Archos 43 4.3-Inch 8 GB Internet Tablet with Android - Official New Excellent Gadgets, Tools & Accesories

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Gadgetman “gadgetman7″ (Saratoga, CA USA) –

  

Customer Video Review Length:: 3:25 Mins

This is a video demo and testing of the Archos 43 – 16 GB Internet Tablet. Overall, I am very happy with its improvements over the Archos 5 IT. I have also changed the rating to a 5 stars after updating the OS to Android 2.2 with the Adobe Flash 10 player installed. This gadget rocks !

12/21/10 update

- I have been using this gadget on a daily basis since my original post for checking emails and surfing the web for news in the morning while still lying lazy on my bed. So far so good and it has replaced my iPhone for such use as it is lighter and has a wider display for full web-site surfing. The only issue I have is the short battery life which I have to circumvent by disabling the Wifi when not in use.

Overall feel and handling

The unit is extremely light and fits easily in a shirt pocket. It is much more portable than the Archos 5 IT and even the i-Phone. The single-touch resistive screen works quite nice also. I also noticed that the camera has a small clear plaster cover on it which should be removed for better recording.

OS and applications

12/01/10 Update

- Updated OS to Android 2.2 ! This gadget is a lot more stable and works faster after the update. We would need to reinstall the latest Google Marketplace app from the Archos fans site as the previous version does not work with Android 2.2. The Adobe Flash 10 player would also needed to be installed (from the Google Market place) in order to view flash videos from the websites.

Archos 5 used to have an application called Thinkfree office installed which allowed us to view PDF, excel, and word document. I am not able to find this same application on the Archos 43. However, this application and the Adobe viewer could be downloaded from the Google Markletplace. Do some research on the Archosfans website and you would be able to get the instructions on installing the Marketplace app.

Video and display

The display is very nice and sharp. In the demo video, I also showed a side-by-side comparison between an i-Phone and the Archos 43. The display area for the Archos 43 is 32% larger than an iPhone. Whereas the Archos 5 IT has a 65% larger display area over the iPhone with its 4.8″ screen. Even though the display area is not much larger than the iPhone, the viewing experience is notably different. The video camera recording is of average quality. It does OK in well lighted area but the video is pretty grainy under poor lighting conditions. I also found some issues with the Amazon’s Kindle viewer. The right side text was chopped off by the menu bar.

Sound

The external speaker is much better than the Archos 5 IT and produced much more sound in comparison.

WiFi and internet connection

There are major improvements in the Wifi connection as I experienced no trouble connecting the WiFi to my home wireless network. This was the most annoying problem I had with the Archos 5 IT.

Batteries

Charge time is much better than the Archos 5 IT. Took about 2-3 hours for a full charge. It lasts for about 2-3 hours of constant uses. If we leave the Wifi on, it seems to drain the battery charge rather rapidly. I did another benchmark testing by playing only video with the external speaker at 50% volume. It ran for a good 6-7 hours on a full charge.

It uses a standard micro-USB cable for connection to the PC.

Overall, I am quite pleased with this gadget particularly its light weight and larger screen size than my iPhone.

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 Comments (22)

By 

Sparrow Dayton (USA) –

  

There’s a little pain before the reward, but it’s worth it!

My Archos 43 was a Christmas gift that my parents chose from my Amazon Wish List. Of course with the supply problems, I didn’t actually get it until January 22nd. (It was ordered in November.)

I’ll be using it to replace my 8 year old and failing Palm Tungsten C PDA.

You won’t need my decades of engineering and programming background to make your Archos work, but you will have a glitch or two during the updating and software installation process. Just hang in there!

Out of the very well packaged box came my Archos, a USB cable, ear buds and the paperwork. My first impression of the unit was the solid construction. It doesn’t feel cheap and flimsy like so many products do now days. Turning the unit on, I found the battery at 60% charge. Following the manufacturers instructions, I let the unit charge for several hours to top off the battery.

Once charged, the unit took me through a very simple set-up routine that only took a few minutes to complete. My Archos connected right away to my home wireless network, and indeed I can use my Archos 43 everywhere on my hobby farm. I’ve been over 200 feet from my router and still had very good reception.

First things first – Let your unit go out and find the updated firmware and install it. The download took about 5 minutes. After the Archos reboots with Froyo, the real fun starts.

After initial setup, select the “Market” icon and download the Arctools widget (which is called: com.arctablet.arctools.apk) and install it on your machine. This will give you the official Android marketplace and allow you to download the Adobe Flash 10.1 driver. This was important to me, as my pad will be used to monitor a 24hr ustream channel that I run.

Note: I had to do this process twice before Marketplace would work. The first install seemed fine but Marketplace wouldn’t launch. Uninstalling and reinstalling Arctools did the trick.

