Archos to release Android phone / tablet

We're guessing we'll hear more about this at MWC, but TI just let loose a press release crowing about Archos's use of the OMAP3 processor in an upcoming "Internet Media Tablet" that runs on Android and also doubles as a phone. No pictures yet, but the spec sheet makes it sound like a hotrodded Archos 5: five-inch screen, up to a 500GB hard drive, a battery capable of 7 seven hours of video playback, and Flash support, all in a package just 10mm (.39 inches) thick. The underlying OS will be Android, but Archos plans to really beef up the media features -- there's even mention of HD video playback. That sounds seriously sweet -- if Archos ditches the current mushy resistive screen in the 5 for a capacitive unit, this could be a knockout Android device when it launches in the third quarter.

[Via Archos Lounge; thanks, Daphné]

[Patrick @ Feb 9th 2009 1:09PM]

yes!!!

[finite_loop @ Feb 9th 2009 1:50PM]

yesss. engadget shopped the wrong time in the clock.

[Sax25 @ Feb 9th 2009 3:18PM]

no!!!

.. just wait till you have to phone their technical support line for assistance.. if that doesn't make you want to pull your eyes out - nothing will. Typical French, they might have nice smelling perfumes, but their customer support stinks!

[Sax25 @ Feb 9th 2009 3:20PM]

no!!!

.. just wait till you have to phone their technical support line for assistance.. if that doesn't make you want to pull your eyes out - nothing will. Typical French, they might have nice smelling perfumes, but their customer support stinks!

[iphonerulez @ Feb 9th 2009 3:23PM]

A 500 GB harddrive. That's fantastic. With the specs I'm reading on this device, you'll need to take steroids just to lift it. They're packing in an awful lot of goodness that would seem to make it bulky and heavy. I don't have a problem with that, but it would likely be a handful. Good luck with that device as a handset.

[Alex @ Feb 9th 2009 1:09PM]

Sounds delicious. Like cherry cheesecake.

[skyblaze @ Feb 9th 2009 1:30PM]

dude, I kill for cheesecake. ironically though i hate it with fruit on top :\

[Ryan Trevisol @ Feb 9th 2009 1:45PM]

maybe it reminds you too much of the blood you've spilled to get the cheesecake.

[Mile @ Feb 9th 2009 1:50PM]

@skyblaze

That's not ironic. If cheese or cake were a fruit, it would have a chance at irony.

[skyblaze @ Feb 9th 2009 2:30PM]

@ryan: mind = b l o w n. (no, seriously)

@mile: meh, we all make mistakes :)

[corgilabsG @ Feb 9th 2009 4:04PM]

9:11? are you serious?

[Jamil @ Feb 9th 2009 7:06PM]

the time would be correct if the long hand was for hours and short hand was for minutes, maybe this is a soviet russian version

[luv_carrier_branding_:) @ Feb 9th 2009 1:10PM]

if it has all those features, it must be a LANDLINE phone...

or a VoIP one

[Nathan @ Feb 9th 2009 8:46PM]

Doubles as a phone? That would be a pretty beefy handset. Perhaps it will come with a blue tooth headset.

[Dhomas @ Feb 9th 2009 1:12PM]

Perhaps it is a version of the Archos 5g with Android loaded instead of their proprietary OS. The Archos Internet Media Tablets already have ARM processors, so it would not be all too difficult to load Android onto them. If Archos doesn't, I'm sure some hackers will...

[TareX @ Feb 9th 2009 6:20PM]

Android doesn't support hi-res screens. It doesn't officially have flash, and still has no support for OpenGL ES 2.0.

As a matter of fact it's suffering for full OpenGL ES 1.1 support. That OMAP3 processor supports the beauty that is OpenGL ES 2.0

So unless it's a new ultra-capable version of Android, the processor is an overkill.

[Mile @ Feb 9th 2009 1:13PM]

I like resistive screens.

[Jeremy K. @ Feb 9th 2009 1:18PM]

What's sarcasm?

[eggothewaffle @ Feb 9th 2009 2:43PM]

Both resistive and capacitive touchscreens have their advantages.

By the way, this phonblet is pure sex.

