Poor man's iPad...

prb007

Thinking of getting this....
http://www.memorybits.co.uk/shop/internettablets/archos-70b-4gb-androidbased-ereader-and-portable-ref-501675/20214

for my daughter for her 8th Birthday, in a couple of weeks.
She's fairly bright for her age and navigates her way around her big brothers'
netbook and can handle an NDS as well as any kid (or could before she lost it!).
Not willing to shell out £4-500 for an iPad and hesitant to order one of the ePad-type
iPad copies from HK or China, so is the Archos a viable alternative or are there others out there for less than 200 notes?

Answers on a postcard please....

EKIMIKE

Hmm tough one. I've had a few Archos media players over the years and they always have some particularly innovative features that are really great but it's always lumped in with stuff that is simply rubbish or does not work very well. They're a frustrating company.

If they did the simple stuff better and then maintained the innovative streak then they would be excellent. They're almost like the opposite to Apple who copy everyone else's good idea's but do the simple stuff well. i.e. you end up with a boring Apple product but it works really well (if you disagree with that then check out the kind of stuff Archos have come with over the years!).

Unless they're miraculously got their act together in the last 2/3 years then i'd avoid giving an Archos product to an 8 year old. Most adults can't work their way round them. I once had an interview at a company who provided the tech support for Archos product bought on Amazon, as well as all Amazon's other gadgety stuff and the majority of their callers had bought an Archos product.

The Archos will do far, far more than the Apple equiv. will ever do but just don't expect it to be particularly intuitive or aesthetically pleasing.

Sorry about the massive postcard

EKE_38BPM

If an adult can't figure it out, it sounds about perfect for an eight year old. Kids are so much better with technology than adults.

finchy

She's 8.

She'll drop it.

It'll break.

ALaPlage

Buy her a bike

Much healthier.

My 8yr old niece was bought a second hand laptop off ebay to get her going in the techie world. Cost less than £200 for a 15" Acer laptop with dual core processor and 2mb ram. 160 gb hard drive. My sister set it up with parental controls for internet access and governs the time she is allowed to use it online. Other than that she can play games on it which in the main are learning type games although she has some arcade classics which I have had great fun playing on when visiting

May be an option.

Sirrus_Lee

Something like this?

http://www.maplin.co.uk/slate-8-inch-an ... =Frontpage

Maplins do a few different ones.

hstiles

Samsung Galaxy Tablet? Slightly over your budget at around £240, but a lot more versatile.

prb007

Cheers for the responses - I've been busy for a couple of days and haven't been able to check out your replies..

in no particular order...
She already has a bike, and it should last her until Xmas, barring any growth spurts
I know what you mean about Archos kit - I've heard similar critique of their stuff before - dodgy apps, iffy aftermarket add-ons, ropey support etc.
The Maplin 'Slate' looks an option, tho' - reasonable for £100, a British-based company, so no waiting 5 weeks for DealExtreme or PriceAngels 'ePads' to turn up in bits from HK!

she lost her NDS a couple of weeks back and didn't seem that bothered in getting another, just thought she might like something different from a 'games console' and we already have two laptops in the house (well one laptop and a netbook - both Acer, btw).

Kids do pick up gadgetry faster than us, definitely (well faster than me, anyway), so that 8" tablet looks favourite at the moment and yes, I'm sure she'll drop it at some point - I'll have to see about getting a leather or silicon sleeve for it, for protection, though I'm not sure if the touch-screen will be jam and yoghurt resistant :shock:

skyd0g

this:

prb007

she has several of those, thanks :roll:

prb007

Sirrus_Lee... went for the Maplins tablet that you suggested - cheers for that.
Also, as I was a 1st time customer, when I registered, I got a £3 voucher which
I used - bonus

Will post when it arrives on its' merits/downfalls!

peter101cycle

prb007 wrote:

Sirrus_Lee... went for the Maplins tablet that you suggested - cheers for that.
Also, as I was a 1st time customer, when I registered, I got a £3 voucher which
I used - bonus

Will post when it arrives on its' merits/downfalls!

Hmm, outdated OS version and the battery is unlikely to last long.
If it does not suit, return and seek out an Advent Vega for under £200, especially on eBay.

Post written on my Asus Transformer and been using Android devices for 2 years now.

mudcow007

i have had a few of the android tablets like this

they are pretty good

Ollieda

There was a report in the times yesterday about an indian billionaire designing a £20 ipad for the masses.

Unfortuantly you have to subscribe to read the times online now - http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/asia/article3060847.ece

Can't find other articles on the net about it that aren't direct links to the times site (not that I've had a major search though)

EKE_38BPM

Ollieda wrote:

There was a report in the times yesterday about an indian billionaire designing a £20 ipad for the masses.

Unfortuantly you have to subscribe to read the times online now -

Cut and paste?

Ollieda

I don't subscribe either, I still buy the physical paper from the shop - apparently I haven't joined the modern age yet.

Unfortuantly I left the paper on the train after having read it.

Basically, it's a rich guy from india (although i think he now lives in belgium or something like that) and he's planning on producing a tablet PC (prototype done already) that can be sold at £20 - intention to aim for children / education first but I'm sure will be opening up to the wider market.

Claims some new nano-tech allows it to be made to the same level of quality just much cheaper