Archos has officially announced its Platinum range of Android tablets. The range comprises of three different sized tablets which share many qualities, such as a 1.2GHz quad-core processor and aluminium construction, but are differentiated by their screen size, resolution and, of course, price.
The new Archos Platinum range consists of the Archos 80 Platinum, the Archos 97 Platinum and the Archos 116 Platinum. The model numbers tally with their screen sizes of 8-inches, 9.7-inches and 11.6-inches.
Each of the tablets has the same core computing hardware, ports and interfaces. The Platinum range is equipped with “1.2 GHz Allwinner A-31 quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processors with 8-core graphics and support for 1080p HD video decoding” reports Liliputing. Also in common are the 2GB of RAM, mini-HDMI port and microSD card expandability. All the tablets sport front and back facing cameras and come with Android Jelly Bean 4.1 installed. The tablets are compatible with the Google Play store, as you would expect.
The screen and price differences
Here we see the differences emerge. However all the screens are of the IPS type facilitating wide viewing angles.
- Archos 80 Platinum: 8-inch, 1024 x 768 pixel display. £179 RRP. Available in this month.
- Archos 97 Platinum: 9.7-inch, 2048 x 1536 pixel display. £229 RRP. Available in this month.
- Archos 116 Platinum: 11.6 inch, 1920 x 1080 pixel display. £299 RRP. Available in April.
Archos Android smartphones
According to rumours emanating from the French MiniMachines.net website Archos is about to edge into new territory. The company has danced around the periphery of the smartphone market for a long time with its personal media players and tablet launches and even home telephone systems but now it seems like it is about to stick its toe in the water.
According to the MiniMachines report, via techradar, Archos plans a trio of smartphones which are the “3.5-inch Archos Carbon 35, the 5.2-inch 52 Titanium, and the 4.8-inch 48 Platinum”. The Carbon and Titanium phones will be launched with Android ICS installed but the Platinum will use Jelly Bean from the outset
The cheapest model, the Archos Carbon, priced at around £77, will have a 480 x 320, 3.5-inch screen and 512MB of RAM. The 5.2-inch Titanium phone will reportedly only have a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels, it will be powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core processor. The 4.8-inch Platinum will feature the best resolution of 1280 x 800 and the fastest processor, a 1.7GHz quad-core. The Archos Platinum is expected to cost about £215.
The Android tablet and smartphone marketplace is already very crowded. Archos has really taken its time to get ready and put out some offerings in the smartphone market. Hopefully we will find out more about the company’s new range and their particular selling points at the MWC in a week or so.
