ARCHOS 80 G9 REVIEW
Archos 80 G9 is a tablet interesting and different than usual, offering new solutions in both hardware and software, all at a very competitive price. SlashGear’s colleagues have reviewed the premiere, let’s see what they think.
Archos is a French company that recently introduced on the market with its interpretation of tablet models of different diagonal. This is a segment on the rise at this very moment, but because this is more difficult to impose its own product in a crowded scene and often populated by quite similar devices, because of the duopoly hardware / software that dominates the landscape, ie coupled with the Nvidia Tegra 2/Google Android.
Archos seems to have succeeded, however, at least on paper, since its tablet stands out from the crowd in almost all aspects, from design to hardware platform solutions and software capabilities proposals. Let’s start building unit. Archos 80 G9 has a display with a diagonal of 8 inches (1024 x 768 pixels) and SoC Texas Instruments OMAP 4430, consisting of dual-core ARM Cortex A9 with a clock rate of 1 GHz in combination with PowerVR SGX540 a GPU frequency of 384 MHz which, coupled with instructions ARM NEON SIMD accelerator hardware and VAT 3, allows a substantial boost performance in multimedia.
To find storage or 16 GB of flash memory or, alternatively, a 250 GB hard drive manufactured by Seagate, expandable via microSD slot, however, networking is WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, in addition to GPS, while 3G module is optional. The equipment is completed by a front camera 720p, a pair of speakers, accelerometer, compass, and microphone support bracket, but integrated into the body, according to SlashGear colleagues , is a bit ‘too fragile,being made plastic, although they appreciated the ergonomics and the angle of inclination, they say perfect.
The battery is integrated and can operate up to 10 hours of Internet browsing, 7 hours of video playback or 36 hours of music playback. Archos 80 G9 version with 16 GB flash memory measures 226 x 155.3 x 11.7 mm and weighs 465 g, while the version with 250 GB hard drive, you must add 3 mm thickness and 135 g in weight. Particular appreciation was expressed, above all for the completeness of ports offered, which provide HDMI, Line Out and USB Micro.
The construction has received ‘approval of the tester, which has rightly noted the lines very special and different from usual, as well as the quality of materials, which do not seem like it does for other cheap tablet in the same price range. Still liking then both the ergonomics of the tablet, which apparently is very comfortable to hold and use, both for the quality of the display, especially given the fairly wide viewing angle, around 90 ° horizontally.
Turning to the software Archos 80 G9 has Google Android operating system in the latest version Honeycomb. SlashGear has promoted staff performance in this case, due to the fluidity with which both the operating system that runs the app and the fact that the tablet is packed with apps installed, already out-of-the-box, counting almost all the most important ones. Very good, but the results of the first Benchmark tests, both in terms of overall performance for battery life, capable of achieving high autonomy, equal to almost a working day (eight hours) while playing videos, using the output HDMI and playing a game graphically very demanding.
The final decision on the staff of SlashGear is so great and is given due prominence to the successful mix of design, ergonomics, performance and independence of this tablet
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