Archos' 7-inch Android tablet to debut in June

With all the hubbub over Apple and the iPad, longtime PMP (personal media player) and tablet maker Archos has been stuck on the sidelines, jumping up and down and shouting, "Hey — we make tablets, too!" Well, Archos has something new to crow about — the Archos 7 Home Tablet, which the company is billing as "the first large-screen Android-based tablet."
Of course, there are other names working on Android tablets; Dell reportedly has a couple teed up for later this year, and Samsung is rumored to have its own Android tablet in the works. All very enticing, but it's looking like we'll have to wait at least several months for the Dell and Samsung versions to arrive, while the Archos 7 Home Tablet (first announced back in March — and no, I haven't seen it in person yet) should be in stores in June. (Amazon is already taking pre-orders and is promising a May shipping date.)

Archos already came out with a 5-inch Android device last fall, but it's clearly hoping to make some waves with its 7-inch, more tablet-y model, which boasts a 600MHz ARM 9 processor (not bad, but not quite a 1GHz screamer, either), Wi-Fi, a USB port (take that, iPad), and enough battery life for seven hours of video or 44 hours of music playback.

The most intriguing feature of the 0.8-pound, 0.47-inch-thick Archos 7 would appear to be that it runs on the Android OS — except that, as Electronista points out, we're only talking version 1.6 of Android, not the current 2.1 version.

And here's another downside: No access to the 50,000-plus apps on the Android Marketplace. Instead, you'll have to settle for the custom apps on Archos' own AppLibs storefront. Bummer.

Finally, the 7 Home Tablet's 800-by-480 touchscreen only uses resistive technology, which registers taps when the user presses layers of plastic together — good for a stylus but typically a bit squishy when it comes to fingertips. (Most other Android devices, not to mention the iPhone and the iPad, use ultra-responsive capacitive touchscreens, which register taps via the electric charge of your skin.)

That said, keep in mind that the 8GB version of the Archos 7 Home Tablet goes for just $199, versus $499 for the cheapest iPad. Could be a good option for bargain hunters.
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