Archos - 43 Internet Tablet - 16GB Running Google ANDROID + Wi-Fi (501578)

Pros: -Cheap for a tablet when it came out.
-1GHz processor, I believe 256MB RAM
-"Hackable"
-Decent camera in good lighting
-16GB internal storage
-SDHC slot for up to an additional 32GB storage
-USB Host Capabilities for using USB flash drives, Keyboards, mice, etc.
-Mini HDMI out for 720p video display on external display
-Lightweight
-Decent Battery capacity
-HD video playback
-Good Display
-Kickstand
-Decent Built-in speaker
-Good sound and video quality
-Supports *tons* of video and audio formats

Cons: -No Multi-touch capabilities
-Limited to Android 2.2, no higher Android builds supported (easily)
-Was sluggish until firmware update fixed it
-Typing with on-screen keyboard takes a bit of getting used to on a resistive touch screen (not the most accurate unless using a stylus or using your fingernail)

Other Thoughts: I've had this tablet for nearly 2 years now, and I am very glad that I bought it. Essentially, I was looking for a smartphone minus the phone, and this device was what I landed on. This device is extremely open. The manufacturer even provides a custom firmware that adds dual-booting between Android and Angstrom Linux to the device. Using other online tools, it is even possible to run Ubuntu 9.04 (I think its 9.04) on this tablet. In summary, add a 32GB microSDHC card to this tablet, update the firmware, and you have a fully-hackable multimedia powerhouse. I would very much recommend this tablet.

Pros: too many pros to list.
Android OS
ability to add google android market, or not.
sideload apps
nice powerful CPU
plenty of RAM
plays every audio and video format you throw at it.
expandable storage
mini HDMI out
long battery life is long
16:9 widescreen -- great for movies

Cons: resistive touchscreen is resistive
no flash on camera

Other Thoughts: putting a resistive touchscreen on this device is like building a beautiful home and then putting green fiberglass trailer skirting where the foundation should be. having said that, it's the best resistive screen I've ever used. and I was a PalmOS user for over a decade.

Pros: Screen slightly larger than ipod's
Android os
Good size
Decent screen resolution
Internet

Cons: Touch screen Touch screen Touch screen

Buggy software
Many quirks
Some features are a pain or dont work as advertised
slow

Other Thoughts: Purchsed on Fed. 2nd 2011. I bought this as my first touch screen MP3 player. I wanted it to replace a smaller nontouch screen player and I found this which has many features. It seemed very portable, could still watch a movie for traveling, gets internet, could act as an internet phone (it is possible I have done it but it is a pain), and to act as a sort of PDA.

For me and what almost everybody has said the touch screen is abysmal. It is by far the worst touch screen I have ever handled bar none. If you want to buy this, you MUST MUST MUST try it out before you purchase it and see if you are willing to work with the screen issues. I cannot overstate that enough. I ended up getting a stylus for it and the screens accuracy has probably gone up to 85%. That means that 8 or 9 out of 10 times the screen will error for you. It is only about 10% accurate with your bare finger.

I really wanted to like this product but am instead very dissapointed. Ipod wins.

Pros: 1. Size - Not too small, but small enough to be truly portable
2. Awesome Archos operating System
3. MicroSDHC card slot
4. Hold power button for 10 sec to reset device
5. Archos market and Google apps available through the ArcTools app
6. Very lightweight and slim
7. For a resistive-touch screen, it's quite sensitive and accurate
8. External speakers
9. Headphone jack
10. 1 GHz processor
11. Quick boot-up
12. Full battery charge lasts for forever and a day
13. Tap screen twice to zoom in/out
14. Rear-facing camera
15. Kick stand

Cons: 1. Can only charge through Micro-USB port (AC charger doesn't come with it--only USB cable)
3. Stylus needed for precision typing/clicking/swiping (Doesn't come with a built-in stylus)
5. Hard to find a decent carrying case that fits it properly (The really good ones aren't cheap)
6. Archos does not provide an option for root access

Other Thoughts: Overall, this is the greatest truly portable Android tablet (Try putting a 7-inch tablet in your pocket all day long). The Archos name means a great operating system and great construction. You can't go wrong with this little gem.

