Archos Preparing Phone-Tablet

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French company Archos has long been making their MID-tablet devices but at CES earlier this month, it was leaked by one of their third-party accessory partners that they’re planning to expand into the smartphone market. It is expected that the Archos smartphone (which, was called by the leak as a “Phone Tablet”) will be a modified version of their popular Archos 5 Internet Tablet.

While the stock Archos 5 tablet (which we covered here) featured a 800MHz processor, reports from CES say that the phone tablet will feature an improved ARM processor that comes with a clock speed of 1GHz. The phone tablet will have a screen size of 4.3-inches, which, I humbly point out, is bigger than the iPhone or Nexus One. It will be running at a resolution of 854 x 480.

It seems that the phone, like the Archos 5 tablet, will be running Android. A smart move by Archos, considering that the growing app library for the Android platform. As for the rest of the hardware, we do know that it will be only 10mm thick, and will be equipped with a 3.5G/GSM cellular connection.

Everything else is a mysterious – but the non-phone version of the Archos 5 tablet came with 128MB of RAM as well as 8GB of flash storage for your media. The Archos 5 would be a strong iPod Touch/iPhone competitor if Archos kept the ample storage in the phone. Blog SlashGear is reporting that Archos will offer a choice between 16, 32 or 64GB of memory in the phone.

No word or pricing, but the plan internet tablet is costing buyers $250. Speculation on the internet expects Archos to unveil the phone at the Mobile World Congress in Spain next month.