Branching out from its range of Internet Tablets, French manufacturer Archos has today introduced a new category of device dubbed Home Tablets.
The products, essentially low-cost tablet computers designed for web browsing and multimedia playback around the home, are the latest attempt to bridge the gap between smartphone and PC and arrive in the form of the Archos 7 and Archos 8.
Featuring a 7in touchscreen display, the Archos 7 - pictured above - measures 12mm thin and weighs just 350g. It's a sleek form factor, but inside you'll find a frugal 600MHz ARM 9 processor coupled with either 2GB or 8GB of internal memory.
Don't expect exemplary performance, then, but thanks to Wi-Fi connectivity and a battery capable of playing back seven hours of video or 44 hours of music, it's a decent enough all-day mobile web browser.
If you need a little more screen real estate, the Archos 8 features an 8in touchscreen display and a stunningly-large bezel. The unit - equipped with the same 600MHz CPU and 4GB of storage - still measures 12mm thin and weighs just a fraction more at 400g. In an attempt to explain the giant bezel, Archos reckons the Home Tablet 8 also doubles as a digital photo frame.
Both devices sport Google's Android operating system, and feature a USB port for easy data transfer from your PC.
The specification alone might not be selling the product to you, but what might catch your attention is the price. Archos expects the 7in and 8in Home Tablets - equipped with 2GB and 4GB of internal memory, respectively - to be available from just €149 (approx. £135). Expect the 7in model to arrive next month, followed by the Archos 8 in May.
If the lacklustre internal hardware has left you completely disinterested, stay tuned as Archos plans to introduce tablets equipped with a 1GHz ARM Cortex CPU later this year.
