Archos 70

The Archos 70 tablet represents a solid product from a company that has suffered a few quality issues among its previous tablet offerings. Happily, Archos appears to learned from the past and has produced a 7” device that can enter the conversation of top tablets in this range.

The Archos 70 features an ARM Cortex A8 microprocessor, immediately putting it into a class with the Samsung Galaxy Tab P1000. Like that tablet, the Archos 70 also has a nicely responsive, great-looking (if slightly low resolution at 800x480) capacitive touchscreen. Other Archos 70 specs include a webcam plus ports for micro USB, micro SD and mini-HDMI connections.

At the reasonable price, the Archos 70 is naturally made of plastic, though the device’s construction is hardly the worst in a market flooded with supercheap casings – put the Archos 70 somewhere in the middle in terms of quality in this range. A definite plus is the low weight of the Archos tablet at just 0.68 pounds (a bit over 0.3 kilograms).

In terms of apps, the Android 2.2 operating system is not outfitted with any of the popular Google functions installed. However, a surprisingly expansive software collection is provided, including (but not limited to) useful programs such as Fring for video calling, Quickpedia, Deezer for music streaming, a Twitter application, the Repligo PDF reader and some games – certainly enough to make up for no Google stuff.