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Archos 70B Android Tablet Coming Next Month for $199 – Vox Killer?

CES is a few weeks away, and it looks like Archos is getting their gadget  announcements out before everyone else. They’ve just unveiled a new Honeycomb tablet called the 70b, and they plan to ship it next month.

If the performance matches the specs then this is a serious competition to the $200 ereader/tablets.

The 70b is running Android v3.2 on a 1.2GHz CPU. It has the same high resolution screen and capacitive touchscreen as found on the Kindle Fire, Kobo Vox, and Nook Tablet. Teh base model cones with 8GB Flash storage, a microSD card slot, Wifi, HDMI out, but it doesn’t appear to have a camera or Bluetooth.

This is a Google approved tablet, and that means it ships with the Android Market, unlike its direct competitors the Kindle fire, Nook Color, and Kobo Vox. Out of the box, the 70b will have access to a quarter of a million Android apps.

So why am I calling this a Vox killer? I’m beginning to see signs that the Vox isn’t doing all that well; namely, you can find the Vox on sale at Walmart and Best Buy right now. This tablet beats the VOX on hardware specs and OS, and matches it on price. The 70b is a Honeycomb tablet, and the Vox & KF run on Gingerbread. Gingerbread is nice, but trust me when I say that there is a noticeable difference in the general performance of these 2 versions of Android. And while I don’t think Archos has the muscle to take on the 2 giants, but it is strong enough to increase the pressure on one of the little guys.

In any case, Archos is on my list for CES, along with a number of other tablet makers. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing this tablet.

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Comments


Jimmy Suggs December 20, 2011 um 11:38 am

I hope the build quality is better than previous Archos tablets.

I’ve found them to be flimsy and cheap, with a glitchy user experience. Hopefully they’ve upped the quality a tad with this new release.


Alexander Inglis December 20, 2011 um 1:16 pm

The Archos sounds promising … but I’m more impressed to see the Kobo Vox available for sale at Walmart US. I don’t think that’s a sign of distress … I think that’s great news that its in that distribution channel. And at $169 as a colour ereader it delivers good value.

Kobo is known to continually update its hardware with performance enhancements (not just bug fixes) on pretty much a monthly basis. So no doubt the utility of the device will grow even in the short run.


Tyler December 20, 2011 um 4:00 pm

The Vox was the Vox killer.

It is nothing but Kobo’s version of a Pandigital or Cruz tablet except for the space age screen. There are plenty of youtube videos out there panning the device so it is just not just opionion, you can see that it is not up to 2011 specs (let alone 2012). The Nook Color is a better deal than the Vox.

It’s probably on sale to deplete supplies. Kobo needs to make a decent device the next time around. The Touch is good but is not as good as the Nook Touch or Sony PRS1.


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