Archos Releases Low Priced 97 Carbon Android Tablet

Archos has been making several budget products since quite a time now and the 97 Carbon is no exception, which is priced at $250 at the time of announcement.

As evident by the name, 97 Carbon has got a 9.7 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels.

Here are the rest of the specs:

9.7 inch IPS technology display with a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels
1.1 cm thick aluminium body
Weight: 618 grams
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
1Ghz single-core ARM Cortex A8 processor with 1Gb RAM
16 Gb internal storage with a microSD card slot
Front and rear facing cameras
USB/HDMI ports
Access to Google Play Store

The tablet also comes pre-loaded with Microsoft’s Office Suite Viewer for viewing MS Office files. At 97 Carbon Tablet’s announcement the Archos CEO said:

“We wanted to introduce a new series that not only combines affordability with a new slim design, but features the best that Google has to offer. With the Elements series we have done just that. It’s the perfect balance of hardware, software optimization and content through the Google Play ecosystem.”

Archos’ 97 Carbon competes with the Google Nexus 7 tablet which comes at the same $250 price tag for the 16Gb flavor while the 8Gb model can be found for as low as $200.

The Archos tablet’s biggest advantage against the Nexus 7 is it’s considerably larger 9.7 inch screen which puts it in the same 10 inch league as the ‘premium’ Ipad.

It will become an even better deal than it already is if Archos manages to update it to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean quickly and the $250 price tag will be justified even further.

Here’s the spec comparison between the Archos 97 Carbon and the Google Nexus 7:

	Archos 97 Carbon	Google Nexus 7
Weight	618g	340g
Thickness	11.4mm	10.5mm
Operating System	Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich	Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
Display size	9.7 inch	7 inch
Resolution	1024 x 768 pixels	800 x 1280
Memory	16Gb	8/16Gb
Card slot	Yes	No
Processor	1Ghz single-core	1.3Ghz Quad-core
RAM	1Gb	1Gb
Rear camera	Yes	No
Front-facing camera	Yes	1.2 mp, 720p HD
Price	$250	$200-8Gb/$250-16Gb

The Archos 97 Carbon did managed to beat Nexus 7 in several categories but it disappoints in the CPU department thanks to its paltry single-core 1Ghz processor. Still, both of them are quite good tablets especially if we consider their prices and their features.

We are anticipating that online stores in Pakistan are likely to enlist 97 Carbon tablet on their charts soon.