• Tweet

Archos has quietly introduced a new Android tablet with a 4.8 inch display and a whopping 500GB of hard drive space for $299. If the Archos 48 looks familiar, it’s because it’s virtually identical to the Archos 5 Internet Tablet which has been available since 2009. But the new model lacks GPS and the $299 price tag is a lot lower than the $449 price for an Archos 5 decked out with a 500GB hard drive.

Still, you’re essentially getting last year’s specs with this model. The Archos 48 has an 800 MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 256MB of RAM, a 4.8 inch, 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreen display, and runs Google Android 1.6 Donut. It also ships without the Android Market preloaded, although I suspect installing a hacked version of the Market and other Google apps like Gmail should be as easy on the Archos 48 as it is on the Archos 5.

The good news is that like other Archos tablets, the Archos 48 Internet Tablet has excellent multimedia capabilities, with support for a wide range of audio and video codecs including 720p MPEG-4, H.264, and MKV video files. The tablet also supports 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0.