[SteveS @ Feb 9th 2009 5:06PM]

Talking about screens, I HATE THAT DAMN ANDROID WALLPAPER!!! Why would any company make the standard wallpaper so ugly?

[Brad Stewart @ Feb 9th 2009 1:13PM]

all i can say is "do me"

[mugupo @ Feb 9th 2009 1:13PM]

Who need an iphone when a phone has that many feature?

[L @ Feb 9th 2009 1:35PM]

Try to visualize a 5" tablet with a HDD - you certainly won't use that to call anybody.

[bombgigitty @ Feb 9th 2009 3:47PM]

Who need school when spell like that?

[cloud858rk @ Feb 9th 2009 5:00PM]

Hey left of an "s", he didn't piss in your soup.

[cloud858rk @ Feb 9th 2009 5:01PM]

He*

[KVN @ Feb 9th 2009 1:14PM]

Sounds all good right now,but i wonder what bs plugins and propriety hardware Archos is going to make you pay for with this device.

[Tarnation @ Feb 9th 2009 1:46PM]

If it is android they can't lock it down Google wouldn't let them. The thing I don't get is they said 500GB hard drive now that would have to be a spinner or it would make the price way to ridiculous for anyone to afford if it was SSD. Also 10mm O.o the 60GB version is already 12mm and the 250 is 19mm. A HDD at 500GB is almost 10mm on its own with a screen, circuits, and battery it would be larger than that, so maybe a flash player version and an HDD version?

Only one problem the only network in the states to show love to the Android is T-Mobile although that isn't horrible it ain't no AT&T or Verizon.

I am not gonna get my hopes up on this. If it is real OMG the iPhone can just suck it.

Engadget don't do this to me I just can't take it.

[Coleman Foley @ Feb 9th 2009 4:56PM]

tarnation, archos actually can lock it down because google does let people make proprietary versions of android--look at the g1.

[megaultraextreme @ Feb 9th 2009 11:44PM]

@coleman
you just broke my heart with the idea that archos will lock down the OS like they have before. that is one of my biggest problems with the archos 5.

oh you and your comments that make sense.

[Sam @ Feb 9th 2009 1:15PM]

Tasty.

[mugupo @ Feb 9th 2009 1:18PM]

Nice !

[quanta67 @ Feb 9th 2009 1:27PM]

I bought every Archos device right up to the latest 5 series. They are sweet machines, no doubt. But they have become so feature packed, they are literally just small tablet PC's - while still lacking a great many of the features and flexibility that small PC's of this kind have.

If Archos want to compete in the new netbook space - which is probably a good target market during hard times like these, open the devices up fully to third party apps like Apple did and let users use them in whatever way they see fit. They are too small to be full blown PC's perhaps (although users should be able to decide on this also) and too large and heavy to be convenient to carry media players.

So leave it up to the customer to work out the best uses for themselves.

[Coleman Foley @ Feb 9th 2009 5:01PM]

the best uses are: tv companion, pmp for around the house, at the coffee shop, or in a car. the only times you wouldn't use it would be when you're walking a long way.

[UMPCMan @ Feb 9th 2009 1:25PM]

Looks good. Basically it's their Archos 5 unit made thinner by taking out the hard disk, which is what I wished they had done in the first place.

My Archos 6 60 gig is 11-12 mm thick. So they are squeezing a couple of mm that way.

No way in hell you'll get a new type of screen with this.

If it's stable, and mechanically sound, then it will be a kickass device, and I will be sorry I got the Archos 5.

As for it actually playing HD video.... bwahahahaha... look at the Archos track record on promises about future capabilities of their product. Yeah right.

[Dave Skaggs @ Feb 9th 2009 1:57PM]

Maybe there's some sort of communication error and it's really supposed to be a 50 gig...seriously just guesstimating. I'm wondering how heavy this thing will be. You'll have to use bluetooth to talk on it.

[Bob @ Feb 9th 2009 1:26PM]

i like that it can't tell time. :-)

[Pete @ Feb 9th 2009 1:26PM]

This will be pure garbage just like all of their products.

