French outfit Archos has been giving the ultra-portable space a good ol' bash over the last year or so. Back in August 2008, it revamped its range of portable media players with 5in and 7in Internet media tablets.
That was just the start, as earlier this year it went right ahead and launched its own netbook - the 10.2in Archos 10.
Today, it's bridging the gap between Internet media tablet and netbook by announcing the Archos 9 - a tablet-turned-UMPC that features an 8.9in touchscreen display.
Looks rather good, we reckon, and although lacking a physical keyboard of any sort, the Archos 9 will be sporting Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system - complete with built-in touch goodness.
Considering it measures 256mm x 134mm x 16mm and weighs under 800g, the unit provides a decent resolution of 1,024x600. Whether or not touch interaction is enough to forgo a keyboard remains to be seen, but we've found Windows 7's handwriting recognition to be impressive, and Archos has squeezed in an optical mouse, too.
Inside the unit lives a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor and US15W chipset. That's joined by 1GB of DDR2 memory, an 80GB hard rive, and both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity. Adding to its all-round usefulness is a built-in webcam, two USB ports, Ethernet, and a dual DVB-T tuner.
There's no mention of battery life or multi-touch support, but it's looking like a decent UMPC. Speaking of which, will the almost-forgotten form factor be resurrected with the introduction of Microsoft's upcoming easier-on-the-hardware operating system? Anything's possible.
We're told the Archos 9 will launch "this fall" priced at around €450 (£390). We've a sneaky suspicion we might see it on or around October 22nd.
