Should I return my Archos 7 HT?

[Mori78]

HI,

I am at a crossroad, and I need to make a decision. Maybe someone here can help me.

I just purchased the Archos 7 HT about a week and a half ago, and I have to say that overall I am happy with my purchase. However, the fact that Archos 7 HT has 1.5 firmware that doesn't permit the Kindle App was a drawback for me. Also, the android app store doesn't exist for the 7 HT unless your root it. Which I did.

My question is, should I return my Archos HT and wait for the generation 8?

Does anyone know what with Archos generation 8 with 7 inch screen will cost?

[AllenPapapetrou]

In the topic: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=36071

Charbax guesses $299 for the 7 inch 8G version. I would return the 7HT and wait for Kindle.

Allen

[Mori78]

Haha. I had the kindle, but returned it because graphs and charts are not very clear and detailed.

In order for me to take advantage of most books I would need them to be able to zoom in and out with ease. The Kindle doesn't accomplish that.

$299 is not bad.

I might have to return it.

[AllenPapapetrou]

Aloha Mori78,

Sorry I wasn't clear. By "and wait for Kindle" I meant that the free Kindle App should run fine on the Gen8 tablets, just like it does on my Gen7 Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android 1.6.

Allen

[map002]

It's worth noting that the Gen 8 7" IT device *should* have a higher resolution screen and therefore be better at displaying just about anything, including charts and graphs in eBooks.

Michael

[Mori78]

Yeah, it's all speculative at this point. Worst case scenerio I return my archos now and repurchase it in the future if the gen 8 is not what its all hyped up to be.

[map002]

Or you can buy one of dozens of much better 7" Android tablets coming out in the fall if you don't like the Archos Gen 8 devices. There will be little reason to buy the A7 HT at that point, IMO.

Michael

[Charbax]

Or you can buy one of dozens of much better 7" Android tablets coming out in the fall if you don't like the Archos Gen 8 devices. There will be little reason to buy the A7 HT at that point, IMO.

At that point, A7HT rev2 may be upgraded to RK2818, same design just newer chip with Android 2.2 and 1ghz ARM9 support. Archos always has the best deals in the market. A7HT is already the best selling Rockchip device in the market, no reason they don't get priority access to the new RK2818 chip which is said to start sampling in September and in products by October.

The Home Tablet is probably going to remain significantly cheaper than Internet Tablet line. My guess while HT line at 7" may go down to $149, the IT 7" may not sell cheaper than $299. It's all about what you are willing to pay for and if you feel you need the faster processor for faster web browsing, the better screen (maybe even capacitive) and other better features like Bluetooth, HDMI, more codecs, DVR Station etc. Some people don't absolutely need all that and may find HT line perfectly suitable at half the price. The extremely cheap price of HT line is definitely attractive to many buyers when they see it in stores at nearly 4x cheaper than the iPad.

[Mori78]

Absolutely. I just hope they roll them out soon. Do you think September is the month when they'll be available for sale?

[Charbax]

Absolutely. I just hope they roll them out soon. Do you think September is the month when they'll be available for sale?

I think Archos has officially said Gen8 comes at the French school return date, which I think is September 2nd. But they could already release some or all a bit before or it may only come a bit later.

As for Rockchip's new RK2818 1ghz processor that has better graphics acceleration to support Android 2.2, Rockchip has said that it will start to be released in September, but the time it takes to then include it in existing RK2808 designs, the time it may take to upgrade RK2808 designs to use RK2818, I don't know for sure. I am guessing Archos may get prioritized access to using the chip, and I am guessing that RK2818 is hardware and software compatible with RK2808 designs so those hardware designs easily can be upgraded to RK2818 without needing to re-engineer much of the designs. If all that is true, I am just guessing that Rockchip probably is hoping to have RK2818 released into products before Christmas, so a potential release date for that revised hardware may be in good time for Christmas sales, thus I am guessing, October could be it. But maybe, actually taking the new RK2818 and manufacturing it into products that actually ship on the market may take 2-3 months longer, so who knows, maybe the A7HT with RK2818 might be be available before next year or so.

A third possibility is that Archos finds out that their OMAP3630 ARM Cortex A8 45nm designs are actually cheap enough to make and cheap enough to sell that maybe they decide to stop releasing new ARM9 based products. I mean who knows, maybe Gen8 7" can be sold for as little as $199 as well. I doubt it will be that cheap, but maybe it can.