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It was barely more than a few hours ago we told you guys about the now available Archos GamePad and now a few of its cousins get to join in on the fun. The Archos 97 Titanium and Archos 80 Titanium — the same ones we took at back during CES — have also landed stateside where they too are available for purchase. After our hands on with both models, I have to say, I was more than pleased with the 97’s display quality. Sure regular folk will have a hard time telling ’em apart from iPads, but the mixture of aluminum and glossy plastic gives budget minded consumers a premium tablet feel, without having to break the bank.
The Archos 97 Titanium HD is currently retailing for a reasonable $249 on Amazon and (providing the hardware hasn’t changed) comes with an absolutely stunning 9.7-inch 2048×1536 resolution IPS display, 1.6GHz dual-core A9 CPU with quad-core Mali 400 GPU, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal storage with expandable micro SD slot, and 5MP rear/2MP front facing cameras. The Archos 80 Titanium is more of the same only with a smaller 8-inch display and resolution of 1024×768, and 2MP rear/unspecified MP front facing cameras for $169.
Both tablets have a comfortable 4:3 ratio form factor and are running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean with full access to the Google Play Store and other Google services. Again, that’s not bad considering the asking price. Links provided below.
[Amazon links: Archos 97 Titanium | Archos 80 Titanium]
would love one of those if it were a nexus device LOL. love the screen on the HD one
If Google could find someone to make a $250 tablet with a 2048×1536 resolution Super IPS display, even I’d buy one (and I hate tablets).
As long as they have the propert processor inside to push it.
Sounds good. Now do I get this or Kindle Fire HD 8.9???? Decisions Decisions?
only the fire if its rooted and rom’d
I was really looking forward to the 97 Titanium HD after it was announced and I saw initial hands-on video/commentary. But, unfortunately, I’ve read a few articles reviewing the retail version over the last couple of days and they have found major faults with the screen having flickering and stuttering while being unable to play any HD content – video or games, even Angry Birds – when “HD mode” is turned on. Add to that apparently terrible battery life and it is an unequivocal pass on the Archos 97 Titanium HD.
Sounds like software issues that COULD be fixed with an update of course…. Archos would have to be willing to update.
Of course it’s not software.
Did anyone seriously expected a Mali 400 to drive a 2000X1500 resolution ?
Yeah. I think the most the Mali-400 can drive is WXGA, MAYBE Full HD (1080p), but that would be pushing it.
It’s seriously underpowered to drive the resolution on the ARCHOS 97. What a shame.
These look cool. I may finally have found a tablet.
Look is the key word. All of the reviews have been horrible. Screen jumping and flickering in HD mode, games not even loading. Your much better off spending the extra $100 to $150 and get a Nexus 10. The processor inside is not good enough to push the HD resolution.
Those are old-versions of two Onda tablets.
New ones are much upgraded, and still less expensive than the Archos versions :
http://www.onda-tablet.com/onda-v972-quad-core-9-7-inch-retina-screen-daul-camera-android-tablet-pc.html
It only has 5.8GB free storage for apps, so if you want to play any games without app juggling, forget it. Not to mention the performance is awful with the rockchip trying to push that many pixels. Several reviews point this out. Archos appears to have failed yet again.
I really hope Google releases at least one 4:3 aspect ratio nexus tablet. Their UI (especially in landscape mode) takes up A LOT of vertical space. These widescreen tablets don’t work well with this.
Just try browsing the playstore in landscape mode on a nexus 7…it is literally laughably bad.
Looks like they have 2 versions now. A dual core at 1.6Ghz and 1GB of Ram and a newer one that is a quad core at 1.2 Ghz and 2GB of Ram. The dual core is $269.99 and the quad core is $ 329.99. So i’m curious if they realized the dual core was not enough to push the retina display. Wonder if they both have the Mali 400.
Its got a quad core Mali 400 GPU to handle the resolution, and its not a retina display, that’s just Apple trademark for their screens.
Retina display refers to the PPI of the screen. I know it’s a term that Apple uses for their screen, but other screen can still be called this. I call every screen retina if it’s pushing the appropriate PPI.
The quad core version is the Platinum model, I ordered one this weekend. It is supposed to have the same graphics processor that’s going in the Galaxy S4, the 8-core GPU PowerVR SGX 544, not the Mali chip.
Let me know how it is? I’m thinking about getting one unless the new Nexus 10 is coming soon or the new Galaxy Tab 3.
I’m extremely tired of letting my hugely-spoiled six year-old sister borrow my N7. The Archos 80 seems like a pretty decent birthday present for her, definitely. :3
I say you get her a rock. Maybe some glitter and googly eyes too.
She’s six. Let her be a kid.