Archos is finally shipping some of the Android 2.2 tablets it announced earlier this year and the devices look pretty good but may not be able to go toe-to-toe with the Apple iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
The Archos 43 will have a 4.3-inch resistive touchscreen display, 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, HDMI port, 2-megapixel camera with 720p HD video recording, WiFi, Bluetooth and storage capacities of 8 GB or 16 GB. Think of it as an Android version of the iPod Touch and it starts at $199.
The Archos 70 will have a 7-inch touchscreen display with WVGA resolution, 1 GHz ARM Cortex A8 processor, WiFi, HDMI, a front-facing camera for video calls and up to 250 GB of storage.
Both of these Archos Android devices will come with 2.2, or Froyo, but I think the Achilles heel of each tablet is that it won’t have access to the Android Market to download new applications. Instead, users will be able to add new apps from an Archos-specific app store.
I think that’s the death knell for these Archos Android tablets, as the company doesn’t have a well-known brand name in the United States and the lack of the official Android Market has to hurt. Additionally, that resistive screen on the smaller version could be a pain in the you-know-what to use.
Additionally, Samsung is poised to be the early king of the Android tablet market with the upcoming Galaxy Tab. This 7-inch tablet will have the official app market and it will also be coming to all four major U.S. carriers.
The Apple iPad is still going strong and it should also get a nice sales bump over the holiday season. If those two weren’t enough, Archos will also soon be competing against a slew of tablets from the likes of Research In Motion, Motorola, Palm and many, many others.
Check out our hands-on footage of the Archos tablet.