14 DAY TRIAL // Archos just became part of the reason why there are rumors on the Internet, however outlandish, that PC makers like HP, Acer, ASUS and other are going to quit making slates altogether.
What the French company built is a whole series of tablet devices, the Arnova 9 G2, which, for the most part, stick to price tags below the $250 mark (185 Euro).
Obviously, this is no small matter, not with media tablets selling for $500 or more.
In fact, Sony only just now finished shipping the Tablet S to India, for a price equivalent to $590 or 438 Euro.
Given that said Tablet S and Archos' new models are of more or less the same size.
Then again, even if the Arnova 9 G2 does have the same physical dimensions as the iPad, it doesn't mean it resembles it in any other way.
Sure enough, it doesn't have the same hardware platform and doesn't use NVIDIA's Tegra either.
Instead, the 9.7-inch capacitive multitouch screen hides an ARM Cortex A8 single-core processor that operates at 1 GHz.
Also, 8 GB of NAND Flash memory are present, quite a low amount compared to the 16 GB and 32 GB of other offers.
Then again, with the aforementioned price point, this basically comes with the territory.
That said, the essentials of a media slate were not glossed over, Archos having implemented 802,11b/g/n WiFi wireless connectivity, a microSD card slot, USB and micro USB (one port each) and the Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS (operating system).
Finally, the aforementioned 9.7-inch display has a native resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels (it is an IPS panel).
In addition to this one, the Arnova 9 G2 series will include 7-inch and 8-inch versions.
Stores should have it listed soon, if they haven't already. Until then, the official product page has all the information anyone could need.