Honestly, this would have been a great Mother's Day present, but the new ChefPad from Archos won't be available until next month for $209.99 USD. It's a "themed" tablet specially designed for cooking enthusiasts, and comes packed in a sturdy silicone case that will keep it safe from water or food splashes in the kitchen. There's also an adjustable stand for the best viewing angle while cooking.
According to Archos, the tablet features an exclusive collection of cooking-based apps ranging from recipes, cooking tips and cooking TV to cooking assistant apps. These are corralled by Archos' exclusive Chef Apps software that curates the best of all apps from Google Play in any specified category, making it easier for the end user to find the right cooking content.
“The ChefPad is the first Archos tablet to use this filtering technology,” says Loïc Poirier, CEO of Archos. “This is just the beginning for Archos tablets using this technology; we will continue to launch new and exciting themed tablets that curate apps in such categories as kids apps, games, educational apps, business/productivity apps and more."
Despite the cooking theme, the new tablet is Google Certified, meaning services like Google Play, Google Maps, Gmail and so on are completely intact – no OS forking here. The device is also powered by an unskinned version of Android 4.1 "Jelly Bean", offering an optimized, super-smooth Android experience. All of this is backed by an SoC with two Cortex-A9 CPU cores clocked at 1.6 GHz and four Mali 400 MP4 GPU cores.
As for other hardware specs, the ChefPad includes 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of internal storage, and a microSD card slot for 64 GB of added storage. There's also a 2MP camera on the back and front, 1080p video playback, a miniHDMI output, and wireless networking. The capacitive touch screen measures 9.7-inches and has a default resolution of 1024 x 768.
The upcoming 9.7-inch ChefPad powered by Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean” will be available starting in June for $209.99 at www.ARCHOS.com.
