Archos announces new 10-inch, 9-inch netbooks
Archos, the company better-known for its innovative hard drive-based portable media players and Internet tablets, is making a big push into Atom-based netbooks. At Mobile World Congress this week, the company announced a thinner version of its new 10-inch MiniPCs, and said it was working on several new versions based on both current and unreleased Intel chips and chipsets.
The Archos 10s MiniPC will have a 10.2-inch LED-backlit display, Intel Atom processor, 1GB of memory, hard drives from 60- to 160GB, and Windows XP Home. The 10s is an update to a model Archos announced only a few months ago. The new version is thinner, at 0.8 inches thick, and it will have a metal casing that looks more like Archos Internet Tablets. Archos did not announce pricing for the 10s, which will be available in April, but the Archos 10 currently sells for $400 with a 3-cell battery or $450 with an extended 6-cell battery.
Archos is also working on a 9-inch MiniPC without a physical keyboard that will measure 0.7 inches thick and weigh only 1.8 pounds. The device will have a virtual keyboard touchscreen and a trackpoint mouse. It will be based on an Intel Atom Z series processor, and the company says it will offer the same features and performance as regular netbooks including 60- to 180GB hard drives. This should make for an interesting comparison with the OQO model 2+ Mobile Internet Device (MID). The 9-inch MiniPC will be available in third quarter. Finally, Archos said it is working on next-generation devices based on Intel's Moorestown platform, which will replace Intel's current netbook and MID platform sometime in 2010.
[Read the Archos 10s press release] [Read the Archos 10 press release]