Archos Launches 101 XS 2 Tablet in December for Cheap

Archos said on Tuesday that its latest Gen11 tablet, the Archos 101 XS 2, will be made available in the United States starting this December for a meager price of $249 USD… with the Coverboard included. That's not a bad price for a 10.1 inch tablet considering that the Nexus 10 starts at $399 and the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire HDX starts at $379 USD.

According to the specs, this tablet sports a 10.1 inch IPS screen with a 1280 x 800 resolution, backed by a SoC with four Cortex-A9 cores clocked at 1.6 GHz and four Mali 400 MP4 GPU cores, 2 GB of RAM, and Google's Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean," which has full access to Google's services. The tablet also provides 16 GB of internal storage (some of which is eaten by the OS), and a microSD card slot providing up to 64 GB of extra storage.

The upcoming tablet also features a 2MP camera on the front, a 2MP camera on the back, a built-in microphone, and dual stereo speakers mounted on the front. Additional features include a microUSB 2.0 port supporting external USB devices like tablets and mice, dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, support for WiFi direct, and miniHDMI output.

"The Archos Media Center applications include the most complete audio and video codec and format support. Using over 12 years of mobile video and audio experience, these apps are designed to play every file and video available, including true 1080p HD video," reads the company press release. "The Archos Media Center includes a special video carousel to easily organize and find movie and TV show information by title, series, actor and more."

Surprisingly, the low pricetag also includes the ultra-thin magnetic Coverboard. This peripheral acts as a comfortable chicklet keyboard so that users aren't forced to type their email or documents on the screen, or pair a bulky external keyboard. The peripheral also serves as a protective cover, helping reduce the number of scratches and scrapes on the screen when not in use. The cover also includes a kickstand for easier movie watching and serves as a charging dock for the tablet.

As previously stated, the upcoming Archos tablet will be sold in December from the company's website for a mere $279 USD, just in time for the holidays!