At a recent Archos event in London TechRadar got the chance to take a look at the Archos 9 PCTablet, the French company's latest flagship product.
The 9-inch screen on the new device is slick and clear, while the unit fits comfortably in the hands thanks to a mere 16mm thickness.
It will run on Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, 80 to 160GB hard drive options, WiFi 802.11b/g connection and Bluetooth 2.1 for some phone-sync fun too.
Archos has included a sliding stand at the back with two levels, meaning you can use it almost flat on the table and type away on the virtual keyboard, or extend it fully and watch video on the screen thanks to up to 120GB of internal memory.
It feels really light in the hand, and while it might not have the greatest range of ports on offer, the 620g weight really makes it portable. (By the way, Google also tells us this weight is the optimum size for a show cockerel. You learn something new every day, as they say).
We were really impressed with the optical trackball, which registered our commands really quickly. The screen, as the press release notes, is a resistive number, although the performance certainly felt like a capacitive effort, which gives it the option of using a stylus as well, rather than just your finger, so in that sense it's better, although multi-touch is out the question.
Overall, we really liked this Atom-wielding device, and when you consider it's going to be £500 for the top end model, complete with dual digital TV antennas with live TV recording, it's easy to see it's a bit of a cracker.
It's going to debut sometime in September, so get ready for the big review as soon as we can get one in.
Your comments (1) Click to add a new comment
ceeaitch
July 3rd
1. I want one! However, this is subject to a few conditions: I'd want to replace the OS (by the way, is that a typo? Surely it will be loaded with XP, rather than W7?) with Linux. And I would need it to have a SIM card slot, or some other way to access the mobile phone network. If Archos don't do the first of these things, I'm sure some smart after-market player will do so ...
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