Archos adds 8-inch tablet to 4G Helium line-up
Archos is standing out in the small tablet game by unveiling an 8-inch slate with 4G cellular service at Mobile World Congress 2014.
Packing the surprisingly rare offering of 4G LTE on an 8-inch slate, the Archos 80 Helium claims to be the first of its size to offer 4G at its £230 starting price. Archos originally announced the Helium 4G lineup at CES 2014, but the 80 Helium tablet is making its proud debut at Mobile World Congress 2014.
Aside from the convenient on-the-go perk of cellular service, the Archos 80 Helium tablet features meek, unremarkable specs, including a 1,024x768-pixel resolution IPS screen and Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS. It houses a 1.2GHz quad-core Cortex A7 CPU and an Adreno 305 GPU, with 1GB of RAM.
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Internal storage is low at 8GB, however, Archos tries to make up for it with a microSD card expansion slot. The 80 Helium tablet also packs a 2-megapixel front camera and a rear 5-megapixel shooter.
The 8-inch slate is an increasingly popular size and attractive option for small tablet shoppers, yet models with high-speed cellular service are scarce. The £230 starting price (around $384) is in the same ballpark as similarly sized 4G capable slates, like the Lenovo ThinkPad 8 and Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Despite the few similarities, the Archos 80 Helium lacks the premium specs and sleek designs that the aforementioned Samsung and Lenovo models share.
Check back for more information on the Archos 80 Helium 4G tablet when we get our hands on it at MWC 2014.