Archos 9 tablet/netbook will be among the first to run Windows 7.
Archos had an event in France this week and while an Android device is what many were waiting for, the company unveiled a sleek little tablet PC designed to run a cut down version of Windows 7. The tablet is called the
Archos 9. As the name implies the device has a 9-inch screen and at its core is a netbook with a tablet form factor very much like the
Dynamism Viliv X70 I talked about earlier this week.
The machine has a 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 CPU, 80GB HDD, Bluetooth, and dual DVB-T antennas for TV on the go. Availability is expected to be in the September/October time frame, which is when Windows 7 is expected to launch. The price is said to be about $US633 ($AU800), which seems expensive to me.
I always think of tablets as very portable machines along the lines of a UMPC. I'm not sure that a big 9-inch tablet is the thing most of us want. I still say if you are intrigued by a tablet computer you should go for a convertible netbook, at least when the tablet novelty wears off you have a real keyboard to use.