Pros: - Android OS
- It's not an Apple

Cons: - Fried my 16G SD card
- Touchscreen is worthless
- Doesn't sync playlists
- Many Anfroid apps don't work

Other Thoughts: This product isn't just bad - it's ridiculous. What company charges this much for an mp3 player that doesn't even sync playlists with Windows Media Player? I submitted a support ticket for this problem with Archos tech support and here is their response:

"The unit does not accept playlists through syncing. You will need to create the Play list on the device"

Thank you,
Andrew H
Archos Technical Support

Not only doesn't it work but Archos doesn't even believe this is a shortcoming!!!! Un-Be-Liev-Able.
The touch (or not so touch) screen works about 1 out of 4 tries when using my finger so it's useless without a stylus. More than half the apps I've tried to download from the Android marketplace don't work on the 43. I can't imagine how they could make this thing any worse. This is a good example of why people buy iPod's.

Pros: -Decently powerful hardware
-Sensitive touchscreen
-Large display
-kickstand is nice for viewing movies, and thanks to the touchscreen you can even navigate the device without tipping it over.
-Good speaker for the packaging
-Good microphone
-Ugradeable OS is great
-kickstand makes a handy substitute for wrist strap
-Great color & contrast for the price
-RMA department ranges from good to excellent as far as speed & communication
-Ability to run Linux is nice, but only Android is pre-loaded on the device.
-mirror finish bakplate
-hard buttons for volume and power
-status LED
-has a built in camera
-out of android firmware update option
-micro SD card slot
-Mini HDMI port
-able to recognize lots of media formats
-Quadrant Standard (free benchmark App)Score: 1512 (compare to 2034 for a Droid X2)

Cons: -Boot time seems a bit long, and is on par with my W7 HDD storage PC.
-Touch screen can be temperamental, and inaccurate near the center. It seems to vary from unit to unit. Out of the 3 I have had only 1 seemed to have a good touchscreen.
-Wifi antenna is not all that strong, but even when it shows a weak signal it performs well.
-no wrist strap holes. So be careful when handling.
-I keep mine in my lower pocket on my cargo pants at work. Sometimes my archos will randomly enter a reset loop. It will nearly kill a 93% charge in a couple of hours if left unchecked.
-The android OS only allows so many levels of folders for some of my music. Some folders can be 3 levels deep, others can only be 1 or 2.
- I now have a few dozen apps, and have all icons on all 5 of my desktops. My 43 can take up to abot 10 seconds to load them when switching orientation.
-camera is not very good in anything but ideal lighting, and barcode apps are useless from experiences.
-Power not always appa

Other Thoughts: I'm on my 3rd Archos 43! May be on my 4th soon. The first had a terrible touchscreen problem, the second had a great touchscreen, but terrible network issues, the third and current one is much like the first, and also has some issues with the touch screen (I may RMA this one too). I bought this tablet in April, and it has been in RMA or transit for approx. 27 days (That's nearly 1/3 of my ownership time). The touchscreen is great for a resistive I guess, but it's a double edge sword. Navigating with the flesh of my thumb (one handed) often results in mid scroll clicks or spastic back scrolling, but a near feather soft touch is all that is needed to navigate (which is nice). It's a mixed bag. The price ($244 @ my purchase) is good undercut of the Ipod, and it has flash abilities. The device itself is killer for current $218 price, but I'm really considering trying to give it back to newegg and taking some "store" credit if possible.
-Recommended? [Yes] With caution.

Pros: Good performance and battery life. Being Archos it plays video and music flawlessly. The Android O/S has endless games and applications available at low or zero cost. The size and light weight make it easy to hold and the screen is sharp and bright with a wide viewing angle.

