French tablet maker Archos is introducing a new line of mid-range Android tablets. The Archos Elements line of tablets will be “entry-level” products which don’t have all the bells and whistles found in the company’s higher-priced tablets.

The first member of the Elements family is the Archos 97 Carbon, a tablet with a 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel IPS display and an aluminum case.

It has 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and a 1 GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor. It ships with Google Android 4.0, and it’s a Google Certified device, which means it comes with the Play Store and other Google apps preloaded.

You can pick up an Archos 97 Carbon tablet for $230.

Archos 97 Carbon

At that price, the tablet is a little more expensive than the $199 Google Nexus 7, but the Archos tablet has a larger display (and slower processor) than Google’s new tablet.

The Archos 97 Carbon also has a microSDHC card slot, mini HDMI port, and a 2MP rear camera — all features that are absent from Google’s tablet.

The Archos tablet also has a front-facing 0.3MP camera, a mic, stereo speakers, a USB 2.0 port, and audio jack. It can handle 1080p HD video playback, and Archos claims the tablet gets up to 8 hours of battery life while playing videos.

Archos first announced plans to launch its Elements line of tablets a few months ago, promising to release 7, 8, and 10 inch models. It looks like the Archos 97 Carbon is just the first to hit the streets.

Archos also sells a line of low-cost tablets under the Arnova brand, but if the Archos 97 Carbon is anything to to by, it looks like the Archos Elements brand will offer more bang for your buck.

via Engadget

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4 replies on “Archos launches Elements tablet lineup with Archos 97 Carbon”

  1. Gee – maybe it’s Archos that should be introducing models with the option for Pixel Qi screen? I wonder how hard it would be to put a Pixel Qi screen into one of these tablets on DIY basis (but, would be better to have it already built-in). I also wonder if you could dual book and put your own version of Linux on this tablet as well (for dual boot purposes).

    1. It’s possible they looked into it and decided that they wouldn’t sell enough to make it worth the price. Odds are the Pixel Qi screens cost more to make, and in a cut throat market, every dollar spent is important.

      If enough people were demanding Pixel Qi screens then someone would step up to meet the demand. I love the idea, but clearly it’s not catching on, and I’m sure there is a good reason for that.

      1. It’s catching on… Military, Restaurants with outdoor seating, pool side bars, golf course education locations that are outdoors. Places where they need the function, and paying a few dollars more for it, in short time, pays dividends with the customers money paying for the additional cost. Also, Pixel Qi is not giving away units to “trend makers” that are key people walking around campus showing off the screen they can use outdoors on the quad in their netbook etc.

        1. I don’t doubt that there are niche markets where their screens add value, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to have mass market appeal. LCD manufacturers operate on thin margins in a cut-throat market, and PQ is increasingly having to compete with the some of best IPS screens in that market (e.g. Nexus 7).

          And the Nexus 7 also demonstrates that you don’t need a Pixel Qi screen to get great battery life these days either–another selling point of their technology. So given that the vast majority of tablet usage is indoors, where the best feature of PQ screens is well nigh useless, there isn’t much incentive for tablet makers to switch to using their screens.

          So unfortunately, they will have to become competitive with IPS screens in terms of brightness, viewing angles, and price before you will see them on mainstream tablets.

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