Archos Announces The $99 Arnova 7 Tablet With Android 2.2

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Lets start this by saying that I like Archos. And not only do I like Archos, but I have actually purchased and regularly use an Archos 32. That being said, Archos tends to make affordable devices that well, are not always sporting the highest quality features. Nonetheless, they are still viable because they tend to be fairly priced.

Well, taking that a step further and Archos has recently been pushing the Arnova line of tablets which is taking the budget pricing a step further. Enter the latest — the Arnova 7 tablet with Android 2.2 Froyo. Taking that, and the $99 price tag and it sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

Of course, that pretty sweet deal comes with a catch when you start reading the specs. To begin with, the display, which measures in at 7 inches is resistive in nature and is only sporting a resolution of 800 x 480. Otherwise, some of the other specs include 4GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, a built-in speaker and microphone.

With that, you may notice that some items appear to be missing. For example, no mention was made of GPS, Bluetooth or camera. Nope, the Arnova 7 is not sporting a camera on either the front or back. But then again, a budget price of just below $100 probably means cutting some of the fat.

Some of the other details on the Arnova 7 include that it is capable of 720p video playback and that it measures in at 7.6 x 4.7 x 0.5 inches with a weight of 12 ounces. And lastly, as we have seen with other Archos devices, this one will not be sporting the Android Market and will instead have app support by way of the AppsLib market. Then again, if this tablet follows the pattern of other Archos tablets, there will be a third party method of getting Android Market access.

Bottom line, while nice to see an Android tablet drop below $100, we cannot help but feel that this one has the specs to match that low price.