A Phone to Watch: Archos

Posted by: Olga Kharif on May 18, 2009

A lot of new, highly anticipated smartphones are due to launch this summer. There’s the Palm Pre, the new iPhone (or several), new Samsung phones. But there’s one gadget that’s not getting as much hype as it should: Archos’s upcoming smartphone.

Many will recognize Archos as a brand of portable tablets and media players many users rave about. The devices are beautifully designed, thin and light: Archos 7 tablet measures 7.48” by 4.33” by 0.629”. Based on that, I would suspect that an Archos smartphone could emerge to be a formidable rival.

Back in February, Archos announced that it’s ported Android, a cell-phone operating system, onto an Internet media tablet. While Archos said it would release the smartphone in the third quarter, recent media reports suggest the device may actually hit the market in June. Archos hasn’t yet gotten back to me to confirm the June launch report.