Recently I’ve seen one of the Archos G9 tablets with Ice Cream Sandwich on board in a demo and now it appears that both the G9 units will receive Ice Cream Sandwich as an update in Q1 2012. Right now Archos is seen as the maker of cheap tablets, that provide about the same features as high end models, but with lower performance and less quality in build.
It’s strange to see low end makers such as Huawei and Archos getting ICS out there ahead of companies such as Samsung and ASUS… Motorola is seen as the favorite for updating its tablets to the latest Android, since it was bought by Google after all. However, don’t be surprised if brands such as ZTE, Pantech, Huawei or Archos beat them to the punch. In the meantime, you can go pick up one of the Archos Turbo edition tablets, that are on sale round Christmas time for $469. They upgrade the performance of the original model slightly, packing a 1.2GHz TI OMAP dual core processor and 512MB of RAM.
The 10.1 Archos G9 supports a 1280 x 800 pixel resolution and comes with 16 GB of storage. I have to admit that the price is a bit steep for what we’re getting, especially considering the amount you pay is close to the one a user pays to get his iPad 2. Well, at least you have the promise that you’ll get Android 4.0, if that’s any consolation. In case you deal with CyanogenMod on a regular basis, that won’t interest you a bit…
