We’ve seen rumors of a few different Android-powered netbooks and laptops from makers like Dell and HP. Now Archos has announced their own Netbook, naming it the ArcBook. The ArcBook has a 10.1-inch display, and an attached keyboard, obviously since it is a Netbook. It’s priced at $170, which is a pretty low price. You’re getting some pretty decent specs actually, dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1.2GHz, 8GB of storage along with a microSD card slot, 1GB of RAM, and a 10.1-inch 1024×600 display. It does have a touch screen along with function buttons and a full on-screen keyboard. They’ve also included a trackpad here, along with a USB 2.0 port, it’s running Android 4.2 Jelly bean as well as having a 8000mAh battery inside. You’re also getting a copy of OfficeSuitePro 6 installed for free. Which is nice to have.
There have been some people asking about Android-powered netbooks and laptops, but I’m having trouble figuring out why anyone would want it. I mean, Android isn’t even all that great on Tablets without some manufacturer skin. Which I think Samsung and LG have done the best with their tablets. And LG is mostly because they copy a lot of Samsung’s stuff. There’s also not a whole lot of great tablets out there right now running on Android, which we are hoping that changes soon, like at Google I/O next month.
Now we’ve already seen benchmarks for a HP and a Dell laptop running on Android 4.4.2. So I’m starting to think that we are going to see a slew of Android-powered laptops and netbooks at Google I/O next month. Hopefully Google has made some big changes to Android so it actually works well on laptops and netbooks, because as it stands, it’s not all that great right now. But we’ll have to wait and see. Anyone out there interested in the Archos ArcBook?