I love the Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Jenn of Pocketables, on the other hand, doesn’t and we’ve been having a to-and-fro on Twitter that’s worth extending here because  it shows how personal opinions can vary widly. We’ve challenged ourselves to write one paragraph on the A5 to say why we think what we think. Before that though, here are a few tweets that kicked the discussion off.

@Smith922 I’ve never had a 5, 6, 7, 9 or 10″ device that beats this around the house. @pocketables will give you a different view though.

@chippy You’re kidding! What about it beats other at-home devices for you? And do you *only* use it at home?

@pocketables yeah. The Archos 5 rarely leaves my home, just fits me perfectly. Quite stable now too. Might get digital a/v dock soon.

@chippy Stability has been OK on mine. I just can’t stand resistive screen, stock OSK, & “ungoogled” Android. Dell Streak, where are you?

@chippy The Archos 5IT is fantastic as a PMP (like previous gens) but I went in expecting an awesome Android MID, which for me it isn’t.

Remember that this is all personal, subjective opinion!

Here’s my summary:

The Archos 5 fits my consumer internet device requirements both physically, through form-factor and font-sizing through to OS and applications and succeeds in doing it in a way that is better than any other home experience I’ve had before. Battery life is fantastic, it looks good and it’s priced at an a level that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. My use-case is home-based Twitter, email, Google Reader, MP3 player, podcatcher, storage, TV-playback, YouTube, ebooks and of course, the browser that supports all the links you receive through email and social apps. When you get a URL through twitter, you want a fast browser to view it! It CAN be better (smoothness, stability, capacitive screen, 3G) but it doesn’t exist yet and that makes the Archos 5 unbeatable in my book.

For Jenn’s summary paragraph, see her post at Pocketables here

Any Archos 5 owners care to offer another one-paragraph perspective?

The modestly priced Archos 7 Home Tablet [product page] is now available for pre-order from Amazon for $199. It is the 8GB version, but there will purportedly be a 2GB version as well. Archos has stated that the tablet will ship by end of April.

The Archos 7 Home Tablet (let’s call it the Archos 7 HT) is a WiFi only device (no cellular data) as you’ll recall, so the “Home” designation is rather fitting. Archos says that you’ll be able to play video on the Archos 7 HT for up to 7 hours on the 800×480 display. Audio playback is good for 44 hours, according to Archos. If you are looking to grab yourself a capable digital companion without dropping a huge chunk of change, the Archos 7 HT may be just the right value at $199. Have a look below at a nice hands on of the device from jkkmobile:

[Engadget] via [Pocketables]

It was already known that Archos would bet the farm on a new range of Android Tablets this summer and so we’ve been anxiously awaiting the first leaks. And here they are.

Archos Lounge (translation) are reporting (source: ITNews) that the Archos 8 Family will be available by the end of summer. The range will run from 3” to 10”, will be Cortex A8-based (Ti OMAP as with the current Archos 5 Internet Tablet) and will……oh I so want to just copy the whole article from Archos Lounge but the wouldn’t be fair on them. Hop over there, check it out and let us know what you think here.

Did someone say Multitouch=Capacitive? The big outstanding question for me has to be – Do they have Android 2.x with Google Apps?

Updated (18 Jan 2010) with the Intel iPad that I had never heard of until I read about it today. Shame on me!

I’ve been writing about ‘pads’ , tablets and other consumer and mobile internet devices for over 4 years now. Carrypad started through a desire for a new category of devices and under various names it focused on a sector that most people simply dismissed. ‘There’s no room for a device between a smartphone and a laptop’ they said; conveniently forgetting their digital camera, navigation device, book, gaming device and the growing need to surf while on the crapper.

Today, the iPad landed and has turned the tech-media world from nay-sayers to yay-sayers. Everyone loves the iPad and the coverage has sky-rocketed. Unfortunately, it’s not really happening here because I’m in Europe and sales haven’t started here yet. Can you imagine how frustrating it is for me?

Being English though I’m biting my lip and trying to positive and focusing on the iPad coverage that starts here on Monday when Ben, our Senior Editor, gets his iPad out in Honolulu. It’s a shame that there’s no Saturday delivery service but we’ll let the Engadgets of this world deal with the Day 1 craziness and take some time to read the first reports over the weekend.

