Archos Announces Android Smartphone Tablet

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