Archos 70 user reviews (8GB)

Pros 7" size is perfect combination of viewability and portability (fits in my jeans back pocket). The 250GB internal hard drive holds ALL my music plus tons of videos, movies, books, photos, apps, databases, etc. Never have to worry about running out of space

Cons Some people have reported various problems with the hard drive, with system lock-ups, etc., though I have never had such problems and it is impossible to know what percentage of owners do have problems, so it may be an insignificant % or not.

With the

Summary For under $350, the 250GB version is an incredible bargain, espeically when you consider no other Android tablets have 250GB of storage. Before starting to use the A70-250G, I went to the ArchosFans.com web site and followed the simple directions for installing the Android OS update, Flash 10, and the Androld Apps Store.

Pros I've had my Archos 70 for more than a year. No other tablet has more features at almost twice the price. And the others are heavier! My own benchmark, when tried on ALL the others, shows the Archos 70 to be just about as fast. After adding an antiglare s

Cons Fingerprints galore unless you add a suitable screen protector. Battery life only about 4 hours of continuous use - 12 hours on intermittent use. Charger easily dislodges from the unit.

Summary Easily the best bang for the buck and an excellent, and cheap, introduction to Android tablets. Useful every day for email, games, ebooks, etc.

Pros Thin and light.

Kickstand built in.

Cons Only available root method (some months ago when I had) was from very secretive guy/group, and raised serious questions about safety (security wise) and reliability.

Could not tether it with my cell phone.

Summary The cons I listed above with the price I paid CompUSA then (about $300) made it unjustifiable for me to keep. Maybe those issues can be resolved now, but I moved on...

BTW, the lowball prices listed here by CNET are for the reader version, the 70C, which is a much different device from the original 70 (or seven-oh as Archos labels it).

Pros FLASH; actually like the smaller 7 inch size compared to the 10 inch, I use it a lot for reading ebooks; lots of apps and personalization options; adobe flash 10.2;

Cons steep learning curve, for me anyway; wasn't happy with it right out of the box, but once I learned my way around it, and got the google market on it, I started liking it more and more;

Summary Love it now, but, I was NOT happy with it when I first got it. I bought to be sort of an upgrade for an ebook reader I had (that broke), and when I first received it I couldn't even figure out how to get any of my books on it. I had never used an android device before, and this device needs a lot of personal set-up. Was NOT good out-of-the-box, in my opinion.

But the device runs great. I've had it freeze up a few times on me, but a nice feature for me was the fact that the real power button on the side can be held down for 10 seconds or so to restart the device, and that has always solved any problems I had. And it starts up pretty fast.

I've had it 6 months now, and haven't had any serious problems with it (as I said earlier, I haven't had any problems other than it occasionally freezing up on me). I would recommend it. Especially for the price. You do need to have some basic "computer sense" though (which is basically just being willing to spend the time making mistakes, sometimes searching the internet for answers, and mostly just knowing how to follow directions). Not for someone that doesn't know how to figure stuff out, or someone not willing to try to figure things out. I guess having some experience with an android device would help a lot. But for someone with the time and know how to get the device to work the way you want, it's pretty darn good.

Updated on May 4, 2011

I'm not sure if I would still recommend this tablet as strongly as before now that Google Honeycomb is out. The Archos firmware can't upgrade to honeycomb, so it's probably going to get left behind quicker and quicker as time goes on. But, I'm still enjoying mine, and I would still recommend it as a starter tablet (or one to just mess around with). Good for the price.