The last few days I've had a chance to work with both the Hannspree 13.3 inch and the Archos Family 2 13.3 inch Android tablets side by side.

The Archos tablet is available at the Adorama web site for $169.99 with free same day shipping. http://www.adorama.com/ARC502382.html The Amazon price for the Hannspree unit is about $280 plus shipping now, although I bought mine a few weeks ago for $199. So, there is over a hundred dollars difference in price for the two at this time.

Both tablet displays are identical in size, 7 by 11.25 inches. The Hannspree tablet weighs 42 ounces while the Archos weighs 46 ounces. I cannot distinguish any difference in the quality of the displays. Both give excellent display of both videos as well as lead sheets. The Hannspree can be adjusted to be a little brighter than the Archos. A Netflix app was loaded into each tablet. The Archos does a good job of video display of Netflix stuff although the speakers do not provide adequate volume. The Hannspree does not work with the Netflix app. It provides sound but no video. Both tablets work fine with YouTube videos.

The Hannspree has a faster processor and is much faster at both booting up and loading apps. After booting and loading software, there is little, if any, difference in performance for song sheets. I did notice that when I created a very large library of over 1,500 songs, the Archos was slower to display the song (about 2 to 3 seconds) directly from the library. The Hannspree was almost instant. That difference was not obvious with a library of about 500 songs. Songs that had been put into Set Lists were displayed almost instantly by both tablets. So in practice I doubt that any of us would notice much difference. Both tablets load subsequent pages of a song instantly. My songs are almost all on a single page. For folks that use songs with several pages, load times would be longer. All of this was done using MobileSheets software with both tablets.

The Hannspree includes Bluetooth support which is important for folks that need to change pages using AirTurn footswitches. The Archos does not include support for Bluetooth. Both tablets include HDMI and dual USB ports. I was able to use the Hannspree USB port for wireless mouse and keyboards as well as a basic optical laser mouse, but was unable to get them to work with the Archos. I suspect that there may be no footswitch support of any kind with the Archos for turning pages. This could be a show stopper for a lot of folks. Am waiting for a reply from Archos tech support re whether the tablet supports a USB mouse. I am comfortable just tapping the display to change pages but know that many people depend on foot switches. I did use USB connections of both tablets with a computer to move files to and from the computer.

The display is the primary user of battery power. To compare battery life, both tablets were set at about 25% of max brightness (which is the level I like for indoor music display). I turned off Wi-Fi (and Bluetooth for the Hannspree) to get the results. A slide show was started with about 200 photos with both tablets and they were run till the battery was exhausted. The Archos lasted 10 hours and 50 minutes. The Hannspree stopped after 5 hours and 20 minutes. An earlier test of the Hannspree gave 3 hours and 30 minutes but that was with a brighter display and Wi-Fi turned on. Display brightness has a major effect on battery life.

Each tablet comes with an A/C adapter for charging the battery as well as for use with external power. Both adapters have a chord length of five feet. The socket for power input is at the top of each tablet in the portrait mode. So, during operation with A/C plugged in, the chord would have to go from the top of the tablet to the location of the adapter brick (plug-in). For me, that means that the plug-in will not quite reach the floor and an extension cord would be needed for power as well as support for the heavy plug-in brick. Something to consider . . .