We have known for quite awhile that this day was coming… and it is finally here. Today, ARCHOS officially announced their Android Tablet:

In this new era of open source and collaboration, applications and software are blooming throughout the world. Everyday sees a new gold nugget that will overwhelm the market. That’s the magic behind the common and shared environment of Android™, anyone can create a best-seller. There is so many fun games out there and so many cool applications that it would be a pity to not give you access to them. Here comes the ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet.

The above video highlights 5 areas of the Archos 5 that they say give it an “edge” – listed below with little notes:

Android Apps (pure win)

HiDef TV (record with DVR dock and play back in HD with Video Out!)

Enhanced Internet Capability

GPS (3D maps too!)

Digital TV Reception (1k TV stations)

The Media Club also sounds pretty cool – video and music for purchase or rent, on-demand or streaming, choose from TONS of content. Lets take a peeky peek at the specs, shall we?

Capacity • Flash Memory: 8 to 32 GB* + Micro SD Slot (SDHC compatible)

• Hard Drive: 160 to 500 GB* Display • High resolution screen, 800×480 pixels, 4.8” TFT LCD, 16 million colors

• Touch screen Video playback 7 • MPEG-4 HD (up to 720p)

• MPEG-48 (ASP@L5 AVI, up to DVD resolution)

• H.264 HD (up to 720p)

• WMV (MP@ML, up to DVD resolution) including WMV protected files

• M-JPEG (Motion JPEG Video) in QVGA resolution

With optional plug-in (downloadable from your tablet or on www.archos.com):

• Cinema: MPEG-2, WMV HD (720p), VOB Audio playback 7 • Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR, WMA, Protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM), AAC9(except protected content), AAC+ stereo audio files, Flac and OGG Vorbis.

With optional software plug-ins (downloadable from your tablet or on www.archos.com):

• AC3 stereo audio and 5.1 sound files (via SPDIF output of DVR Station ) Photo viewer 10 JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF Subtitles Support subtitles files with .srt, .ssa, .smi, .sub extensions Video recording 11 • Via the optional DVR Station or DVR Snap-on. Records NTSC/PAL/SECAM in MPEG-4 AVI format with stereo sound, VGA resolution (640 x 480) @ 30 or 25 f/s

• Via the optional TV Snap-on (only available for Europe): Records TV in MPEG-2 TS format. Audio recording • Via the optional DVR Station or DVR Snap-on: Stereo line-in, WAV (IMA ADPCM or PCM) format

• Voice recording with the built-in microphone Others applications Webbrowser, Email, Contacts, DroidIn™, Ebuddy™IM, Twidroid™, Deezer™, Dailymotion™, QuickPedia, ThinkFree Mobile, Moov, CraigsPhone, Pages jaunes™ (only for France), High Paying Jobs (only for US & Canada), Alarm clock, Calculator… Interfaces • USB 2.0: Media Transport Protocol (MTP)

• USB 2.0 Host: Mass Storage Class (MSC) and Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) with optional Mini Dock, Battery Dock and DVR station

• Micro SD (SDHC compatible) on ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet 8 to 32 GB

• Add-on connectors to connect to the DVR Station and other ARCHOS add-ons Communication protocols • WiFi (802.11 b/g/n)

• Bluetooth 2.0

• FM transmitter

• FM receiver (RDS) Miscellaneous • Built-in speaker”• Built-in leg stand• Built-in Microphone Power source • Internal: Lithium Polymer battery

• Device charges via computer USB port

• External: Power adapter/charger (via optional add-on) Battery life • Music playback time12: up to 22 hours13

• Video playback time12: up to 7 hours13 Scalability • Device automatically downloads latest firmware updates when the WiFi connection is activated

• Updates can also be downloaded at www.archos.com Dimensions & weight • ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet Flash series: 143,2×78,8×10,4 mm – 182g• ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet Hard Drive series: 143,2×78,8×20 mm – 286g Minimum system requirements • Microsoft® Windows® XP, Vista, or higher (with Windows media Player 11 for MTP)

• Linux (with Mass Storage Device Support)

• USB 2.0 interface Package includes ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet, earphones, Standard USB cable, DVR Station adapter, Quick Start Guide (QSG), legal and safety notice.

One pretty awesome thing about the ARCHOS 5 is how much work went into informing consumers of its capabilities. There are a boat load of Archos 5 How To Videos available on the website that should give you some great ideas of what is possible and certainly be an aid once you’ve claimed ownership of the Android tablet.

The ARCHOS comes prepackaged with a bunch of Applications and the company highlights 10… interesting to see which ones they chose: Deezer, Dailymotion, twidroid, ebuddy IM, droidin, quickpedia, ThinkFree Mobile, CraigsPhone, Move, High Paying Jobs. Interesting choices and nice ones at that.

The ARCHOS 5 with Android has some awesome features including numerous hard drive options that will store up to half a terabyte and tons of multimedia love in addition to everything that is Android. But there are some downsides – two notable ones.

The ARCHOS 5 launches the mobile versions of sites by default since the webpages detect Android – a mobile browser – and assume that is the best way to display. Hopefully ARCHOS updates the default Android Browser to override the setting that indicates it is a mobile browser when loaded by web servers. While the HTC Hero enables Flash for Android, the capability was probably licensed and ARCHOS has not licensed anything so we get the default Android abilities. Which means no flash. Which means no streaming video on the web. Until Adobe launches Flash 10 at least or this capability is made as a core Android function.

Still, the ARCHOS 5 is a device poised to make in impact. There is nothing on the market quite like it and Android gives it the boost it needs to succeed. Anyone out there incredibly eager to buy this puppy?

[Via ARCHOS]