Archos 70b eReader review

Unfortunately due to the weather we weren’t able to test the 70b’s screen under bright sunlight, but under office lighting it was perfectly readable. Viewing angles are fairly narrow, and the glossy finish can reflect light sources depending on how you hold it. The resistive touchscreen also has a distinct grain that ads noise to any image.

It’s also sensitive to orientation, and without a screen lock button, you can find it switches from portrait to landscape when you place the 70b flat on a surface. Also, while the home screen is fixed in portrait mode, some apps only work in landscape, so you find yourself tilting it back and forth.

The 70b doesn’t feel as snappy as some recent tablets, and with a 600MHz processor it’s a bit behind the competition. We noticed lag in most operations, even when turning a page in the ebook reader app. As an ebook reader, it can’t match Amazon’s excellent Kindle with its E Ink screen and huge selection of available books. As a tablet, its resistive touchscreen lets it down and the lack of the Android Market means you don’t have access to the full range of apps.

However, at this price, a jack of all trades such as the 70b makes a lot of sense. If you can’t afford a larger, more powerful tablet, and don’t want to carry a separate ebook reader, the 70b may be just right. However we’d still wait for tablets based on the tablet-specific Honeycomb version of Android to appear before making a decision.