Next of course, you’ll want to add any other cool software that you fancy. I track satellites, keep ham radio logs and read Kindle books on my new Archos (to name a few.)

I’m not crazy about the audio player interface, however there are many others to choose from in the Marketplace so no worries on that. Sound quality is very good (to my over 50 ears) and video playback is smooth with the audio in sync. I run the very old Windows 2000 operating system, as well as Ubuntu 10.10 and both systems see the Archos 43 just fine. Dragging and dropping audio, video and picture files into the device is a breeze.

I’ve also been able to stream movies and audio directly from my 4tb networked file server. Of course this will eat your batteries pretty quick. Best to just watch video directly from the Archos with wifi turned off.

If you’re up to it, download the Eclipse compiler and Android software development kit and start writing some of your own apps. It’s not that hard and there’s nothing like writing your own software.

After using my Archos for 24 hours, I can truthfully say that I would, and probably will buy another. My wife and adult son are already asking for one of their own.

———————————–
Two Month Follow-up

I’ve had my Archos 43 for a couple of months now. I still love it.

Battery life is great and I’ve had almost no trouble with it. Every once in awhile, an app will cause a complete freeze (App’s fault, not the Archos) but holding the power button for 10 seconds will force a reboot and all is well again.

The Google Marketplace patch works great, though I’ve found some apps that are marked not compatible with the Archos actually are. I’ll get the appp directly from the author and side load it and it’ll work just fine.

Would I buy another one? YES and I will soon!

———————————–

3 month update

I bought another one, but the reason stinks. I got fumble-fingered and dropped my Archos. Of course, like buttered toast, it fell screen side down onto a piece of angle iron in my metal shop and destroyed the screen. Needless to say, I went right to Amazon and got another one, as I’ve become so attached to it I can’t live without it!

I’ll check into having my broken one fixed, as the display itself is fine and it boots up fine. I’ll give it to my wife when it’s fixed…

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 Comments (14)

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Lucas M. Fix “Above Average young Adult” (MI, USA) –

  

I freaking love this device but to make it really shine there are a few things you should do…

At first I was disappointed by the resistive touch screen. It was always giving me incorrect key passes and I couldn’t figure out why. I had been using the plastic cover it came with for about two weeks and I finally took it off. I was a bit worried that I would scratch the screen but so far I have had no problems and as an added bonus when I took the screen protector off the screen became much more responsive and accurate with key passes. So… (TAKE THE SCREEN PROTECTOR OFF) If you have never used a capacitive touch screen before it will take some time to get used to it especially people with larger fingers (no offense) also as a note I suggest you recalibrate the screen after you take the protective cover off.

Suggestions to improve your android experience:
-First get arctools in appslib so you can get access to the android market + If you want to have the most apps to choose from follow these steps (the android market will sometimes not see the device as compatible with certain apps)
MARKET FIX:
This will get you most missing apps from the market, except some “protect market apps” like NYTimes.
Setting–>Manage Applications–>All–>Market (Clear Cache then ‘Force Stop’ — DO NOT clear data)
Setting–>Manage Applications–>All–>Google Services Framework (Clear data then ‘Force Stop’)
REBOOT That is it…

-(VERY IMPORTANT)The stock launcher it comes with is rather bloated and slow and it will give you hang time every time the home or app screen loads- Fix this with the LauncherPro App(free)- There are only three home screens (so choose apps and widgets wisely) but you can also customize the sticky buttons which is a plus.

-Get rid of any unused apps (many have settings to turn on at certain times which eats battery and CPU speed)

-Under settings- Power management- Set to overdrive …you may not need to do this depending on what you use it for (I play online racing games so I usually keep it on) It really doesn’t effect your battery usage that much.

Tangent Suggestions:
-Download Gtunes Music app and GamBoid Lite app (I just love these apps and they are free… nuff said)

-If you are someone who wants to text people but texting bills are to expensive or your parents will not allow it… ie: me …might I suggest google voice. You do need to have a Gmail account! If you do, then you can set up your own number and text people (over wifi connection) and it’s completely FREE!!! (Your number shows up as an actual number on their phone not some email address or server name) if you are really tech savvy you can set up a VOIP and make and receive calls too.

-***If you have a wall charger adapter with a Usb slot, maybe from your old Ipod, I used one from my broken Kodak Easyshare camera, feel free to use it to charge your device. You may want to check the label for variable voltage (It may say something like “switching adapter” or “100-240V”) Just use the Usb cord the archos came with to connect to the adapter. Now it only takes a couple hours at most for my archos to charge.

-Consider buying a blue tooth gps receiver and pairing it with your archos to turn it into an effective GPS

That is all I can think of at the moment… but I’m sure there is more that I’ve missed. Feel free to ask questions.

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