Archos is finally ready to start shipping their latest budget Android tablet offering. Recently announced as the 97 Carbon, this 9.7-inch single-core Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet is finally available today. It might not be the best around, but it’s a decent little budget offering.
When Google released their Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, quad-core powered beast of a tablet in the Nexus 7 all the budget tablets instantly got sidelined. Sadly for Archos that is basically their specialty, or was. The Archos 97 Carbon is a decent tablet, but now that the specs are so much lower than competing tablets, while costing a similar price I don’t see it ending well.
The Archos 9.7 Carbon comes with Android 4.0 ICS, a 9.7-inch low res 1024 x 768 display, a single-core 1.0 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a few cameras. They give you 2 megapixel on the rear and VGA front. The tablet also has micro-USB, micro-SD, HDMI out and a few other connectivity options too. For $229 this would be a great tablet 6 months ago — but not today.
If you’re a fan of Archos, or want the larger screen for the price the 97 Carbon is available right now. It’s $249 but for a limited time the coupon code: MAC45Z will save you $20. What do you guys think. Does Archos and other budget tablets still have a place in this market? Or will their hardware need to seriously improve if they’d like to continue at this price point?
Cool. Can i also buy just the software for my Archos tablet that has never seen any tablet software yet, due to the poor after sales of Archos?
Archos Arnova 7b G3: $99 (7″ capacitive, Jelly Bean ready)
Archos Arnova 8 CG3: $149 (8″ 4:3, like iPad Mini, Jelly Bean ready)
Archos Arnova 10 BG: $179 (10.1″, like Transformer Prime, Jelly Bean ready)
Archos doesn’t only do this 9.7″ IPS (exact same screen as iPad2).
And expect Archos Elements line to use the Rockchip Rk3066 dual-core processor (better than iPad2 performance) for example on 9.7″ for $199 within weeks or month.