Archos unveiled its 8.9in touchscreen UMPC, the Archos 9, earlier this month and scored a positive reception from our HEXUS.community members.
The handheld, pictured below, has now been marked for September availability here in the UK, with prices starting at £449.99 for an 80GB model and £499.99 for a larger 160GB option.
The Archos 9 measures 256mm x 134mm x 16mm, weighs under 800g, and features an 8.9in touchscreen display that provides a 1,024x600 resolution.
At the heart of the system lies an Intel Atom Z515 processor and US15W chipset. The Atom processor, using Intel's Burst Performance Technology, will moderate CPU speed up to a maximum of 1.2GHz. Not quick enough to win any benchmark awards, but throttling down when the system lays idle could work wonders for the Archos 9's battery life.
Elsewhere, there's 1GB of DDR2 memory, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, a built-in webcam, a pair of USB ports and a dual DVB-T tuner.
We like what we're seeing, but we're a little dubious of the September launch date. The Archos 9 is said to feature Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system, and that doesn't launch until October 22nd. It's possible that Archos will initially ship the system with Windows Vista and then offer customers a free upgrade to a comparative edition of Windows 7.
