Archos 7c, their "Home Tablet," redux

[Joe Average]

Note: This is a brand new product, so in realistic terms, this is the Archos 7 Home Tablet version 3 - v2 came out in late 2010, with v1 coming out earlier in that year. If you go to the ArchosFans.com forums you can find a lot of info about the v1 and v2, even a custom ROM or two, but those are NOT the same as this brand new item, the 7c ("c" meaning third iteration I'm guessing, like a-b-c... who knows)

Looks like Archos is on the ball - this thing wasn't due till June according to most reports, but as of today (Friday, April 21, 2011) it's supposedly shipping in the US. Retail price of $219.99 for:

- 7" capacitive touch screen display at 800x480 resolution (landscape)
- 8GB internal storage with microSDHC slot for expansion
- Android 2.1 Eclair (and let's seriously hope a 2.2 upgrade comes fast, at least)
- USB 2.0 connection (slave and host, can attach a keyboard, mouse, or USB storage for more options, requires adapter)
- 802.11bg Wi-Fi (a drop from the current 11n support, probably a cost cutting measure but 11g is still the world's most used Wi-Fi standard)
- the awesome support from Archos products for just about any audio/video/media format you can throw at it
- battery life for music playback claim of 42 hours, video about 7 which is typical for such a device

Funny thing is they don't specifically state the processor speed in the official specs, but Engadget says "a Cortex A8 processor-RK2918 chipset combo that promises smooth 720p video playback." Based on that chipset combo model number, it's obvious this is a Rockchip-based product, and from what I was able to find with a quick search was that it should be clocked at 1.2 GHz. There's a short video with some tech info here:

http://armdevices.net/2011/04/13/rockchip-rk2918-for-smartphones/

(and yes, that's Charbax doing that video - owner/founder of ArchosFans.com, probably the most enthusiastic Archos supporter on the planet. I swear, the guy eats/breathes/(insert other activity here) everything Archos does)

Charbax also has a video of the 7c in action by Archos itself posted here:

http://archosfans.com/2011/04/13/archos-7c-home-tablet-rk2918-capacitive/

One interesting note: the 7c on display in that second video clearly shows Android 2.3.1 at about 1:09 in... yet it's shipping with 2.1 so, once again, Archos is doing 'something' that doesn't make any sense at all. Probably another reason they're still just a niche product company...

For $220, this could almost be considered a "poor man's NOOKColor" in some respects - no, it doesn't have a proper IPS display in it (I'm guessing it's just a low end TN panel like most all Archos products, again, cost cutting measures).

But the fact that it's a capacitive touch screen is a big change for Archos considering the original Archos 7 Home Tablet was resistive which is what the majority of Archos products have always been. This 7c Home Tablet, the 70, and the 101 are the only current (as of today) Archos products with capacitive screens. Even their Windows 7-based product, the Archos 9 Tablet, has a resistive screen and probably the primary reason it never took off as a popular one.

Regardless, this looks like it could be a nice product on the cheap, considering the price point. I'm sure in a few weeks it'll be available from resellers for probably $200 or maybe even less, but at this moment, I would say this is the ~$200 tablet to get if that's your absolute price ceiling, give or take a few bucks either way. I still would recommend the NOOKColor above anything out there in a 7" form factor (yes, even over the Galaxy Tab and some other 7" products) but that's just me I suppose. That IPS screen... that's something else.

Get the official info and specs at:

https://store.archos.com/archos-home-tablet-p-104.html

(and let's hope Archos cranks out a proper Android 2.2 or even 2.3 update very very soon)