Archos 5 Internet Tablet: It Has Android, We Have Details
| by Rob Jackson on September 2nd, 2009 |
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Welcome to the interwebz – a place where one little bit of whispered information is soon reposted across the universe! When someone over at ArchosFans Forum found pictures/details of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet that was on sale at BHphotovideo.com, they asked, “Are these Androids?” They are… and then the whole internet peeked over his shoulder:
As you can see there are 4 different versions of the Archos Android Tablet and the difference is in the amount memory of memory and type of drive (Solid State Drive or HDD):
It seems that B&H has since taken the pricing information down which is usually a sign that yes… this is real, they made a boo boo and are trying to cover it up. But the damage has been done and now the September 15th Archos event is much less mysterious. The FCC gave us some hints but these pricing details are telling… and kind of expensive. Oh yeah – we’ve got some pictures too!
There is also an optional dock accesory for the device that bears the name “DVR Station” for the cost of $129.95:
The admin of ArchosFans speculated on what the DVR station could be/do and why it was $30 more expensive than past models:
The new DVR Station might have a brain, that would explain the $30 extra compared to the MSRP of the current Gen6 DVR Station version.
By brain in DVR Station (and I am speculating here!) I would mean:
- It could record TV by itself like a Tivo,
- It could come with only 8GB SSD built-in but could use extra storage by any SD cards, USB sticks or USB hard drives of its own.
- It could be used by itself on a HDTV, no Archos Internet Media Tablet needed
- It could be the perfect Video-on-demand box to have to watch Youtube and any other Internet video podcast comfortably in your sofa with a cool new Bluetooth remote control.
- It could create a WiFi-N hotspot and automatically beam new downloaded shows when your Tablet is close to it, or could synchronize new downloads even faster when the Tablet is Docked. (Popup could display on the Tablet “Your DVR Station has downloaded 6 new shows. [Synchronize now over WiFi] or [Wait to synchronize till I am docked]“. The DVR Station should support BitTorrent downloading and p2p live video streaming protocols once Android Native applications are made to add those functionalities.
- It could stream the TV Portation Slingbox-like feature finally to your Tablet wherever you are in the world
- It could add its own Digital TV Tuner, for a starter basic DVB-T digital terrestrial tuner built-in but perhaps also compatible to be a Cable/Satellite digital TV tuner with possible slight modifications eventually with Echostar for example
- With the Archos Tablet in place, it could perhaps record one channel while you watch another.
This is obviously ALL subject to speculation but it looks like the real deal. The prices however are likely only ballpark numbers since different retailers will be dealing with different markups/markdowns/mark-whatevers. We only have a couple weeks until the September 15th event so we won’t have to wait long for the whole shabang.
1. Maj wrote on September 2, 2009
looks great, i think im going to get one of those but after checking out the reviews.
2. Samuel Maskell wrote on September 2, 2009
why is everyone saying that this is expensive? it’s the same price as the ipod touch for 16gigs and for the same price as a 32gig ipod touch you can get a 500gig archos! That’s not really that expensive. I don’t know why I’m comparing it to the ipod though cause it’s obviously way ahead of the ipod by leaps and bounds. Even forgetting the fact that it is running android, the fact that it has a 5″ screen, wireless n and an fm transmitter makes it awesome. Add android on to that and you’ve got a real winner in my books. I’d easily way $300-400 bucks for one of these if I didn’t already have a magic.
3. jae wrote on September 2, 2009
I definitely will get one .once is out
4. jorge r barraza wrote on September 2, 2009
I am a sucker for anything android,buying it as soon as it comes out,no review no nothing,just can’t wait to use all those functions.
5. Todd A. wrote on September 2, 2009
And do we know for sure that none of these have phone capabilities ? THAT would be cool !
6. dp wrote on September 2, 2009
hopefully a VOIP app. I believe iPod touch has some type of SIP phone app, right?
7. mj wrote on September 3, 2009
Will it have 3g? Surely that is the killer!
8. userfriendlyme wrote on September 3, 2009
omg i have one of these i wonder if Archos will post a upgrade for exisiting users to the OS??
9. kizer wrote on September 3, 2009
To bad it doesn’t support Divx or Xvid unless they’ve changed some things.
10. SK wrote on September 3, 2009
If you are buying this for HD, make sure the HD plugin or whatever is actually released before you buy the product. I got a Archos 605 Wifi and Archos promised several accessories and a HD plugin for it but never delivered. They just moved on to the next model and forgot all the promises they made.
The 605 was nice a nice piece of h/w and had decent software, but Archos is a shitty company and has the worst customer service.
11. tdigenti wrote on September 18, 2009
does it work as a camera? or vieo recorder?
12. tom wrote on October 6, 2009
will tmobile carry it, how will be the carriers forn this amazing phone. wow!
13. tom wrote on October 6, 2009
who will the carriers be for this phone. WOW
14. billy joe wrote on December 29, 2009
I own this new archos 5 and its not too great! The touch screen is crappy and uses way to much energy crashed my computer multiple times and needs to have some more work done. The Ipod touch is much more advanced and has a better app market. hen you go to open up the app store it takes for ever. it doesnt scroll to great and you need to have windows media player which is extremly shitty please don’t buy this product. just save your self the trouble and don’t get it =). this is the 2nd archos i’ve owned the 1st broke within 6 months now this one just will randomly freeze takes forever to load. Ipod touch blows this away. oh and the keyboard is wicked shitty to very difficult to use.