Hi guys, I'm thinking about returning my Archos 7 HT for a Wits A81E. I've read a bunch of reviews/information on the thing, and you guys seem to love it. I'm hoping you can answer a couple questions about the new firmware: 1. Does the 800MHz overclock negatively impact battery life? How much "real time" battery life are you seeing after the update? 2. Is the audio problem still apparent (music seeming faster than usual)? 3. Does suspend work for these devices? Will it stay asleep, or does it turn itself on throughout the night? What kind of battery decrease are you seeing when it's in suspend for a night? 4. Does the battery meter/power management work? 5. How's the size (general question)? I know it's thicker than half an inch, but is it still easy to carry around?Any info or thoughts you could throw my way would be appreciated. Also, if anyone has/had an Archos 7 HT and can compare it with the A81E, you'd be my new hero.Thanks!
Questions From Archos 7 Home Tablet user
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I should have my A81E to compare to my archos 7 this sometime week.
I am in the same boat - I got a archos 7ht a few weeks ago and am debating returning it for the wits - in two weeks time wits has released like 3 firmware updates and archos has only released one since the product was released. I mainly use it for videos and web surfing but the GPS would be a plus - only if it worked in android - CE is a joke
Archos is not likely to release any further updates as well. You may see a community created update but you will not ever see it get to even 2.0 officially. It's a very 'budget' device that is about to be EOL as well. The new tablets debuting in the fall are getting the full attention of Archos right now. Even the A5IT is unlikely to get to 2.0 without community created updates. I love my A5IT but I returned my A7HT after 2 days.ozsplace;34841 said:
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1. Hard to tell exactly every firmware changes things so much, but even with gps wifi full brightness and 800mhz I have not seen a dramatic change in battery life.2. Yes. Also Flash now works but audio for that is fLOOPy, real youtube not mobile same for pornhub addictinggames flash works played bejewled crashes after a while...3. No suspend currently turns off screen only. 4. No I have seen the battery indicator change but it is not reliable, worked fine in wince so eventually.5. Naked it just fits into loosecut jean front pocket. Its summer here so i carry it in a bag, will fit in a jacket inside pocket nicely. BTW @800Mhz it does get warm.I don't know about the archos 7, but if that has a rk2808 it is comparable to a moonse etc. I had a moonse first died after a few days luckily, I was happy with the moonse but thisis a whole nother league of performance, I can honestly say it is almost a desktop feel as far as speed and functionality go (Try using mouse and keyboard on this). Once AV problems are ironed out WOW what a great device I stumbled upon. I just have to write this somewhere, when using a mouse the right / wheel become back menu buttons and WORK all the time. It seems the real buttons "stick" in a software not hardware waymaking them unresonsive some times. Original A81 not E users should take note of this since it is the equivilent of hardware button "hack" but easy.
Thanks for the info! The Archos 7 is a Rockchip device. It's a very solid little tablet, but I'm just looking for something a bit faster. Bummer about the sound and the power management. Those are currently the deal-breakers for me. If it won't last through a night without being plugged in, it doesn't seem very useful.
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[quote name='fireman;36115]Thanks for the info! The Archos 7 is a Rockchip device. It's a very solid little tablet' date=' but I'm just looking for something a bit faster. Bummer about the sound and the power management. Those are currently the deal-breakers for me. If it won't last through a night without being plugged in, it doesn't seem very useful.[/QUOTE']You'd just shut it down instead of putting it to sleep... bummer, but booting doesn't seem to take too terribly long... thinking more and more about one of these instead of a GT...
[quote name='cutterjohn;36149]You'd just shut it down instead of putting it to sleep... bummer' date=' but booting doesn't seem to take too terribly long... thinking more and more about one of these instead of a GT...[/QUOTE'] Well, "instant on" is one of the main features of these devices. One of the only benefits to owning an A7HT is the battery life. Mine has been in suspend for almost 2 days straight now, and it's only used up around 10-20% of the battery life. Not great, but still good enough. I can turn it on & be on the internet in a couple seconds.If Witstech had an ETA on when the power management thing was going to be fixed, I think we'd all be happier.
So I finally got my A81-E. I have to say that it's better than the A7HT is almost every way. Reading on it is much easier. ACV and Aldiko work like a dream. I've not tried videos on it yet, I've heard that's where this unit has some issues. Music was fine. If it's too fast it's negligible as I can't tell on most tracks. It's not like a chipmunk effect or anything close to that. Suspend works fine on 2.2 by just tapping the power button. It's hard to tell exact battery life because the battery usage meter is messed up. But it lasts a while. I didn't really keep the A7HT long enough to test it's battery either. It's very easy to carry and lightweight. Even in it's case which is nice.
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Why is reading easier? Is the screen a better quality? Easier on the eyes?
