TechDomino
Archon 80 Cobalt
The newly surfaced Archos 80 Xenon seems to be yet another Apple iPad Mini competitor, after the Acer Iconia A1, although it seems to have a price that is significantly higher at 226 euro, which could be translated to around a $250 price tag in US.
Archos 80 Xenon Specs
The Archos 80 Xenon tablet looks like it will have the same 4:3 proportions of an Apple iPad Mini, just like the Acer Iconia A1, and the same 1024×768 resolution. It also comes with a dual core 1.2 Ghz processor (probably ARM Cortex A9), 512 MB of RAM (seems pretty low for the price), 4 GB of storage, and comes with a microSD slot, and 3G connection. It also has a 3 MP back camera, and a 0.3 MP front camera (VGA). It’s running Android 4.1, so it should be pretty snappy.
What worries me, though, is the price of the tablet. With these specs and that pricing, maybe I could expect this from Samsung or Sony, but the price for those specs doesn’t make a lot of sense coming from Archos. It would make more sense that the Archos 80 Xenon tablet cost $150, not $250.
Archos 80 Xenon vs Acer Iconia A1 vs Google Nexus 7
From my point of view, this tablet doesn’t seem very competitive. If I were to choose, I’d rather choose the Acer Iconia A1, pay more for the Google Nexus 7, or just wait for the next-gen Nexus 7. Those are much more compelling options, and either they cost less money, or about the same, and are of much higher quality, have much better performance, and better displays, too.
That doesn’t mean Archos won’t be able to sell this if they market it to the right crowd for them, but I don’t think the Archos 80 Xenon will be very popular with the more knowledgeable crowd otherwise. Not to mention that Apple is going to release a new “retina” iPad Mini this year, which even though will be more expensive, will put this tablet even more behind in terms of value per buck, and overall experience of using it.
[Via ArcTablet]
