My understanding is that Google pays companies to include there apps on devices.
Right now it is a game between the cell phone providers and Google. Google obviously would like to introduce technology that would be destructive to the cell phone providers business model. It seems to me that Google is giving techies a way to be happy by leaving the back door unguarded and wide open.
This is presumptuous of me, so I’m not sure if I’d use the hack. While it’s probable Google wouldn’t care that techies used the hack, I’m not sure it is a wise thing for me to do. I believe presumption is dangerous, and I’m not sure there is ever a time it is not.
Charbax, this is delusional. I think you’re awesome when you cover hardware, but your opinions on software are often cringe-worthy. However, there’s nothing about these particular delusions that make you special. In fact, your position seems to be pretty typical of an “enthusiast”.
I’m with Brad. It’s Google’s software, and they can do what they want with it. You can’t. Don’t fall for the “open source Android” trick. All these closed vendor solutions have “problems” (from a consumer standpoint) on purpose. It’s part of the business model, something which open source software, for better AND for worse, doesn’t worry about. If you can’t accept the problems with a vendor’s platform, then don’t accept the platform. It’s that easy. Certain people really push and hype Android and then try to pretend like the problems aren’t problems or the work-arounds are OK because the problems shouldn’t really be there. Self-justification is the hallmark of evildoers everywhere. Who are you stealing from with the tactics that you promote? You are hurting all the device vendors who went through the additional time, expense, and effort to develop, release, and support devices that are compliant with Google’s standards. How is it possibly fair that others then cut these corners only to be rewarded with illicit software installations?
As I’ve said elsewhere, people who use open source software and people who use proprietary software both complain. People who use proprietary software complain about what they’re not allowed to do. Their recourse is to sit there and accept it. Of course, some just start breaking the law (even if it’s just the law that enforces contracts). People who use open source software complain about what they’re not able to yet. Their recourse is to create a solution that anybody is free to enjoy for as long as they see fit. Of course, some just sit there and complain anyway, but they don’t have to.
I encourage anybody to step back and see the bigger picture. This conversation can’t see the forest for the trees. Do you really want one company, ANY ONE COMPANY, providing the front-to-back, beginning-to-end, top-to-bottom experience of your life? Wouldn’t that be like one company producing all of the food you eat? Unless the Internet (or food) is totally unimportant to your future, and you’re happy with walking away from it or having it taken from you, then you should want to think about where this is all headed. Why would you trust a single company that much, and why would a single company who has that much control over your life need to respect you? If we just sit here and argue about the “shoulds” of Google marketplace, we may end up missing out on the creeping narrative of a single company, that has special plans with Verizon to “ensure net neutrality”, gaining total control of our Internet access.
Do the larger devices have flash memory slots? I think it was confirmed that the 28 and 32 did not.
The 4, 7, and 10 inch models all have SD card slots.
Grr… These are so frustratingly close to being useful. I don’t like 16:9 screens on tablets. Having the screen natively formatted for watching movies kills it for applicaton use for me. I’ve gotten over this with laptops, I still haven’t really gotten over it on tablets. One of the things l actually LIKE about the iPad is that it uses the golden mean 4:3 resolution.
Archos continues the trend of releasing underpowered devices in this gen. As everyone else is getting ready to drop A9’s they’re releasing A8s…. And they’re behind where next month’s smart phones, which are starting to crack 1.2ghz… And although support for 720p is nice, the upcoming A9’s also do 1080p…
And then there’s the resistive screens on the affordable models. And why does the 4.3″ screen have more resolution than the 7″ screen again? Gah.
I played with the last 5″ tablet they released and it was annoying and inconsistent. I’d love something like these devices, especially with the extra movie codecs, and Archos is hitting some good price points. I’m just not sure that after years of being interested in their products (this dates back to their hard drive media players), only to be turned off once I actually handled them, that I trust them to deliver a commodity item that I want. Which is such a shame.
Your comment about the 4:3 screen ratio is right on. For those of us familiar with “US Letter” sized paper, 4:3 (flipped into portrait mode) is the closest approximation. It makes a tablet pretty useful when you’re writing on digital copy of a physical document or something that is to eventually be printed. I have several tablets from the 4:3 era of LCD panels, and they’re just better. Portrait mode on a “wide screen” tablet is pretty goofy by American paper standard.
In fact, “wide screen” is usually a euphemism for “squat screen”. Compared to the 4:3 era, modern 16:9 panels are getting their “wideness” not from adding pixels to the width but subtracting them from their height. It’s cheaper for the manufacturers, and the industry has managed to convince the consumer technology buying masses that this is a feature.
16:9 is the standard for all modern movies and TV shows. Video watching is one of the two main features of tablets together with web browsing.
Any idea if Archos 43 tablets has replaceable battery?
OMAP3630 is one of the most powerful ARM processors on the market right now. Same 45nm power design as Samsung hummingbird and Apple A4 (which is based on hummingbird design). A9 only comes in large quantities starting early next year.
The good news is that the Archos Community has a good track record of liberating their devices, and Archos has been largely supportive. Archos generation 6 devices have already received the Angstrom Linux treatment, and Angstrom on Cortex-A8 is pretty good.