i've been 'almost' a fan of Archos for years, they have a lot of good ideas which always are just short of good. Everything they make could be better and i keep hoping their next product will actually tick all the boxes,... which is why i've never bought one.

This is a classic example of Archos, they should've used a 1.6Ghz dual core but they use a 1.2. They should've used 'capacative multi touch' but they used 'resistive single touch' and so on.

a frined of mine bought one of their portable players, it's ok, but it can't play AC3

i think the problem is their designers are always 2 years behind everyone else (including their customers)

- it's like they always come 4th

The archos 9 is really an answer to the iPad, and some things like boot up time dont matter as an ipad and archos 9 should be put into sleep mode rather than shut down when not in use which results in 2 weeks standby time and instant startup. As the scree is <720p Home Premiuim for the 'real' tablet features and better onscreen keyboard and am very happy with the device. I do recomemnd not multitasking the less you have open of course the faster and longer it will run, but playing music while surfing the web with a chat program open is no problem at all for the device.
The touchscreen is actually internlly multitouch which means it can ignore a palm for comfortable pen use, feel much like pen and paper with palm resting on part of the screen and writing inn Windows Journal. I would recommend this over iPad for any student because of the stylus input for easy notetaking. I am a software developer and im actually pushing for a Netbook App Store, where apps will all be optimized for 1ghz devices which will help the device run smoother as ipad does. Google Chrome is the browser that needs to be used as Internet Explorer is actually slow even on a dual core desktop chip. Speaking of dual core, the 1.2ghz processors hyperthreading registers it as dual core to the OS which makes active app be extremely responsive even in high load.

Please stop weaning and do a reality check.

1) is a netbook in a different format (that means its is slow as all netbook)
2) has more options than a netbook (at least
3) costs less than 500$
4) Ipad cost the same but has 1/20 of Archos 9 potential
5) mayor problem is the OS
6) Is not APPLE so.... BASH

The real problem is Archos. Great idea but let a real quality company produce this. And it needs Microsoft One Note if you ever used One Note you know how incredible it is.

Second I would jump on a device like this if there were a camera on the back. Would certainly replace the tablet PC and be great for meetings.

The built in keyboard is just for use when your away from being able to dock it and use a real keyboard. I dont believe it was designed to be the sole interface. They even show you the dock and keyboard on thier website.

If all your reviews have that category, I'll feel a fool for mentioning it.

What you didn't (ahem) touch on is use of the stylus: how was that for you? Vicious and stabby?

In my opinion, all Qwerty on-screen keyboards stink, but not as bad as a manual typewriter. Maybe I have weak fingers. I do have RSI now and have done a lot on tablet computers with software called Fitaly - there are others.

You also may have speech recognition in there. But I suspect the processor doesn't have the power to do well at a lot of things.

Or you can carry a separate keyboard, I'm sure - even netbook-sized.

Who would buy this? You can quite quickly see that it's a total piece of crap. Anything without a capacitive screen is obsolete and unuseable nowadays...