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Hello and welcome to my Review of the new 7" Archos GamePad handheld console,  I've had the Archos GamePad since Christmas day and have been using it continually since, expelling all the power from start to finish (allowing natural discharge). recharging it etc.. there where a set of updates, one which address the control assignment, and is better for it , now firstly..all these patches, I have not idea what people are talking about, I have not had any from either Archos or the Play Store, so I wish someone would enlighten me what they are? Rogue mentioned a Battery power one, ,

well I'll break it down for you in power consumption.

GamePad 100% power (No wifi) 4-4:30hrs , can also suffer due to CPU / GPU game intensive rendering/ frame rate slants it to about 3:30hrs-4hrs
Video Playback about 1hr-2:30hrs more than enough to watch a whole film and still have a play in-between.

GamePad 100% power (wifi) 2-3hrs , can also suffer due to CPU / GPU game intensive rendering/ frame rate slants it to about 2hrs-2:30hrs
Video Playback about 1hr-2hrs again, very good.

Android Software based on speed of application and rendering that comes pre-installed

on board Email  8/10
Facebook 7/10
on board web browser 8/10
Video Player 7/10
Music playback 10/10
Audio Mic 8/10
Mapping Tool (Touch Screen Assignment) 9/10 but has flaws will explain shortly

it has all the usual suspects in it's apps directory, calendar , calculator etc..
I have a bunch of recommendations to improves on all of the above regarding 3rd party software that great improves the Archos Gampad Experience or any Android device for that matter.

booting and shutting down speeds of the device..

Boot up time 29-36 seconds
Shut down time 3-8 seconds
Touch screen response very fast, and have no problems, or lag
basing on system clean up and clearing memory , it's 95% stable on what ever your using at the time.

now, the nitty gritty..:), it has a 1.3mega pixel pin camera in front above the 7.8" screen (yes 7.8" screen), which as expected it was not so good, functional at best, I did however download some 3rd party Camera software and proved it could be improved, so from rubbish to half rubbish now 🙂

Emulations and what it means to you..

all I can say is this is bloody fantastic, down to the fact that allot of top emulators work brilliantly under Android as most of you know, I know allot about these apps, and always are trying to tune them to work at near 90 to 95% , so it's not a case of simply hoping for the best and all that, I actually really do look under the hood and have to say, I love Android simply for this opportunity to play classic and vintage games on a modern device without any hassles, so first up, as expected of me 🙁 ) which I think makes the games look extra smart, games that use 3D hardware ( some DSP or FX chipset games) I found either didn't work at all or where slowed because of GPU or CPU pressure, as the authors haven't sorted out these problems in the recent release I have tested, but all in all the classics I loved worked perfectly on it, so with the proper know how on where things are and how to get them, you've got a classic console inside your Gamepad, so is that a GamePad in your pocket or are you just happy to see me :(, but sound was great on this , graphics where all intact, I haven't had a chance to see if it played Sega CD or 32x Games yet, so when I do I'll let you all know how that goes, again loved having a blast of SOR on the 7"8..great music and arcade action in your hand, again a must have emu for the GamePad  9/10

PC Engine Emulation :
Emulator used : PCE.emu
cost : €3.49 / £1.99

Now if your like me and love your console, even though you never own them before, again this is another one of those console, which you just have to check out, and when I first discovered the PC Engine , back in 1996 on my first PC, I was blown away by this 8-bit console was delivering Arcade quality graphics, using lots of colours and fast scrolling and classic shootem'ups and near perfect Arcade ports of all the classic arcade games from the late 80's, wwll PCE.Emu, is the best your gonna get, the Mapping tool assigned automatically, this is a joy to play , all games ran at near 100% , sounds where spot on, graphics, perfect and yes finally, Scan-Line integration , better CRT scan-line, which makes it more ortentic to play, like playing it on a television.. 10/10

NEO GEO Emulation :
Emulator used : NEO.emu
cost : €3.49 / £1.99

OMG, What I can't say about this emulator is not worth mentioning, no slow down at any time, full speed, no lag, nothing, sound was perfect, it's the best NEO-GEO emulator ever to be created for Android, it took on everything I threw at it, all games worked brilliantly , Metal Slug never looked so handsome on a little screen. 10/10

Multi-Arcade Emulation :
Emulator used : Mame4All
cost : Free

Well if you've never attempted arcade emulation on your hand held / phone device before, maybe this is due to one or two factors, one, the games will be too slow to play, secondly, all the on screen touch controls will get in the way and it will ruin the experience, well, your right on one of them, the second one, Mame was simply a joy to play on the GamePad, no hands or fingers blocking the action, control where what they were suppose to be, this is a Arcade in your pocket, and nearly worth buying the Gamepad alone, along with the Neo-Geo one. 9/10

N64 Emulation :
Emulator used : Mupen64 Plus
cost : Free

For Me, when the N64 came out, my favoritism of Nintendo died with it, with the SNes been so good, how could they expect or think this would be better or next gen?..in other words, I hated the N64 and it's blur-o-Vision Vaseline graphics, I thought to myself I'm gonna hate this, but it's cool to have it in there none the less, firstly this emulator is buggy as hell, although it has GPlx drivers and stuff, nearly every games that involved textured 3D or even gourad shading, refuse to display properly and simply crashed it to begin, it seems all these n64 emus cater for is a perfect emulation of Super Mario 64 and that's it, but in saying that, stuff that did work, worked very well, it simply wasn't the top end games, maybe the games I used where bugged out, but I doubt it, all the 2d games worked great like bust-a-move, and Tetris, and ohh yeah..Super Mario 64.  5/10

GBA Emulation :
Emulator used : Tiger GBA
cost : Free

well you have to laugh  when a hand held impersonates a hand held 🙂

Now The Bad 🙂

Greyfox™