Archos announces quintet of Android tablets
But not an iPad rival in sight
Archos has announced the five new Android tablets it will be displaying at IFA this year.
The range starts with the Archos 28 internet tablets- a budget offering with a 2.8-inch screen that costs £99 and will be available in September, with 4GB and 8 GB storage.
Next up are the 8GB Archos 32 and 16GB Archos 43 internet tablets - with 3.2 inch and 4.3-inch screen respectively, these come in at £129 and £199 and both will be available in September.
Bigger, better?
The Archos 70 internet tablet, a seven inch display-toting model (can you see a pattern developing here?) will cost £229 for 8GB of (presumably SSD) internal storage or £269 for a 250GB hard drive.
And the cream of the crop is the Archos 101 internet tablet - a 10.1 inch-screened unit with either 8GB or 16GB of storage crammed into its svelte 12mm thin frame.
However, Archos has been rather unhelpful in giving any more stats - only the Archos 101 has mention of a capacitive screen, so we assume the others are all resistive.
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Android... but a little different
It doesn't look like the traditional Android OS will be running on these devices, as only the AppsLib is mentioned as a way to get applications on the device - we assume the lack of cameras and GPS means Google blocked the handsets from using the proper Market.
Nor do we have any idea about which version of Android is running under the hood.
1GHz processors, 3D graphic acceleration and HDMI output are all mentioned in the press release, but not in relation to any one device, so we're unsure if all/some of these tablets have the high end features.
Stay tuned as we try to track down the absent specs, and decide whether you'd rather pick these over the Samsung Galaxy Tab, ViewSonic ViewPad 7 or indeed, the iPad.
Gareth has been part of the consumer technology world in a career spanning three decades. He started life as a staff writer on the fledgling TechRadar, and has grown with the site (primarily as phones, tablets and wearables editor) until becoming Global Editor in Chief in 2018. Gareth has written over 4,000 articles for TechRadar, has contributed expert insight to a number of other publications, chaired panels on zeitgeist technologies, presented at the Gadget Show Live as well as representing the brand on TV and radio for multiple channels including Sky, BBC, ITV and Al-Jazeera. Passionate about fitness, he can bore anyone rigid about stress management, sleep tracking, heart rate variance as well as bemoaning something about the latest iPhone, Galaxy or OLED TV.