Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
When this thing first arrived I had some uncomfortable moments because the screen was not calibrated. So the thing just didn't work. It was just freaking out, scrambling from one uncontrolled page to the next. It prevented me from properly selecting the initial settings. It was touch and go there for a while. I attempted to calibrate the screen, but the calibration failed. For about 10 minutes the thing was a brick, and I nearly returned it. But I owned the Archos 70, so I knew how to power it off. Once I managed to get it up and running again the calibration succeeded, and we were off to the races. The Archos 101 G9 16Gb responds quickly to touch. It will surf the web like a PC. HD youTube videos play smoothly. They fast-forward and rewind in real time. It spends less time buffering than my PC. Websites look huge. The screen is bright. If you are buying it to surf the web, I recommend this device without reservation. I bought this mostly as a media player. I attempted to run H.264 videos that I had stored on my computer. There was a glitch. Every couple of seconds the thing would fast forward for two or three frames. The audio was not in sync. But in fairness I had not yet figured out how to update from Android 3.1 to Android 3.2, and I do not know if that was a part of the problem. I downloaded the same videos in WMV HIGH, and they ran like a champ. So I went and downloaded all of the H.264 videos in WMV High. It took a couple of hours, but the results were awesome. The audio is barely adequate. A single speaker on the back of the unit. If you have the unit on a flat surface, it will muffle the sound somewhat. If you raise it up, hold it in your hand, or use the kickstand, the sound is greatly improved. But you can't get around the fact that there is only one speaker. If you are looking for stereo sound, you'll have to use the headphone jack. I haven't tried that yet, and I'm not likely to do so anytime soon. The unit is solidly built. It is large, and you want to be careful how you hold it. It's just heavy enough that you are probably going to want to put it down when you are using the virtual keyboard. I haven't dropped it yet, but I can see how I could. The kickstand is solid, snaps right in place, and does not wobble in the slightest. The viewing angles are significantly improved over the Archos 70. However, if you view the picture from enough of an angle there is going to be some bleaching. If find myself setting it on the table with the kickstand down when watching videos. In that position the colors are excellent. This device can do all sorts of things that I will never have any interested in attempting. It comes with a version a program called Movie Maker. I don't know anything about it, but aparently you can use this thing to edit your videos. I have not attempted to use the camera. The battery life is pretty darn good. I wanted to really drain the battery before I recharged it, and I found myself waiting and waiting for it to run down. The manufacturer claims that it will run video for 7 hours. I would say at least that, maybe longer. Surfing the web the battery life is significantly longer. This thing will definitely see you through even the longest trip. Overall, I am very satisfied with the Archos 101 G9 16gb. I plan to expand the memory with a Micro SD card, as soon as I figure out exactly which kind to buy. Unfortunately, the literature included with the device does not make that totally clear, so some research is in order. It looks like you can expand the memory by 32GB for about $35.00, which seems like a no-brainer.

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