Archos and Seagate team up on high-capacity G9 Android tablets

Archos will be launching a range of Android tablets in September that will leapfrog the amount of storage usually available on the platform by using ultra-slim Seagate hard drives.

The range will initially include a G9 80 8in slim tablet and a G9 10.1in 101 model with up to 16GB of Flash storage or a 250GB hard drive, made possible by 7mm thick Momentus Thin drives from Seagate.

Fitting a platter hard drive into a tablet format enables much greater storage capacity, and the drives are fast enough at 7200RPM to come reasonably close to solid state technology.

"Seagate continues to break new ground in the development of products and technologies that matter most to customers by delivering the Momentus Thin drive for these powerful Archos tablets," said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate chief sales and marketing officer.

"The drive gives tablet buyers a compelling option, providing great storage capacity and performance that dovetail with the processing power of the new Archos products for great Android and multimedia experiences."

The Archos tablets use an ARM A9 dual core processor running at 1.5Ghz, with 1GB of RAM and Android 3.1 for the operating system. The tablets are Wi-Fi only, but can use 3G connections via a USB stick, which can only be used on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Use of the older hard drive technology has enabled Archos to undercut its rivals on price. The 8in tablet will sell in the US for $279 and the 10.1in model will cost $349 – a considerable reduction on the iPad and similar products.

This does however come at a cost. The 250GB G9 101 weighs 755g, compared to the iPad 2's 600g, and battery life may be an issue. The tablets come with a front facing camera, GPS, compass and Bluetooth built in.