Archos Announces Android Smartphone Tablet

Author	Gordon Kelly
Published	10th Feb 2009

Archos Announces Android Smartphone Tablet

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It's only Tuesday and already this week just couldn't get any busier...

So naturally Archos thought it would be nice to follow news of *deep breath* the:

The Antipodean merger of 3 and Vodafone
The launch of the UK's cheapest UK mobile phone tariff
The mooted Pioneer HDTV sector exit
LG's new flagship Arena mobile phone
Samsung's new flagship Tocco Ultra Edition handset
Nokia's high end E75 leak
The Kindle 2 launch
Google eBook plan to beat the Kindle 2
FaceBook's plan to go after Twitter
Chrome getting extensions just as everyone had prayed for
The long awaited Google Sync being brought to the iPhone and Windows Mobile

Yes, thanks Archos for also choosing to announce possibly the most important product in your history: a hybrid mobile phone

Unnamed but described as an 'ultra-thin Internet Media Tablet' (IMT) based on Android and incorporating mobile phone functionality, I find my interest peaked (despite my battered fingers). Now it most likely will look something like its existing players (pictured) but while we have no certain idea over its exterior appearance, we do learn a number of specifics about the internals (list time again):

PC-like Internet experience enhanced by a high-resolution 5" screen and full-width page viewing
Adobe Flash™ and Flash Video™ support, full screen
Access whenever and wherever to TV, movies, photos, music and games
Uncompromised TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback, all formats
Hundreds of hours of video storage, up to 500 GB
Innovative design: compact 10-mm ultra-thin tablet
Long battery life, 7 hours' video playback
3.5G 7.2 Mb/s HSUPA
Laptop-like performance from the first implementation of OMAP3440 processor based on the ARM Cortex A8 superscalar microprocessor and DSP

Yep, I'm stupefyingly excited too. Archos has often made top notch hardware let down by mediocre software but this would eliminate the problem.

That said, we get little more other than a comment from Archos CEO and founder Henri Crohas: "ARCHOS was proud to announce the introduction of its ARCHOS 5 HSDPA IMT last year with SFR. We are continuing to advance our efforts in the IMT space with the introduction of this new product. Support for an Android-based device represents a historical opportunity for ARCHOS to combine all the best of our IMTs with a phone in a single device delivering high quality video and a full web experience in true mobility."

When will we hear more? Well, with a Q3 timeframe possibly not for a while but that won't stop us trying to dig you out more details ahead of time...

Link:
Archos

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Old Pedantry said on 10th February 2009

"I find my interest peaked"... piqued, surely?

Martin Leventon said on 10th February 2009

All very nice sounding, but if that spec list is right then they will be awaiting adobe to finalise flash on android which so far is only available internally at adobe.

Gordon said on 10th February 2009

@Martin - not doubt part of the reason we won't see it for another two quarters.
@Old - it was a deliberately sarcastic use of the phrase ;)

GherkinG said on 10th February 2009

My Archos 5 would be way too big to use as a phone! 4" screen yes, but 5" is overkill I think!
I think they're in the right place with their current devices&#... more

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