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Archos 9 PC Tablet Delayed

Paul Lilly — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:00:20 -0600

Whoever is the first to market with a next-gen handheld tablet will have accomplished what's becoming a tremendous feat: shipping the freaking thing. Michael Arrington insists that his CrunchPad hasn't entered the realm of vaporware, and Apple still continues to deny the existence of its own tablet, which the most recent rumor says will ship sometime in the second half of 2010.

And then there's the Archos 9 PC Tablet, which went up for order on October 22nd, but is still a few weeks away from shipping, SlashGear reports. If you plan on picking one up at retail, expect to wait even longer. According to Archos, the 8.9-inch Windows 7 UMPC won't arrive in stores until sometime in the first quarter of 2010.

Archos didn't say what's causing the delay, and it will be interesting to see how the pushed-back launch affects sales. By the time the tablet ships, Intel will be churning out next-gen Atom chips, making the Archos' 1.1GHz Atom Z515 even more unappealing.

Image Credit: Archos

FCC Reveals Details About Archos' Android Tablets

Paul Lilly — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 15:48:35 -0500

Archos might not be talking up its upcoming media tablets, but that's okay because the FCC has given us a sneak peek of the spec sheets and an early look at the devices themselves.

Revealed in FCC documents, the Archos A5S and A5H bear resemblance to the Archos 5 Internet media tablet only with a white exterior. The A5H also looks like it contains both a microSD slot and microUSB port.

According to the FCC's testing report, both devices boast 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, FM transmitter, and FM receiver. What isn't known is whether or not either tablet will come ready for 3G connectivity, though it would seem a silly oversight if neither one did.

FCC Filing

Image Credit: FCC

Archos 9 PC Tablet Comes to the U.S.

Paul Lilly — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:09:02 -0500

Already announced in Europe last month, Archos is bringing its new Archos 9 PC Tablet to the U.S. market. The ultraportable tablet weighs less than 22.29 ounces and measures just 0.63-inches thick.

On the hardware front, the Archos 9 boasts a full touch-sensitive 9-inch screen, an Intel Atom Z515 processor (1.2GHz, 512KB cache, 400MHz frontside bus), 1GB of RAM, up to 120GB of storage, 1.3MP webcam, and an optical track-point mouse.

On the software side of things, the new tablet will come pre-loaded with Microsoft's upcoming Windows 7 OS. It will also include Microsoft Office and a host of other apps, such as "Web TV & Radio, video conference, antivirus, parental control, photos and movies edition applications, and more."

The Archos 9 PC Tablet will go on sale sometime this fall for an as yet undetermined price.

Image Credit: Archos

Archos the Latest in Long Line of Netbook Contenders

Paul Lilly — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 11:41:01 -0600

If you've blinked, chances are somebody has released a new netbook. This time that somebody is Archos, which doesn't come as much of a surprise, both because it's been rumored the media tablet maker would enter the netbook market and, well, who isn't these days?

Archos made its netbook splash at CES unveiling what it's calling the "Archos 10." As the name suggests, the new netbook comes with a 10.2-inch display. Other familiar specs include an Intel Atom 1.6GHz processor, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, 3 USB 2.0 ports, 1.3MP webam, 4-in-1 media card reader, Windows XP, and a 3-cell battery. Sound familiar? Not only has Archo stayed with what's become standard fare, but the Archos 10 is essentially a rebranded Hasee MJ125, according to Gizmodo.

Oops, we blinked - who's next?

Image Credit: Gizmodo

Archos Readies Three Internet Media Tablets

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:07:45 -0500

Archos has divulged details of three new Internet Media Tablets, Archos 5, Archos 5G and Archos 7. The Archos IMTs run on the TI ARM Cortex microprocessor and offer WiFi and 3.5G HSDPA connectivity. Only the Archos 5G has inbuilt 3.5G connectivity and users will have to buy additional plug-ins for using 3.5G on other two tablets.

The Archos internet tablets offers 5 to 7 inch touch-screens and up to 320GB of storage. There are a lot of plug-ins and accessories like the high-definition video plug-in that offers 720p video playback. Throw in the DVR peripheral, the Archos turns into a digital video recorder and, additionally, it lets users browse the internet on their TV using a remote control. The DVR accessory even lets users beam live TV to a wide gamut of devices using WiFi – a portable media center of sorts.

The Archos 5 goes on sale sometime in September and will be available in three versions, 60GB ($349.99), 120GB (399.99) and 250GB ($449.99). The Archos 7 and Archos 5G internet tablets will be available in October and early 2009 respectively.

Archos 605 WiFi

Michael Brown — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:51:39 -0600

The Archos 604 has been one of our favorite digital media players since its introduction late last year. Our opinion of the new Archos 605 WiFi—which adds a high-resolution touch screen and wireless networking capabilities—isn’t as lofty.

Although the 605 offers a screen with the same dimensions as the 604 (4.3 inches, 16:9 aspect ratio), we fully expected its enhanced resolution (800x480 pixels compared to 480x272) to knock our socks off. After repeated viewings of slightly washed out digital photos and videos, our metatarsals remain firmly ensconced in argyle.

The touch screen works great—it’s a much easier means of navigating the player’s menus than the column of buttons on the right side of the device—so we can overlook the need to use a stylus. But if the touch screen is to blame for the screen’s vaguely hazy look, the trade-off isn’t worth it.

The same goes for the 605’s wireless-networking capabilities, which we assume are responsible for causing the new player to burn through a battery charge even faster than its off-line predecessor. We got less than four hours of play time while watching videos and making moderate use of the wireless network feature (despite the fact that the player drops its connection after just a few minutes of inactivity in order to go into battery-conservation mode).

Actually, the wireless feature isn’t terribly useful unless you also purchase a special version of Opera, which adds a full 10 percent to the purchase price. Right. When’s the last time you contemplated buying a web browser? That and the connectivity issue aside, Opera proved to be a solid fit for the Archos player. We had a good experience visiting many of our favorite sites without having to rely on web pages that were optimized for use with portable devices.

We’re also not impressed with the 605’s stingy storage capacity (30GB, just like the 604) and Archos’s insistence on using a proprietary USB cable (they tell us this is a necessary evil, but that doesn’t make it any less of a pain in the caboose).