Archos Gamepad - £52 at Tesco now!!

[Dos_Box]

We're bit gutted as we have just ordered the Gamepad 2 for our sons birthday next month, but this is an utter bargain tbh:

 

 

 

If you want something that will game in style on th emove and run emulators for pretty much everything retro-gaming then this is the device for you!

Yes, the specs are getting on slightly, but for this price you can forgive that, and IIRC it's now on Android 4.2

 

[TABLE=width: 898]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]Display[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• 7’’: 1024x600 capacitive 5 points multitouch screen[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Application Framework[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]Processor[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• ARM CORTEX™ dual-core A9 @ 1.6GHz

• GPU quad-core Mali 400 MP

• 3D OpenGL (ES 2.0)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Capacity[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• Flash Memory: 8GB* + microSD Slot (SDHC compatible up to 64GB)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]RAM[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• 1GB RAM[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Video playback¹[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• H.264 HD (up to 1080p@30 fps)

• MPEG-4² HD (up to 1080p@30 fps)

• With the above codecs, the device can play video files with the following extensions: AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, MPG, PS, TS, MKV, FLV[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]Audio Playback¹[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• MP3

• WAV (PCM/ADPCM)

• AAC³, AAC+ 5.1³

• OGG Vorbis

• FLAC[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Photo viewer⁴[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]Webcam[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• Front camera[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Interfaces[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• USB 2.0: Mobile Transfer Protocol (MTP)

• microSD (SDHC compatible)

• mini HDMI output6(Mini HDMI / HDMI cable sold separately)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%, bgcolor: #efefef]Wireless technologies[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%, bgcolor: #efefef]• Wi-Fi[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD=class: specs_tit, width: 20%]Miscellaneous[/TD]

[TD=class: specs_txt, width: 80%]• Built-in speaker

• G-sensor

• Built-in Microphone[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[Bananas]

£42 if you use a new email address and use a £10 off £50 spend that are always around

[Arthur]

£42 is quite a good price, but the first gen. GamePad didn't get particularly good reviews.

 

Archos GamePad review « EuroGamer

 

Sadly, Archos' execution is depressingly slapdash, and very little care has been taken when it comes to the design of the much-hyped physical controls. It's a moot point, however; even if the interface been perfect, that wouldn't have totally overcome the other significant issues which impact the GamePad's performance. The battery life is terrible, the screen poor and the software buggy and frustrating to use on a regular basis. To make matters worse, the system is incompatible with many key Android games, robbing the product of its USP.

[Bananas]

I'd like to know what they mean by incompatible with many key Android games? Sounds like rubbish to me the specs are similar to many Android tablets so can't be an architecture problem.

 

Anyway bet there's a good custom rom for it now, seriously tempted for £42

[Arthur]

I'd like to know what they mean by incompatible with many key Android games? Sounds like rubbish to me

This is the sort of thing EuroGamer mean by incompatible...

 

 

You go to the Play Store, find an app or game you want to download and then discover the developer has set arbitrary restrictions preventing it from being installed on your Android device. It's happened to me on numerous occasions on various Nexus tablets.

 

If you look at GamePad reviews on the Internet you will see similar complaints that match EuroGamer's experience.

 

Edited April 19, 2014 by Arthur

[Bananas]

Why has no one taken that up with the game devs then, the hardware looks fine and should run it fine.

 

Why is the reviewer not slagging off "insert lazy Dev here" and blaming the hardware manufacturer though.

 

I've seen it before but only with the utterly useless Sky app that they lock down apart from the devices listed. From specs listed there's no reason why it wouldn't play whatever title though.

 

All theore reason to custom rom it or even just install it on another device and then nick the install file then install on the Archos by hand, not ideal but bet it'd work