Thanks for the review, Deadpool. Let us know if you get around to testing some videos on it. Also, if you have any thoughts about the touchscreen. The thing I hate most about my A7HT is how ridiculously unresponsive the screen is. I know it's resistive and all, but they could've done a whole lot better with it.
Well I had the 7HT for about 30 days and have had the A81e for about 7 days and WOW what a difference - here are some points- Battery life is a little less - I am averaging about 5-6 with full use - i.e. videos, wifi, games etc - the 7HT was about 7-8 but the A81e has extra batteries, I got 3 so I am set for traveling - only bummer is no battery widget works - I really tired about 20 of them and NONE of them read right - hopefully a firmware update fixes that- The screen is night and day - the 7HT had one of the worse screens as far as response goes and the A81 is VERY usable - not multi-touch but for $200...- Lots of games work in comparison to 7HT - almost everything I install works on the A81 and most on the 7HT ran super slow or not at all- Android 2.2 vs 1.5 - huge difference- Music - is about the same I did not notice and speed difference on the A81 but I updated the firmware before I did anything else on it- Videos - Still working on this but currently the videos that played great on the 7HT barely play on the A81 - I have tried Rockplayer and YXplayer - both struggle at the moment- MP4s at a resolution of 800 by xxx with a 23 FPS 768 kbps - lag sometimes and other times play - however the video is not super crisp- 3PG - play but the audio video is so far out of sync it is useless- MKV - play with YXplayer but frames are dropped- I am going to try a bunch of different formats the next two days before my trip and see what is the best solution - I think 480p is the safe bet- Gmail - works and works like it would on the desktop - the 7HT has issues getting new mail and I had to clear the cache almost every other day- Market - the 7HT had access to MOST of the market BUT most things did not work - The A81 has a limited market but the stuff you find does usually work - within reason i.e. no cell signal or g-sensor- Had to go with other markets out there and just email the files or transfer to SD card- Screen brightness - 7HT really worked nice here - the A81 is all over the place when I adjust the screen brightness- Speed - again night and day - not a lot of lag on the A81- Stability - neither product is really "stable" like the ipad/ipod but within reason pretty stable - few force closes and some restarts are to be expected at this point - once Samsung, LG, HTC make their tablets I think things will improve - but this is pretty early days for these things - if you are not a tech person you might want to wait till a major player releases a android tablet with 3.0- WiFi - no issues really with the A81 - seems like it is faster than the 7HT but too close to call - but skyfire runs much smoother on the A81- App space - the 7HT has a TINY app partition by default - there is a firmware hack to add more but I has already decided to ditch it by that point - the A81 has more space but it seems like App2Sd will be around the corner - anyone got SDmove working??- Screen - I think the screen is better on the 7HT - visually I mean but I base that on the video play back which might not be fair to the A81 because of the video play back issues - the difference is small- Form - I really liked the size of the 7Ht is was super thin and pretty light and had a metal back and looked more professional - the A81 is plastic and looks cheaper- Cases - 7HT - good luck finding a well fitting case - A81 comes with a case- GPS - 7HT -none - A81 has the gps but I tried iGo and Copilot and neither are practical for driving the GPS signal is too slow to update - I hope a firmware update addresses thisDid I miss something - let me knowJust my 2 cents - but I have/had a ipod touch, droid, iphone, blackberry, windows mobile phone, 7HT - I shopped around a lot and looked at just about every tablet out there and these tablets all seem like they have some issues one way or the other - BUT wits releases firmware very often and it seems like things are getting better and I never felt like Archos really cared about the product after the release - and now the 8th gens are coming out before the end of the year so the 7HT is dead and the chipset will not support anything higher than 1.5 (based on other forum posts)Would I buy it again - yes but I think as soon as some of the other tablets are out - galaxy S, notion ink, dell streak 7, ipad 7 - I might sell this and move to those - but that will likely be November/December or even next year before that happens and I am WAY too impatience for that! Hope that helps
That's some great information! Any updates on the video thing? Also, here's an app for notetaking: Free Hand Note Lite for AndroidI hoped to use my A7HT as a portable notepad, but the screen was ridiculously inaccurate (I couldn't draw a straight line even with a stylus). Any comparisons to the screen tracking/accuracy on the A81E are definitely welcome.
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It is crazy how different the screens can be in different batches of the same tablet. My archos has a way more responsive screen than my a81e. I bet I could get a trouch to register with a oak leaf on my archos. My a81e is good but it takes a noticably hard press to get it to respond. It also distorts the lcd if pressed in some regions of the screen.
From what I've read, you're one of the only people commenting on how responsive the Archos screen is. Mine is horrible - sometimes, when I press in the lower right area of the screen, it adjusts the volume (which is at the upper right). There's also the notepad app thing, which is a huge problem for me.I just got an RMA number for my A7HT, so I have a couple days to send it back. Any other comments on the screen/video on the A81E, in the meantime?iplaythisgame;44434 said:
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