Another slightly frustrating  element of iPad day one is thinking back on all the iPad-like devices that tried so hard to get it right before so while we’re waiting for the iPad, I think we should raise a few of the Pads of the Past up onto the pedestal and say ‘thank you.’

My first hat-tip goes out to Pepperpad who in 2005 produced a 9” touchscreen device running on an ARM core and running a heavily tailored finger-friendly user-interface. The specifications list and focal point of the device sounds like a true winner but Pepper Computer were simply too early.  The initial price was high, the performance was terrible and the battery life wasn’t that thrilling. Personally I loved the device (I bought a PepperPad 3, the 7” version) although it wasn’t exactly pretty! Unfortunately Pepper went under before they could realize their ideas with better technology.

My second shout-out in the consumer internet device category goes to Nokia who took a big risk and released the 770 Internet tablet in late 2005. It was aimed at people wanting media, a good web browser and was the first in a range of four devices that used a community-supported Linux build called Maemo. Maemo is now an important part of a long-term strategy for Intel and Nokia in their MeeGo product and is for me the most interesting ecosystems for building consumer internet devices.

The third and final shout goes to Archos who for many years have been combining media playback with Internet connectivity in an easy-to-use consumer-focused package. I still have (and use) my 605Wifi and it taught me that while the 605 was very slow to access web pages, I had more patience for slow websites when I was sitting in a comfy chair. Archos are now at the stage where they have a family of consumer internet devices from 5” to 9” and are planning to launch even more this summer.

Update: All the devices above date back to 2005 when I was starting to get very interested in the idea of a companion device but there are plenty of devices that pre-date these. The Intel IPAD, for example, is the most amazing story. Intel used ARM CPUs (they has an ARM license and Xscale, ARM architecture CPUs) in a product that, internally, was called the IPAD. It allowed you to surf ‘up to 150 feet’ from your PC. It almost reached the market but got stopped by another initiative in Intel. Read the story of the Intel IPAD here.

So to everyone that was part of Origami, the UMPC world, all the Tablet PC fans and bloggers and the thousands and thousand of people that have discussed the idea of mobile and handheld computing with me over the years – I raise my glass.

We’ve had one video from Charbax so far and we have to say we’re quite impressed at the price/performance ratio on the newly-announced Archos 7 Home Tablet [Information.] Here’s a new video from JKKMobile that will give you another feel for how the device is looking, feeling and performing.

Source: JKKMobile.

Update: Archos 7 Home Tablet specifications in the database.

Just in from Archos PR company in German is news that Archos have launched two new tablets but with basic, low power CPUs and a very low price point. The Archos 7 Home Tablet and Archos 8, a photo frame will run Android on a basic ARM9 CPU meaning you won’t get anything like a fast web experience. At 149 Euro though with Wifi, a touchscreen Android OS, USB and 2GB storage, it’s really not a bad deal if video, photo and basic mobile web apps work. I can see a ton of people getting one of these for Christmas.

In the same press release Archos have said that a new range of tablets based on ARM Cortex at up to 1Ghz will be coming in the summer with a range of screen sizes from 3 to 10”. Excellent news!

German PR announcement. (translation)

We’ve just had word from Archos’ German PR company that Archos will announce two new Android Tablets at CeBIT.

…wird ARCHOS zwei brandneue kostengünstige Android Tablets, die speziell für den Gebrauch zu Hause designt wurden, vorstellen.

My translation: Archos will introduce two brand new, good value Android Tablets that are specially designed for use in the home.

So we know about the Archos 7 (I’m hearing rumors that the design doesn’t follow the same lines as the Archos 5) but what will the other one be? Archos 9 Android Tablet? Will they beat Apple to the 9” market?

One down-side to the news is that it looks like we won’t see any 3G-enabled tablets being announced.

$499 too much for your next gadget purchase? Closed iPhone OS not quite your cup of tea? Looking for digital video output, video recording, micro-SD slot, USB (host and slave) capability and portability with a high-end processor?  I can’t say that the Archos 5 is as slick as an Apple iPad or iPod Touch but it’s a damn good product.

