Honeycomb may be all the rage with Archos’ top of the line tablets, but they never miss an opportunity to make good with the low end as well. Behold the Arnova 9 G2, a Gingerbread 9.7-inch affair with tablet-friendly modifications to Android. Even so, the tablet packs in some respectable hardware with a 1Ghz ARM processor and 8 gigabytes of built-in storage.
In a strange move, the Arnova 9 G2 has a 4:3, 1024 x 768 LCD screen, just like the one found on the iPad and HP Touchpad. That’s a departure from the majority of Android phones and tablets, which use a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio. Because of the lower pixel density for a panel of that size and resolution, it’s probably a lot cheaper to manufacture than the ones we’re more used to seeing. Naturally WiFi is the only wireless option, though Archos continues its tradition of expandability with a microSD card slot, micro and full-size USB ports.As with most Gingerbread tablets, Google services and Android Market access are nowhere to be seen.
Gingerbread may be a buzzkill now that Ice Cream Sandwich is well and truly here, but Archos has a vibrant community of modders, so you can expect to see an ICS ROM show up once the Arnova is released. On that note, there’s no pricing or availability info just yet, but expect it to be considerably less than the already cheap G9 Honeycomb tablets. We’ll be keeping an eye out for other sizes in the Arnova G2 series.
[via Slashgear]
The question is, exactly how much will it cost?
No android market? That’s strange.
its not too hard to place android market on this tablet. google it, google is your friend.
Saw it 2 days ago for €239 at PC World in-store. It’s £199 at the UK site.
To be honest its perfect for my modest needs. The Advent Vega beside it even though has better SOC, looked so crappy. Lets see the price of the Acer A200 to better decide.
My partner just bought one of these, tonight at PC World for £199 and is very impressed with the feel, speed, and quality. The Android Market issue, isn’t an issue – Android sites are easy to access and work faultlessly, so big happy smiles all around 🙂
bought one last night from pc world 199 pound 12/1/2012 seems fine Google browser runs very fast just as fast as my acer home pc wife pics up even home net works down the street and concerts very quickly , its a bit heavy in the hand as my fingers where aching after 1 hour its much heavy than the ipad and glaxy tab but as good quality feel to it , iam over all pleased with it,, one bad point my Favourite facebook you cant get chat on the market version and when u go to facebook from the Google brpweser the chat allso dont work 🙁 , but 4 out of 5 for this tablet its over all pretty good
I also bought one today from pc world 20/1/12. First thing was to install the marketplace. with that done, we now have a happy 11 year old once again as the tablet we get her for xmas was just one big fail (viewsonic 10e) the casing on the viewsonic started to come loose and the OS kept backing up back to the home screen. Thats within 30 days. Argos refunded the cash and I went pc world were i fell in love with this tablet, which is not even mine. lol
I bought this from PC world on 07/02/2012 – any ideas how to install Google Android Market. Tried to install the app via AppLib and nothing – i keep getting error messages! This is highly annoying – wish i hadnt bought this thing in the first place…
There are tutorials on the arctab forums 🙂 also you can easily update the rom to ics it includes google play formaly known as android market, good tab just got better 🙂
Available at argos for £179.99 with arnova smart case’ it also can run ics thanks to the guys at arctab forums 🙂