Archos 24

The Archos 24 is not a tablet. It was first advertised as a tablet, given its appearance and functionality compared with tablets with much more muscle power, cheapest-iPod thinks Archos would have more success with the 24 if they promoted as a multi-media MP3 player, which stores like Amazon are now calling it.

Design
When it´s not switched on, the miniature Archos 24 looks more like an MP3 player than the custom tablet, but the pocketable design is ideal for anybody wanting a personal multimedia device with the high-performance qualities of a tablet.

The 3.74-inch thick tablet is primarily plastic but has a strong build with slick black contours and a glossy finish.  The lightweight gadget is easy to hold in one hand and weighing in at just 44 grams is the perfect tool to slip into your pocket for easy-access and can used  when exercising in the gym or riding your bike to work. It doesn´t come with any carry case or protector case accessories, but it would be worth picking up a small pouch of some sort to offer the delicate brushed metal surface a bit of protection.

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The 28 also givers you orientation option so you use it horizontally or vertically which makes it much better for playing games, watching videos and typing, though because of its diminutive size, even when held horizontally, it´s a bit cramped so using the keyboard for typing emails and using online social media such as Facebook is a bit clumsy.  Your best bet is to use a stylus and revert to the old one finger typing you used to do when you first learned how to use a keyboard at school.

The 28 may look a little naked round he edges as all the touch-sensitive control buttons are situated below the screen on the front and the micro.USB and 3.5mm headphone jack is found in the bottom. The one problem with the buttons though is they have no backlight which makes orientation difficult in the dark. There’s also a small mic, but the device is missing a speaker so can only be used for personal use which is not a bad thing. Standard earbuds are included and though they give a decent sound and not much leakage, they´re not the most comfortable listening devices you´ll ever wear.

Display
The front of the device is mostly taken up by a 2.4” screen which is okay for scrolling through your web browser, is acceptable for gaming, but doesn´t do justice when watching films. The accelerometer when playing games is a nice addition and though it gives you more accuracy and response, particular racing games, at times it can be a bit slow to readjust. Having said that there is an option to turn it off within the Settings menu.

The resistive touch-screen is pretty smooth and allows you to scroll through menus and web pages with a swift swipe of the finger and the simple arrangement of the interface is easy-to-use and has been designed to avoid useless and confusing screens.

The display though is made of plastic rather than glass and is more glossy than most which unfortunately gives you glare-back in bright light, so much so in fact you can see more of your surroundings in the reflection than you can the images on the screen.

As for sharpness the 420 x 240-resolution LCD is less impressive than other tablets on the market which is again a downfall when watching videos and slightly dampens your enjoyment when viewing photographs. Even when cranked all the way up, the colouring is a little washy and nowhere near as crisp as you would like them to be. Archos claim the display is high-definition, but we don´t see much evidence of that.

Music and Video
The 24 really comes into its own with music playback and has a good range of audio formats that should keep everybody happy. Archos have also excelled with the music interface by adding a cover flow user interface for sifting through your album collection with ease with the added enjoyment of quality visual effects.

In addition there is also the typical Artist, Songs, Albums and Playlist organization, and scrolling through the long lists is made easy with an alphabetised menu that appears over the scroll bar. Transfer is a hassle –free drag and drop function.

As we explained above video playback doesn´t have a great deal going for it in terms of picture sharpness or the size of the screen, though to be fair, Archos do provide a composite out cable which enables you to transfer video to a larger display such as a TV.

The 24 is also fitted with a standard VGA rear mounted camera, and though it taking photographs with this handy-sized tablet won´t make you look as gormless as it will with bulky, normal-sized tablets, though the layout of the buttons doesn´t make it an easy to hold camera device. The design fault is the button to snap the shot with is on the front of the screen rather than around the edges so you have to put pressure behind the device which causes it to be unstable and can blur your photographs. Setting it the tablet down on a hard surface helps, but then restricts your angle options.

Shooting video footage is equally restrained and mediocre at best, though is fine for shooting some quick footage.

Software

Whilst Archos preloads the 32 with a handful of useful apps, it doesn´t give you access to the Android Market which is a bit restrictive if you want to add other apps although Archos’ have attempted to offset this lack of opportunity by including an AppsLib store as an alternative for acquiring apps. Having said that, the chances are Angry Balls won’t replace your enjoyment of Angry Birds and you’ll notice the difference in app selection immediately. Still at this point AppsLib is better than having no storefront at all.

Despite this the standard apps are the most commonly uses such as eBuddy for the chatterbox, Touiteur for Twitter (we did warn you the imitations will grate a little!), and Racing Thunder Lite for the game addict. In addition the Android 3.1 updates which were made available in August 2011 add more functionality to the device and gives you access to flash videos so you can watch YouTube etc through your web browser.

Battery Life and Performance
The 28 comes with 8GB of memory space which is typical of most media players, and response time for music and video playback is pretty good and loading sites over Wi-Fi is better than you might expect. Gaming is also acceptable and the experience for each of these activities is not to be scoffed at.

In all, there are no real complaints about the performance and with 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor provided plenty of power for music play back whilst surfing the web and allows you to watch videos without it jarring – should you want to bother in the first place. Thankfully, Archos includes a system monitor application for easily killing background processes and apps.

The lithium polymer battery will give you a respectable 11 hours worth of playing time for music, but drops to a measly four hours for video. If you´re also going to surf the web whilst using is as an MP3, you can expect to get between 9 and 10 hours.

Conclusion
At £50, the Archos is excellent value if you´re looking for a device primarily for music. The sound quality is good enough to pass as an MP3 with the added bonus of web capability and built-in Wi-Fi and is cheaper than an iPod Touch or even a Zune HD. For anything else however, the small, glossy screen and poor battery life will only serve to disappoint.