This is just amazing. Can you believe it, a 7" tablet for such a low price! How is ARCHOS able to do this? Apparently they are using a super low priced processor inside. The Rockchip 2808. This processor is very fast and very inexpensive. The ARCHOS 7 is powered by a 600mhz Rockchip 2808 processor, does web browsing pretty well (for an ARM9 processor) and plays all video codecs at up to 720p video playback (at up to limited 2500kbit/s bitrates for 720p).
Archos is going to try to sell this device in all retail stores of the world at only $179 in the USA and 149€ in Europe (because European countries have more taxes they don’t just convert Euro prices to US Dollar prices), it may quickly become a best-seller and I think it is a great very low-cost alternative to the iPad.
For advanced users that absolutely want the fastest OMAP3440 ARM Cortex A8 800mhz processor, there is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet available today below $249 at Radio Shack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3843254 or you might want to wait another few months (I am speculating) for Archos to release the next generations of ARM Cortex A8 or ARM Cortex A9 based tablet devices (probably also for a bit more expensive than this Home Tablet series) at all different screen sizes (I speculate and the interviews around the web point to clues towards from 3″ to 10″ Android Tablets starting at $100…)
For now, this Archos 7 Home Tablet is being released this next month or by May already and at this amazingly low $179 price for the 2GB version with MicroSD card slot. There will also be a 8GB version and maybe larger capacities for slightly more expensive. It also has a mini-jack to composite video-output using the headphones jack and micro-USB to USB host features built-in. The built-in stereo speakers are very decent for movie watching and the 7″ 800×480 resistive touch-screen is just very fine and does allow for fast text input.
This is an alternative to the high priced ipad and should be great for most android users.
Fabien Röhlinger
I will definately buy a tablet for this price. But there is still a lack of apps for tablets. We'll hopefully see a lot of them coming up in the next couple of months, though.