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Archos 80 G9 review
Archos debuts Arnova 9 G2 Android tablet, offers Gingerbread on a 9.7-inch IPS display Nokia to release Windows 8 tablets this June, top drawer Lumia in the works? Velocity Micro Cruz T410 Gingerbread tablet will run you a penny under $300 As far as tablets go, a couple of interesting things are going to happen between now and the holiday season. One, we're going to see a glut of smaller 7- and 8-inch tablets running Honeycomb (like this, this and this) hit the market. And if the Kindle Fire and Acer Iconia Tab A100 are any indication, they're going to be cheaper, making slates palatable to folks who previously couldn't bring themselves to spend $500 on a plaything. The Archos 80 G9, then, is the perfect specimen on both counts. Here you have an 8-inch tablet running Android 3.2 with a kickstand and full-sized USB port -- costing just $300 for the base model ($270, even, on sites like Amazon). So how does it stack up against other diminutive, aggressively priced tablets? Let's see. %Gallery-134564%
Velocity Micro Cruz T408 8-inch tablet gets its FCC credentials, goes on sale at $240
The T408 has been loitering around pre-order pages for a while now, but without a nod from the FCC it was going nowhere. Fortunately, it's just been given a clean bill of 802.11 b/g/n health and can be yours for $240 from Best Buy Amazon. That outlay gets you an 8-incher with a front-facing camera, 4GB of built-in storage and a microSD slot. Watch out though: like previous Cruz tablets, it omits Android Market support out of the box, which tells you something about its target audience. Update: Looks like the T408 isn't available from Best Buy, at least not yet. But, you can put in your pre-order over at Amazon if you so desire. [Thanks, Nathaniel]
Samsung's RF4289 WiFi 'smart fridge' gets a dumb $3,499 price
Samsung's RF4289 "smart fridge" has just been dated and priced. Remember, this is the WiFi connected refrigerator with LED lighting and 28 cubic feet of storage that we first peeped back at CES in January. And with an 8-inch LCD touchscreen, Samsung provides quick access to "kitchen relevant applications" like Google calendar, Weatherbug forecasts, Epicurious recipes, AP news, Pandora music, and Picasa photos. You can also leave notes for the family or tap out a quick tweet should the compulsion arise. The wireless touchscreen is available on both the RSG309 side-by-side and RF4289 four-door french door models, but only the latter has received an end of May US launch date. Just keep in mind that the suggested $3,499 retail price is exactly $500 more expensive than Samsung's existing 28 cubic foot french door model, the touchscreen-less RF4287. Instead of shelling out a premium for what amounts to a novelty, maybe you should consider dedicating an entry-level BlackBerry PlayBook to the kitchen or pick up a fridge-friendly iPad 2 instead.
ASUS planning an 8-inch grayscale LCD e-reader for October, pricing expected 'under $599'
Unless ASUS means "$400 under $599," we've got a feeling this e-reading device might as well not try its luck on the market. Nevertheless, word from Taiwan is that the company is indeed preparing an 8-inch LCD-based ebook reader -- with 64 levels of gray, no backlight, and fast refresh times -- to take on the E Ink-powered incumbents this October. Sounds very much like the Eee Tablet to us, but the headline feature of handwriting recognition isn't mentioned, so this could be the same or a slightly different device. A saving grace for this spendy slate may be ASUS' current negotiations for mobile carrier subsidies, which may prevent users from ever having to (directly) clash with that exorbitant price. That also suggests this 8-incher will have 3G connectivity on board, which might make it an appealing straddler of categories if it manages to accessorize itself with a robust web browser and healthy battery life. Let's wait and see, eh?
Samsung 800P digital photo frame: because quality matters
You're smart right? Then you probably know that all those low-priced, off-brand digital photo frames with laughably poor instruction manuals and confusing user interfaces so aggressively hocked during the holidays share one common trait: poor displays. Unfortunately, most shoppers won't figure this out until they've brought the unit home. Fact is, you have to pay a little extra to get a decent 8- to 10-inch panel. And really, what's more important than the display on a digital picture frame? So check Samsung's new 800P 8-inch frame. It features an LED-backlit 800x480 pixel panel, 2GB of internal storage (plus microSD expansion), Bluetooth 2.0, support for video and music playback, and Samsung's second generation UI and panel-making expertise. On sale now in Korea for 199,000 of the local stuff or about $159 of the almighty dollar whenever it heads west.
AUO unveils curved, slim and an 8-inch multi-touch display
AU Optronics (AUO) is tooting the "world's first" horn this morning with its new curved TFT-LCD process on glass substrate. They've also got the world's slimmest -- 0.63mm -- TFT-LCD available in both 1.9-inch and relatively massive 8-inch versions, the latter boasting a 400cd/m2 brightness and 2.1-gram weight. Not bad, but they can't hold a candela to future generation OLEDs. Perhaps most interesting, though, are a pair of in-cell, multi-touch displays offered at 4.3- and 8-inches. The panels are said to offer superior anti-glare properties while manufacturing the multi-touch feature directly into the LCD cell without necessitating any additional glass. The 4.3-inch panel hits mass-production this quarter. Feel free to speculate on which MID devices might sport 'em. [Via DigiTimes]
