[Gen9, Gen10 General] jlino83:
The Archos GamePad that was, has gone!

EDIT: The Archos GamePad does not seem to have hardware issues, the speech in fact changed, and there is alpha firmware in house to fix the button problems, that in fact have to be "broken in". It seems that there is in fact an advantage of buying a Chinese made devise in Europe. Although I didn't say I would, I'll eat may hat in peace now...

Also contrary to what the guy from the Archos promo videos says, the

Archo Gamepad is not the only option for emulation on Android

, nor it is the "first ever". JXD, YinLips, etc... all have had for some time products like this. Furthermore, JXD has a product called "GamePad", with the second generation coming out, if I'm not mistaken. I've also noticed the guy does not use the dpad in the videos, always the nubs, excusing himself for "not hitting the right buttons". (The plot thickens!)

For me, the reasons for the well established and documented issues (hardware and software), have no weight right now. What has weight, and astounds me the most, is the

unwillingness to assume a hardware defect or hardware design failure or whatever

, whatever the reason is for the hardware problems, by their part.

I say this in light of the testing that has been done, by the members of this forum, me included, wearing down the buttons on their own devices and seeing some issues improve (not fixing them). We are guys that wont open our devices to look inside, as Archos R&D people can do! I mean,

you don't need to open it just to realise the thing does not work properly

, for hardware reasons! That should be enough for some one well intentioned to assume responsibility, which Archos refuses to do or "comment on".

What I've been advised to do is to ask for a refund, with no additional charge. I'd like better to wait for a product recall + fix + send back, but they run from that question. Even if I generalize and ask what the policy is in their entire product line, I get a "no comment" or silence. As a consumer and a previously satisfied customer, proud owner of a Archos 504, I have to scratch them from my "trust list". If you like games and you're buying this for gaming, android or emulation, understand that this

had potential

but

didn't deliver

, and you have

7 days to get your money back

or keep it as is.

I'm not going to say this is an outrage because..well..because it's not..It's just bad policy and bad customer relations. (Although they are fast to answer, I have to give them credit for that, although what I got was a polite middle finger + a smile!) The other companies that build Android devices like this also have issues with controls. In fact is kind of funny because Archos did the nubs well, which none of the others have, and screwed up the apparently easier d-pad. The response to the issues is the same from the Chinese companies:

what you see is what you get, take it or leave it

. So you get no added value for buying from a European company, for a product made in china, just a bump in the price tag.

Just to finish my rant..props to the original Nintendo GameBoy hardware developers for the incredible job on the d-pad, you guys did it well before it was cool..again...cool again.