The New Android Tablet : Archos G9

If you are still considering what tablets to buy other than the expensive iPad worth $500, you might really want to have a look at this.  ARCHOS, an award winning firm, unveiled the G9 Android tablets on June 23rd 2011 labelling them as the best in speed and affordability. According to its press release, the Archos 80 G9 with the capacity of 8GB and a speed of 1GHz will be available online at their website on September 20th.

Price ? $299. It’s worth the specifications it provides!

Right now, ARCHOS is releasing its dual core 1Ghz processor but coming October, they will be releasing all the dual-core G9 tablets with the speed of 1.5Ghz. The prices are listed below.

 ARCHOS 80 G9 16 GB – $329
 ARCHOS 80 G9 250GB- $369
 ARCHOS 101 G9 16GB- $399
 ARHOCS 101 G9 250GB- $469

So what makes this tablet so special ?

 8″ and 10.1″ display with 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 800 in resolution.
 Android Honeycomb 3.2 as its OS.
  ARM dual-core CORTEX A9 OMAP™ 4 up to 1.5 GHz. The ARCHOS G9 ‘ Turbo ‘ will be the first ever tablet that’s under $400 with this dual core processor. Pretty cool isn’t it ?
 Has Adobe Flash 10.3  Beats iPad there.
 The tablet consists of all the Google mobile applications like Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, Google Talk etc
 For capacity, you can either use Flash storage which supports 8 GB- 16GB or use HDD memory upto 250GB
  720p front camera with 720p encoding
 Built in GPS, Speakers and Microphone
 HDMI/USB/Microsd interfaces
 High Profile codec for full HD 1080p videos at over 30fps.
 For the flash series, it weighs 465g and the HD series weighs 599g

Now you might be wondering what’s the difference between a G9 80 and a G9 101. Refer to the first point of the tech specs. Yes, the G9 80 has the 8″ inch display and the G9 101 has the 10.1″ display. Just clarifying so that you don’t get confused!

If you want to enable 3G, you would just have to buy the 3G stick and insert it any time you want. This indicates both the 80 and 101 are 3G supported provided that the stick is available. If this was a version of Apple, I would expect different features for different versions.

Comparing ARCHOS G9 to the great iPad 2, I must say it wins over it. Why ? I would write a separate post on this but for now let’s keep it brief. The G9 has more hard disk space, faster processor, weighs lesser, supports flash (great advantage), has a provision for micro sd and is way cheaper. iPad 2 on the other hand has a greater display and has a brand name.

Am I being too harsh on Apple ? No not at all. I love iPad but it simply is too expensive for me.

Your Views ?

(images from ARCHOS website)