Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC – 16GB (Bronze)

Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC Features

One of the early promises of Android was that it would democratise the smartphone and tablets, bringing powerful functionality to even the lowest price points. Introducing the ARCHOS Elements range that combines both performance and affordability with full access to Google Play and the full range of Google apps. The Archos 97 Carbon is not the cheapest Android tablet PC on the market, but at under $300 it sits firmly in budget tablets of the market.

The ARCHOS 97 carbon sports a 9.7-inch display, which is a decent screen. The screen responds well enough to swipes and taps, and has good viewing angles, so you can share you screen with friends, thanks to the IPS technology. It is as sharp as its 1024 x 768 pixels will allow, meaning that your videos and photos will always look brilliant and clear. It is more than good enough.

The styling of the tablet is cut above most budget offerings. The brushed aluminum casing feels better than the cheap plastic you might have been expecting, making the ARCHOS 97 carbon look slim and stylish. It is thin and light and the entire package comes in at just 11.5 mm (0.45’-inch) thick and weighing only 620g (21.8 oz). The use of capacitive rather than physical buttons helps keep it tidy.

The great first impressions are matched in use. The ARCHOS 97 Carbon has a powerful 1GHz processor, backed by 1GB of RAM, which between them are able to handle all common tasks. It can decode full 1080p HD videos, and because it is an ARCHOS device this tablet supports great format compatibility for your videos through the video player app.

The 2MP camera lacks a flash and produces very mediocre output. There is a 0.3MP front facing camera which is useful for video calling via Google+. Having both front and back cameras make the ARCHOS 97 Carbon a good tablet for video calling and taking pictures.

There is a generous 16GB of internal flash memory, you can add more storage via a microSD slot and a USB flash drive in its full-sized USB host port. Additionally, ARCHOS also adds a mini HDMI port for connecting your ARCHOS 97 Carbon to your HDTV, enabling you to experience the complete Android interface on your big TV. It is a great pleasure to watch videos and share your gaming session on the big screen. However, you have to provide your own cable, if you want to make use of this function.

The ARCHOS 97 carbon runs Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich which is nicely designed and optimized for tablets, it gives you a full web experience for on-the-go web browsing, communication and applications.

Best of all, ARCHOS gives you a full access to Google Play on the ARCHOS 97 carbon, you can access and enjoy a full suite of over 600,000 apps and games. On top of this, you can download Flash application from Google Play, with full Flash 11 support you can enjoy the great web browsing including Flash videos anytime on your ARCHOS 97 carbon. This is a huge plus point. ARCHOS has designed YouTube app on this device as well, so your favourite videos are just a few taps away.

The full suite of Google mobile apps have been designed to work best on Android devices, and now they are available on the ARCHOS 97 Carbon. You can enjoy Google products including Gmail, Google Talk and Google+ (with multi-user video calling) for so, planning a trip with Google Maps or keep your stuff in one place on the cloud with Google Drive.

There is OfficeSuite Viewer for reading office documents on your ARCHOS 97 Carbon, but not editing Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. A demo of World of Goo and Angry Birds are also installed, following the news updates and customized feeds with News Republic and Brief Me.

The battery is really a highlight of the Archos 97 Carbon. ARCHOS claims that battery can deliver up to 8 hours of video playback and 20 hours of music playback.

Overall, the ARCHOS 97 Carbon is well designed, has nice specs and software, and reaches a level of quality at an affordable price. It lacks a killer feature but this tablet is a pretty solid example of an affordable tablet. Full access to the Google Play store, gives you a great Android experience. At this price point, you get a good screen, 16GB of built-in storage and memory expansion via a microSD card slot and a USB flash drive, dual cameras, HDMI output, and more. It is highly recommended and worth buying.

Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC: Customer Reviews

Pros:

The IPS display delivers wide viewing angles, so you have a respectable screen, especially compared to Archos’ past tablets.

The 97 Carbon’s display is enjoyable to look at, the resolution is still high enough to provide a more-than-adequate visual experience. It is comfortable to read when holding the tablet in landscape mode. In portrait mode, you will have to zoom.

This is certainly not one of the fastest tablets in the industry for web browsing, whether it is on the default browser or on a third-party app like Chrome, Dolphin HD or Firefox. However, the content can be well-displayed and legible. It’s more or less the same experience as on the first-generation of iPad (featuring the same IPS display with 1024 x 768 resolution).

The tablet gives exactly the same performance when hooked up to a TV via HDMI.

The tablet is compatible with photo formats including JPEG, BMP, GIF, PNG and music formats including MP3, WAV, FLAC, OGG, APE.

The external USB 2.0 works well with thumb drives or external hard drive and have access to it.

Cons:

The 97 Carbon offers a limited number of file formats for video playback including MPEG-4, H.264, AVF, MP4, FLV and MKV and AVI. In case, you want to watch videos in other formats, you will have to download a third-party app.

The 97 Carbon has no brightness sensor, so it does not automatically adjust the backlighting to fit the light in the room.

The speakers are not loud enough, but you can fix this by using headphones.

The battery drains fast for heavy use.

Conclusion:

Over all, if you are looking for an affordable and portable Android tablet with a good screen for reading, this will be your product. If you are looking for a speedy and powerful tablet, you have to look for other better options. As a tablet that is easy to hold and read with some good extra features that you can live with for a year, the Archos 97 Carbon might fit your needs.

Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC Specifications

Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC Images

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Disclaimer Notice: All photography is owned or licensed by Archos.

Archos 97 Carbon 9.7-Inch Android Tablet PC is now available on Amazon.

Date first available: July 27, 2012
Retail Price:
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