We were at CES earlier today and stopped by the Archos booth to check out what the French PMP maker had up their sleeves for later this year. The company demonstrated their Archos 10.1 and 8 inch Turbo tablets that pack dual-core processors to take their devices to the next level.
Both of these tablets are shipping within weeks and the European models use SIM cards on the back to give you high-speed interact access beyond using the standard WIFI. The company told us that pay as you go 3G SIM cards are all the rage in western Europe and many people can buy them with prepaid airtime when you casually use it on the go. This is one of the first units I have seen that do this and was impressed. It got me to thinking why a company in North America does not issue this kind of service, since it proves to be very popular and many people are tired of paying monthly data access fees when they only occasionally travel.
The new Archos devices didn’t really bring anything tremendously new to the table with their two tablets, but the dual-cores really make everything snappy. The company told us that within the next few weeks they will be issuing a Google Ice Cream Sandwich update to bring both of the devices more inline with the cutting edge.
The one thing that might hold people back from investing in these two units is the price, the 8 inch model is going to cost around $250, while the 10.1 inch will cost around $350.00.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
