The Arnova FamilyPad from Archos is one of the largest Android tablets you’re likely to see this year. It has a 13.3 inch display, and as the name suggests, it’s designed big so that it can be used by more than one person. For instance, you can play some multiplayer games on the large screen, or watch videos with several members of the family.
Archos has announced that the tablet will be available in Europe starting in December. It’ll run about £275 in the UK, and 299 Euros in France, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands.
While the FamilyPad has an enormous screen, it’s not as packed with pixels as the Google Nexus 10, Apple iPad, or some other tablets. The FamilyPad has a 1280 x 800 pixel display.
The tablet features a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of storage. There’s a microSDHC card slot for extra storage and HDMI output and a micro USB host port. It runs Google Android 4.0 Jelly Bean.
There are 2MP cameras on the front and back of the tablet. There are also built-in stereo speakers, a mic, and a g-sensor.
Archos includes a tablet stand with the FamilyPad, which will probably come in handy if you plan to use the tablet for an extended time, since it weighs a hefty 2.9 pounds.
The company says the tablet should get up to 10 hours of battery life while playing videos, or up to 6 days of standby time.
ArcTablet has published one of the first reviews of the FamilyPad that I’ve seen, and while it’s clearly not a speed demon, it seems to handle basic tasks and multimedia playback reasonably well — although it reportedly takes a long time to fully charge the battery.
The Arnova FamilyPad is expected to be available in the US soon for about $349.
I wonder how it stacks up again st the Toshiba Excite 13?
Might be a good showdown.