Certainly not the first and probably not the last either, in the last few days Archos has announced it’s own take on the tablet gaming phenomenon. The Archos GamePad is an upcoming 7″ tablet with gaming controls integrated. It’ll cost about $250 and boasts a dual 1.5Ghz processor and the quad core variant of the Mali400 GPU. There is no word on the exact SoC used, but given that Archos seemed to favour RockChip in some of its older tablets, it wouldn’t be surprising to find that it is utilising the newish RK3066.
Apparently Archos have worked to add controller support for touchscreen only games, which if done well should provide a seamless integration for both new and old software titles available for Android. The machine will run Android 4.x and the screen resolution is rumoured to be 1280×800. No word on release date yet, and I can’t find anything but renders either, which may mean it’s a little while away from hitting stores. Maybe this will bridge the gap between all those JXD tablets that so nearly got it right, by including real dual analog and a well optimized Android port. We’ll have to wait and see.
Thanks to Rene for sending this in.
I think that SOC will be Amlogic 8726-m6. Chinese producer put on market tablets with this dual core CPU with price under 100 $ with free shipping. Power of this SOC is little bit lower in CPU range, GPU is slower AM have 2 Mali 400 and RK have 4 but on lower frequency. Depend of test RK GPU is faster 10-20 % but price is lower. Tablet with RK3066 is about 140 $ and more.
Now I see in this official Archos press releases that will be 4 core. This will be RK3066.
i have bought MANY of the handheld emulators and none of them have hit the nail on the head. The Caanoo is the closest in my humble opinion- all the Android-based ones I’ve bought kind of suck, especially with the analogue stick/control issues. I will gladly pay for this one, sounds like they’re on the right path!
I’m in the same boat. I have a lot of handhelds but the Wiz actually runs emulators like Temper way better than the caanoo, The Caanoo was a huge let down for me. Lucky for me my wiz never got screen rot
Maybe now Yinlips and JXD will get it.
WOW. That’s very cool. It kinda sucks that I didn’t wait for this one – since it has dual analog sticks – and the controls working for touch-only games! WHAT! That’s awesome. That’s a game changer. I guess I need to start selling more of my toys.
I was going to post you this info yesterday but I figured you already know about it, but I will post a link here with the right price and release date so everyone can see. I’m soo looking forward to this as I have put off buying a Yinlips and the other Chinese handhelds in the hope something like this would come along and it did, yay! lol
http://www.archos.com/corporate/press/press_releases/ARCHOS_GamePad_-_PR_US_29082012.pdf
Good find, cheers.
No problem. When you change your post to reflect the right price and release date can li get some credit please? lol