Cons: The touch screen as everyone says is poor. Even with a stylus, it selects when I want to scroll or scrolls when I want to select. Other than the position calibration there are no adjustments for sensitivity or anti-bounce.

New, generation 9 versions to be announced at end of June.

Other Thoughts: Handbrake: on your pc converts video to H264 at 30 FPS with AAC audio into an MKV container.
Skype: works on the A43 though voice only as there is no camera facing you.
Firefox mobile: the nightly version works and allows adblock+ add on.
Navit: with a Bluetooth GPS can use the global openstreet maps.
Keepassdroid: Keepass password manager can use the database file from your pc.
OpenIntents: Notepad, shopping list and file explorer all working together.
Twisty: Plays your old Infocom text games.
Shortyz: Crossword puzzle player.

Pros: This is an excellent tablet/pocket computer for the price. For $200, this device gives great media playback, a ton of mobile apps, a nice pocket computer, and plenty more features if you're willing to dig in and install the developer firmware.

LCD - The LCD is very high resolution (854x480) and text and graphics both look very crisp and clear. The color is good and the backlight has a great brightness range for different usage environments. The touchscreen isn't that bad either.

System- The ARM Cortex processor runs at 1GHz and has 256MB of RAM. This means that it can run multiple apps, live wallpapers, and 3D games well. The processor is a TI OMAP3630 which also includes a PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 graphics processor. It also features HDMI out and USB host capabilities (I have ordered a cord but have not tested these yet).

Connectivity - It has WiFi N and Bluetooth wireless interfaces. I use the Bluetooth to connect it to my car to play music.

Cons: The one thing that everyone seems to be mentioning is the touchscreen. Yes, it is resistive and no it does not have multi-touch. For some apps this can be annoying, but the resistive screen is quite nice as far as resistive screens go. Also, it allows you to use a stylus for more precise tapping and also drawing/writing on the screen.

The Android Market is a non-issue as well. It is not included by default, but it is available in several places and once installed works perfectly. The ArcTools package in AppsLib will install it as will any other .apk package found online for the Marketplace. The Market is also included in unofficial OS images like UrukDroid.

Other Thoughts: As a long-time Linux user, one thing I found particularly interesting about this device is the ability to dual-boot a Linux operating system. The developer firmware is easy to install and provides a basic Linux environment called Angstrom. You can replace the (fairly limited) Angstrom environment with Debian and have a full Linux desktop on the device. Support is still limited but improving.

I bought this to replace my old Dell Axim X50v as nothing supports Windows Mobile 6.x anymore. It is a nice improvement over the Axim without having to pay for a data plan or other expensive services.

The audio quality is also very good in this tablet. I haven't listened to many other players, but with a good set of headphones this will provide a great sound. When running Linux I found that it has a Wolfson audio controller.

Pros: Okay i see everyone complaining about the touch screen, but i found it to be very easy to use. It just takes a little tweaking. To anyone wanting to get more responsiveness out of there touch screen simply install the app launcherpro. It increases responsiveness 100%. Also yes it does not come with the android market installed by default but a simple app from Appslib takes care of that. And for anyone who still thinks the device does not have flash support, it does. You just have to install it from the market. It can also use skype, google voice, gmail etc. It is a FULL android device. Meaning it has all the same capabilities as any other android phone, well minus the phone and data plans.
Also on a side note the keyboard was hard to use, but an install of slideIT keyboard took this device to its full potential.

Cons: The only real cons i would have is the camera resolution. It's great they have a camera on here but the quality is slightly lower then desired.

Other Thoughts: No real other thoughts, this is a great device. Just buy a nice microSD card and your all set.

Pros: Android... No I tunes. Drag and drap file transfer. Did I mention no Itunes...;)

Cons: Touch Screen takes some getting used to, But after some time with it you learn how it works..(Fingernail)
Lost an egg becuase they should have included a Styus.. for those who Can't learn to use it with there fingers.

Other Thoughts: Nice unit for the price Micro sd Slot is a nice bonus. Right up there with Angry birds ..:)