The Archos GamePad was a basic Android-powered, large PSP knockoff at first sight. Who needs a 7-inch tablet with game controls on the sides when so few Android games support controllers in the first place? But the device was so much more than that, with some incredibly innovative software built in that allowed mapping physical buttons to areas of the screen. This even included mapping joysticks to virtual sticks. The software was an incredible idea, but the overall presentation of the device was not flawless.
Archos has announced the GamePad 2 to make up for some of the original’s faults. It packs a 7-inch 1280 x 800 display, 1.6GHz quad core processor with a Mali-400 GPU, 2GB of RAM, 8 or 16GB of storage with a microSD slot (and Apps to SD support), front facing camera, Android 4.2, stereo speakers and of course the controller buttons and sticks. It’s a much more powerful device, even if isn’t bleeding edge.
On the software side, it includes the Play Store and an improved version of its button mapping software. Archos also includes Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour and Asphalt 8 Airborne pre-loaded onto the device, both with full controller support.
And of course, the device can also be used as a regular tablet. It has an unskinned version of Android 4.2, meaning you get things like web browsing and multi-user support. Archos also added a few multimedia apps for a better media experience. It’s a pretty good tablet for it all.
The device will be priced at around $250, which is quite low for a tablet. It’s coming out by the end of the month, and though the previous model wasn’t a big success, I’m hoping this one will be. It looks like an awesome product, and I hope it will work just as well. Would you consider getting one? Leave a comment!
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