Archos G9 series - the best budget Android tablets??

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Jun 2011 at 18:45

Here are some previews of the G9 tablets:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/archos-g9-101_Laptop_review

http://www.trustedreviews.com/archos-g9-80_Laptop_review

The body is plasticky but has a metal frame underneath. The screen is also not too bad. They both come with 16GB of storage. The 1.5GHZ dual core TI OMAP 4440 SoC and SGX540 means this is one of the fastest Android tablets. I suspect it the hardware is faster than the Tegra 2. Since the SGX540 is clocked at 380MHZ and the SGX543MP2 dual graphics processor at 200MHZ the G9 series maybe not too far behind an iPad2 in graphics performance.

Not bad for around £200 for the 8" tablet and £250 for the 10.1" one.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Jun 2011 at 19:07

The 1GHZ OMAP4430 is faster than a Tegra 2 it seems:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4179/ti-omap4-and-lg-optimus-3d-tested

Columbo · 30 Jun 2011 at 19:40

Finally a tablet I'll consider buying, great hardware at a reasonable price.

Looking forward to seeing this one.

Deleted User 234324 · 30 Jun 2011 at 21:27

Certainly looks like a bargain if you can put up with the brand name and build quality which considering the price difference of £150 for the 16GB model or the benefit of having 250GB storage for the same price as the tab 10.1 or zoom then it is indeed a tough choice.

Not least forgetting the performance difference between the various tablets as well, Archos are on to a winner.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 30 Jun 2011 at 21:48

The 1GHZ OMAP4430 is faster than a Tegra 2 it seems:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4179/ti-omap4-and-lg-optimus-3d-tested

Since the G9 series uses the 1.5GHZ version of the OMAP4 it probably is going to be faster than all of the current Android tablets.

JBod · 30 Jun 2011 at 22:06

Ooh 3G too, so should be popping up in some pretty good contract bundle deals.

Amp34 · 30 Jun 2011 at 22:17

What's wrong with the brand name?

What really suprises me is how far Archos have fallen in recent years. They should have been at the forefront of high end tablets yet they they are down with the Chinese budget brands. They were at one point the purveyor of high quality and expensive tablets before just about anyone else, then Android came along and they fell like a stone..

Bigsy · 1 Jul 2011 at 08:09

Really interested in the 10" one, but I just can't see them keeping the price at that level, in fact wouldnt surprise me if it were £100 more by the time it shows up in uk stores.

kona786 · 1 Jul 2011 at 12:36

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Since the SGX540 is clocked at 380MHZ and the SGX543MP2 dual graphics processor at 200MHZ the G9 series maybe not too far behind an iPad2 in graphics performance.
.

I'm guessing the SGX543MP2 will be considerably faster.

No specs on RAM yet - would be a shot in the foot if it didn't have 1GB.

kevpuk · 1 Jul 2011 at 12:46

I've had plenty of Archos devices in the past, and have always been happy with them - there is also a lot of resource out there in terms of tweaks and 'hacks', so well supported, if not by Archos themselves (tbf, Archos do tend to release a flurry of FW updates for the first few months of a units life, mind)
Specs on these look really good, and you can be sure that Archos aces multimedia side of things (unlike my otherwise awesome Transformer :rolleyes:

)
Build/materials do look mildly disappointing, but then these are markedly cheaper than Transformer/Xoom et al., so you pays your money and takes your chances

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 1 Jul 2011 at 13:25

kona786 said:
I'm guessing the SGX543MP2 will be considerably faster.

No specs on RAM yet - would be a shot in the foot if it didn't have 1GB.

The SGX543MP2 in the iPad2 runs at 200MHZ. It is basically a pair of SGX540 GPUs running at 200MHZ. The SGX540 in the Archos G9 series runs at 384MHZ.This is why the Archos G9 series will probably not be that far behind the iPad 2 in graphics ability.

The RAM is between 512MB to 1GB which is dependent on the model.

This means the Archos Series 9 has faster hardware than all of the Tegra 2 based tablets.

kona786 · 1 Jul 2011 at 14:20

There must be a downside of the SGX540 @ 384MHZ - must be power consumption.

No spec of the battery capacity of the Archos?

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:05

kona786 said:
There must be a downside of the SGX540 @ 384MHZ - must be power consumption.

No spec of the battery capacity of the Archos?

I suspect since the G9 series is chunkier than an iPad a bigger battery could be fitted in theory.

According to Archos the 8" version of the G9 will have 8 to 10 hours of battery life.

JBod · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:07

Any word on release date?

kevpuk · 1 Jul 2011 at 15:13

Thought I heard August somewhere...

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 28 Aug 2011 at 13:14

The tablet does look quite speedy. OTH,the reviewer does seem quite enthusiastic!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2yupa-lF4I

Sin_Chase · 28 Aug 2011 at 22:45

Fast or not that thing looks like a mess. I do not think I could handle such shoddy build quality on something you are going to...well..handle... a lot.

CAT-THE-FIFTH · 28 Aug 2011 at 22:50

Sin_Chase said:
Fast or not that thing looks like a mess. I do not think I could handle such shoddy build quality on something you are going to...well..handle... a lot.

The Archos G9 has got a metal frame underneath so I don't think build quality looks poor. It is more functional TBH than pretty. People were calling the Samsung Galaxy S2 poorly built too since it is all plastic when compared to the equivalent HTC phones! If you want a nice feeling metal body then spend £350+ on a more expensive and prettier looking tablet.

kona786 · 12 Sep 2011 at 00:57

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
The SGX543MP2 in the iPad2 runs at 200MHZ. It is basically a pair of SGX540 GPUs running at 200MHZ. The SGX540 in the Archos G9 series runs at 384MHZ.This is why the Archos G9 series will probably not be that far behind the iPad 2 in graphics ability.

The RAM is between 512MB to 1GB which is dependent on the model.

This means the Archos Series 9 has faster hardware than all of the Tegra 2 based tablets.

The SGX543MP2 (@ 200MHz 12.8GFLOPS) is considerably faster than a SGX540 @ 384MHZ (approx 6 GFLOPS). Hell even the Mail-400 @ 200MHz (7.2 GFLOPS) pwns the SGX540 in the Archos.

cornyfeet · 20 Sep 2011 at 02:22

this tablet looks great in the video clips. apparently the most basic model is out now/soon for £200

very tempting