Archos Lays Claim to First Sub-$200 Honeycomb Tablet

How do you make a splash in an Android tablet market that's suddenly fleshed out with a high-end Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet (or soon will be, courtesy of the Eee Prime Transformer 2 by Asus) and low-cost 7-inch slates built by Amazon and Barnes & Noble? By being the first to release a Honeycomb tablet for less than 200 bones, is how Archos answers that question.

The Archos 70b IT is an enhanced version of the Archos 70 IT Gen 8 and features an upgraded capacitive touchscreen and 1.2GHz processor. It also has 512MB of RAM, a 1024x600 screen resolution, HDMI output, microSD card slot, and of course Android 3.2 (Honeycomb) software.


"Very slim and light, the newest version of the Archos 70 internet tablet Gen 8, offers the best performances in terms of portability, immediate internet access, multimedia, apps and affordability," Archos said. "This new version has a higher resolution capacitive screen (1024x600) for vibrant colors and crisp clarity and has doubled the RAM to 512 MB for a smoother Web experience and more efficient multitasking."

Archos tells us the 70b will be available in stores starting in January 2012 for $199.