Archos 7 Home Tablet Review

Looking for an inexpensive way to browse the internet? If yes, then Archos 7 Home tablet can very well be the tablet for you. With the Android tablet market heating up with a slew of launches, Archos has joined the competition by launching Archos 7 Home tablet which provides users a cheap way to check emails and browse the web. But what goes against this tablet is its lack of Flash support, webcam and limited access to the Android market. Check out our Archos 7 Home tablet review to know whether the tablet is worth a purchase or not.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Looks and Design

At dimensions standing at 8x 4.2×0.5 inches, Archos 7 is not a pocket friendly device, but its surly more compact than iPad. The design of the tablet is very much the same as that of Archos 7 Internet Tablet (7.5×4.3×0.6 inches), yet it is much lighter as compared to Archos 7.  Portability is not an issue with this tablet as it weighs just 13 ounces. On the right side, you will find a headphone, power and micro USB port while on the top you will find a power/screen lock switch and a microSD card slot. The tablet however lacks a docking port available in Archos 5. The tablet lacks physical Home, Menu and Back buttons and these buttons appear as on-screen options.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Storage

The tablet offers only 8GB of flash memory but the microSD card slot reads cards up to 32 GB. The tablet runs on Android 2.1 platform which is now quite outdated. But we expect that Archos will soon push an update to its tablet and will upgrade it to either Gingerbread or Honeycomb.

Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet Apps

One of the major drawbacks of the tablet is that it cannot access Google’s Android Market and its huge list of applications. Archos has tried to make up for it by launching AppsLib markets which has more than 1500 apps. But most of the applications are still missing in the AppsLib market. Popular free apps such as Facebook, Pandora, Weather Channel are absent in the AppsLib. However, consumers can download these apps from other sources.

Archos 7 8GB Home Tablet Screen/Display

Just like its predecessor, Archos 7 boasts of a resistive touch-screen but this time, it has gone with a matte display. The 7 inch screen has a resolution of just 800×480 pixels which is same as that of Archos 5. The colors appeared to be dull and muted. Though horizontal viewing angles were very wide, vertical angles were a bit narrow. A 720p video played quite smoothly when no apps were running at the backgrounds. However, when apps started running in the background, then the videos were not that smooth. The touch screen was not as responsive as we would have liked it to be. Scrolling was not that smooth and sometimes we found that the screen did not respond to our motions.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Audio

Though the speakers in Archos 7 8GB tablet with Android are small, yet it delivered good amount of volume. Even at 75% volume, we could hear the audio very clearly. But when we upped the volume to 100% we witnessed some amount of distortion. The bass present was fairly strong and good.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Multimedia

It is quite sad to note that the browser of Archos 7 does not support flash and hence you will not be able to enjoy Youtube videos on the tablet. Though there are some games available in Archos 7, yet they do not appear to be Flash based. However, the tablet is capable of playing a wide range of video formats and users can also listen to a large number of audio formats.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Wi-Fi Web Browsing and Wi-Fi

The stock Android browser on Archos 7 is not that easy to enter a new web address which is quite disappointing. The 802.11 b/g wireless radio was also not that strong and the connection dropped every now and then. The tablet has no support for 3G, EDGE and GPRS. Local file transfer is facilitated with the help of Bluetooth.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Release Date

The tablet has been released in 2010.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Accessories

Following are the recommended accessories for the tablet:-

• Audio Jack
• Case for Archos 7 Tablet

Archos 7 Home Tablet Retail Package

While unboxing Archos 7 Home tablet, we found the tablet to be equipped with the following stuffs:-

• Archos 7 Home Tablet
• USB Cable
• Power Adapter
• User Guide
• Legal and safety notice

Archos 7 Home Tablet Battery Life

In our test, the tablet gave us a runtime of around 7 hours.

Archos 7 Home Tablet Price

Price of the tablet in the US is $ 199 (approx) while price of the tablet in India is approximately Rs 11,000.

As said earlier that Archos 7 Home is a tablet for casual use. The major drawbacks of the tablet are is dearth of apps and lackluster performance. We will advise you to save your money and wait for some other compelling Android tablets to hit the market.