ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD quick review – part 1 introduction

Part 1: Introduction Part 2: Performance and comparison with Onda V972 tablet

The ARCHOS Titanium product line was one of main products on the manufacturer’s booth at CES 2013 last week. Featuring a Rockchip RK3066 ARM Cortex A9 CPU running at 1.6 GHz , 1 GB of RAM, an 9.7 HD (2048×1536 resolution) IPS screen , dual cameras, the 97 Titanium HD specifications are missing an HDMI output and Bluetooth connections. The ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD has full Google Play experience with Google certification and is available right now at a RRP of 249€ / $249 / £199.
On paper, having a tablet with 2048×1536 pixels HD resolution is great, the extra pixels are perfect for smooth display in ebook, web pages or movies. We’ll see later in this review that the reality is totally different on the Titanium and it does not make the HD experience such a pleasure.

ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD specifications

Operating System	Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean)
CPU	dual-core ARM Cortex A9 Rockchip RK3066 CPU running at 1.6 Ghz Integrated GPU: quad-core Mali 400
Flash Storage Memory	Capacity 8 Gb Tested speed, on our test device: Read: 11 101 kB/s Write: 4 509 kB/s Class 4 equivalent
System Memory	1024 Mb
Additional storage	Micro SD slot (SDHC compatible)
Display	9.7 inches IPS screen, resolution 2048×1536 pixels (retina like) Dual mode of display: HD mode: 2048×1536 and normal mode: 1600×1200 capacitive 10 points multi-touch screen
Bluetooth	No
Wifi	802.11 b/g/n
Gravity Sensor	Yes
Camera	2Mpixels (front facing) 5Mpixels with autofocus (back facing)
GPS	No
HDMI	No
Interfaces	Micro USB slave USB host 2.0: Mass Storage Class (MSC) MicroSD slot
Battery life	Video playing test: around 6 hours video play on our test device. (no Wi-FI, brightness to 50%, display mode in HD Bick Buck Bunny 720p continuous video play)
Android Market / Google Play	Yes (the device is said to be Google Certified, but isn’t actually listed in Google Play Supported Devices)
Kickstand	No
Dimensions	240 mm x 184 mm x 9 mm (9.4’’ x 7.2’’ x 0.35’’)
Weight	626 g (22.08 oz)

ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD tablet design

Arnova 9 G3 and ARCHOS 97 Carbon heritage

The Titanium case design shares a lot with its ancestors, the ARCHOS 97 Carbon and Arnova 9 G3, some rearrangements have been made on the case to adapt the Titanium specific features (no HDMI port, higher resolution back camera)

Packaging

The ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD packaging is similar to other Archos/Arnova products, the box contains:
– an ARCHOS 97 Titanium HD tablet
– an USB cable (micro USB format)
– a power charger with three power sockets (UK, EU, US), input 100-240V, outputs 9V 2.5A with a single paper document explain how to use the plugs
charging the tablet thru the micro/USB connector does not work, as the tablet has higher power requirements
– 3 booklets that include: a user guide, legal and safety Notices and a “need help” paper

Tablet case, buttons and connectors

The top of the tablet offers the 3 hardware buttons for Power and Volume -/+

The right side of the tablet holds the connectors, with, from the top to bottom: micro USB connector, audio 3.5mm jack connector, micro sdcard slot, power socket, microphone hole, power LED (dual color red/green) and reset pinhole.

The microSD flash card is easy to insert and extract, when a card is inside, it fits well in the socket and does not overlap like in previous ARCHOS Carbon model.

The back of the tablet case is made of aluminium metal, this material feels good and it does not catch fingerprints.

The rear camera has a 5 Mpixels resolution, with an ARCHOS style enclosure in the chassis 🙂

The audio performs relatively well on the 97 Titanium, with dual speakers for a full stereo sound. We just regret that the speakers are located at the back of the device, so their sound is attenuated, especially when the tablet rests on its back.

Please visit us soon for the next parts of this review.
Don’t forget to check our Youtube channel where we are publishing ARCHOS Titanium videos.