[mugupo @ Feb 9th 2009 1:29PM]

Pete,

You obviously never use archos product before, they are the very first one to had make portable make to play video, the sound is excellent not as good as cowon but it still better than ipod. They are france company not china just a reminder. Archos is like the biggest brand mp3 in europe.

[ridestp @ Feb 9th 2009 1:25PM]

Damn, it is 10mm thin? Aren't standard laptop hard drives 9mm? So.... how does that work?

[Ivan @ Feb 9th 2009 1:27PM]

Archos's devices always do sound very nice on paper, but take a look around at some Archos forums and you'll see that it's a whole different story. All types of problems and bugs plague Archos. It'd be nice to finally see them deliver a product that really lives up to expectations by performing its basic functions without problems and by having all of its promised features released and working...

[Charbax @ Feb 9th 2009 2:08PM]

Archos doesn't really have basic features. Everything about Archos features are unique and very advanced. You can't expect a pocket device to replace all of your vhs/tivo/ipod/dvdplayer/gps/mediastreamer/xbox/ pda/smartphone/laptop/kindle/ camcorder/dvb-T tuner/harddrive and plenty other features, have it combine all of these features in a way really no other product does and then expect all features to work without a bug.

Even iphones and HTC G1s which have fewer and arguably simpler features and are managed by 1000x larger companies with 1000x more money for R&D, even those also have bugs.

If you want a basic feature pocket device that doesn't bug, then buy a 1984 Sony cassette walkman.

[Ivan @ Feb 9th 2009 2:47PM]

Please, if they can't even get video to play fine and audio to play without skipping or crashing, then I'd say that the basics of a media player have been accomplished. Sadly, this is not the case. If Archos were to step up and have a fully working device, actually deliver on their promises, and actually have decent customer support then they would get much more respect than they do now.

Until then, all of those other "crappy" companies are doing much better than your beloved Archos.

[Craig @ Feb 9th 2009 3:36PM]

Ivan do you even own or have ever owned an Archos?

I have a 605 and I use it daily for mp3 and xvid video. Works flawlessly apart from the very occasional hard lock (but what device doesn't these days? - even my phone locks-up every now and then).

But stuttering and no playing of video? Never once, experienced it in well over a year and a half of daily usage.

[Ivan @ Feb 9th 2009 4:09PM]

My brother owns a 604. He just recently bought a 2nd generation iPod Touch because he was tired of the problems he had with his 604. Stutters, random errors, files missing in the browser, freezes, and crashes. I played around with it a couple of months ago. I transferred a 700MB avi movie to it. It played with the occasional stutter (not caused by the avi because it played flawlessly on my computer and laptop), and towards the end of the movie, it froze on me and i had to do a hard reboot.

But in my previous comments, I was talking particularly about the Archos 5. I've read through a couple of forums, Charbax's included, and the magnitude of problems is incredible. Plus from what I've read, their customer service is a joke. I'm just glad that I never personally got involved with Archos because when I spend more than $250 on a product, I expect it to work as advertised.

[Coleman Foley @ Feb 9th 2009 5:04PM]

i think using android will help them with stability.

[UMPCMan @ Feb 9th 2009 1:27PM]

Will now await fanboy reponse from Charbax, telling us that this device is the best every released in human history, 1 zillion percent more powerful than any handheld, with 1000 times better screen, and able to cure carpal tunnel syndrome, brain cancers, and hangnails.

[Erwos @ Feb 9th 2009 1:30PM]

Especially given that they're probably going to drop Archos 5 support in a snap. So much for the poor bastards who wanted GPS to actually work one day.

[Charbax @ Feb 9th 2009 1:34PM]

You got it.. This is the definite UMPC killer concept and makes all smartphones at Mobile World Congress look weak in comparison.

Sure Archos could do some few hardware things like use an OLED screen with an E-Ink screen behind it, Bluetooth and DVB-SH options built-in. And some type of clip-on fold-on keyboard that doubles as a screen protector and gamepad for a whole bunch of emulated consoles. But until then, even with Archos current generation of hardware, this would make the worlds best product just even better.

[UMPCman @ Feb 9th 2009 1:44PM]

Charbax. You rock!