The Archos 9 PC tablet boasts on its box that it is "The future of Netbooks." While it is certainly slender and aesthetically appealing, in the end its portability cannot outweigh its lackluster performance.
Although this Tablet runs Windows 7 Starter Edition, the Atom Z510 processor seems underpowered to actually deliver satisfying, crisp Windows or application performance. Apps open slowly and everything just seems a bit sluggish.
The Touchscreen also delivers uneven results. At times, it is responsive and intuitive, but just as often your screen touches fail to register on the virtual keyboard. I only own one Apple product, an Itouch, but Apple really does seem to set the gold standard for touch screen responsiveness. For better or worse, I believe anyone who has used an Iphone or an Itouch expects that same performance and responsiveness from a touchscreen, and the Archos' touchscreen experience pales in comparison to the much less expensive Itouch.
On the left side of the device, there is a button to bring up the virtual keyboard, and below that are two buttons that serve as a left and right mouse button. On the other side is a small micropad that controls the mouse pointer. Although I have smaller hands than most, I still found the micropad difficult to use to control the mouse pointer, although that could improve with practice.
Multimedia performance, where this product should really shine, was a bit disappointing. Movies streamed via the built in Wi-Fi from Netflix were choppy. I do not attribute the choppiness to internet speed, as I have fiber optic, 20 MBPS FIOS internet service, and I watch movies via Netflix streaming without problem on both my PC and TV via an Xbox360. I was hoping it was simply a buffering issue, but even well into a movie it was still a bit choppy on the Archos. The movie watching experience was certainly adequate, but I was expecting better performance. I suspect the integrated video, Atom processor, and mere 1 GB of memory is simply not powerful enough to deliver consistent, high frames per second.
Battery life is also a bit weak. After just an hour of basic web browsing and exploring, the battery was drained to approximately 25%. This does not fare well for a product that exists to serve portable, on-the-go use.
Overall, whether or not you will appreciate this product will hinge on what you want to use it for. If you travel a lot and mainly want something smaller than a laptop to only check email and surf the web, this product will meet those needs, but not much more. And at the $550 asking price at the time of this writing, that's asking quite a bit of cash to perform the same core functions handled arguably just as well by most smartphones and even an Itouch. In the end, I think the Archos delivers average performance at a premium price. There are cheaper netbooks available, and until the Archos 9 drops in price, it won't deliver a true value relative to its cost.
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Archos 9 PC Tablet (Black).