The Archos 5 8GB is now available in the US Archos store. We’ve also heard that EU versions will be shipping soon too so for some sub $250 pad action, this comes highly recommended. [Full review here]  If you prefer RadioShack, it’s also in stock there.

If you’re looking for something a bit larger though, the 7” version of this is, to all intents and purposes, confirmed. (See comments on this post.) We’re expecting Archos to announce this soon and wouldn’t be surprised to see a 3G version of the Internet Tablets too. Would 512MB RAM and a full Google-approved Android build be too much to ask for too? Stick a slider keyboard and 3G on a 512MB Google Android version and I’m sure a lot more people would be happy!

Thx to grnxf and Chris Street who commented on this post.

Full Archos 5 information and links page.

The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is already a great bit of kit but if you’re looking something a little bit bigger, more sofa friendly and with a few more features a 7” version makes sense.

Data-mind.co.uk, a wholesale distributer for Archos products has a new Archos 7 Android listed in their catalogue for an amazing 127.65 UK Pounds. (Trade price, before tax = about 200-250 pounds retail price.) If the Apple tablet appears for around 600-pounds (we’ll find out later – join me at UMPCPortal.com/live for chat), it better have something extremely special on board!

Obvious enhancements are stereo speakers, web cam and CD-input. An 800×480 resolution isn’t as high as it could be but is still going to work out well for the Android operating system (and means Appslib devs don’t have to make two versions of Android apps) and will make web sites and ebooks a bit more comfortable to read. Thumbing the on screen keyboard will be easier in portrait mode but more difficult in landscape mode.

Size-wise we’re looking at a very light and slim 203x107x12 mm which is going to be maybe 100gm more than the original Archos 5 Internet Tablet. Under 300gm!

We assume that the platform is the same Ti-OMAP 3-series delivering that same good experience as we see on the Archos 5 (full review)

Yes, this could be a fake but it makes so much sense for Archos to push out a 7” version that even if it is a fake, I’d expect it to happen soon anyway. That just leaves a 3G version of the A5 (with slider keyboard please!) and then Archos will have one of the most interesting range of ‘smart’ devices yet.

Hat-tip to JKK. Source: ArchosFans.

Last week I had the chance to check out the Milestone, the GSM version of the Motorola Droid. With its powerful processor and what I call a ‘dynamic’ operating system (which basically means you can load up apps and mess around with fun widgets) it is definitely a leading light in the web-centric smartphone for me. I own an Omnia Pro and I’ve got the N900 here as a test device so although I only had a short time with the Milestone I managed to take a quick set of photos which I’ve put into the gallery.

Full Motorola Milestone Gallery here.

The Milestone is noticeably thinner in the pocket but you don’t quite get the keyboard experience that you do on the Omnia Pro and N900. While the N900 keyboard is small, it’s very well designed and offers good key separation feeling and feedback.

The advantages of the capacitive screen can’t be ignored though. I loved the light-touch and haptic feedback and the rugged glass front is going to be a huge advantage over time. I’m really not interested in having my smartphone screen look like something on a Nintendo DS!

I also took the Archos 5 Internet tablet and compared a couple of websites. Its easy to see how you lose effective space on a small screen. Fonts have to be big enough to read so looks what happens when you do that…

Motorola Milestone and Archos 5 Internet tablet. Both running Android. Both 800×480.

Smartphones are getting really good at providing a solid web experience but with physical issues like this, it leaves the door open for dedicated devices that can provide a much more comfortable experience.

Next week i should be getting an HTC HD2 to test for a week. I’ve had a quick session with one and the screen is incredible but it’s extremely expensive and leans towards the business user. I can’t see too many ‘normal’ people buying one to be honest but we’ll see. I’ll be doing some videos and am planning a live vodcast with JKKMobile. We’ll let you know as soon as we have a date and time for it.

First of all, thanks to Jeff Hill of Misticaudio for sending over this case for review. They’ve stepped in at just the right time with a leather case for the Archos 5IT that fits well, doesn’t impact on the usability of the device and looks great at a very acceptable cost. $28 is a good price although you’ll need to consider taxes and customs costs if you’re importing it.

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