Archos Ice Cream Sandwich Gen9 Turbo tablet up for Pre-order

Richard Fieldhouse (Updated 21 February. Original 15 February2012)

This new Archos tablet has been expected for a while, but now it can be pre-ordered with a promised delivery date of the 10th of April. (This date has changed a couple of times since the page first appeared so do check it.)

What is special about this tablet is that it comes with the new version of Android (4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS for short). There have been other ICS tablets but in most cases up to now significant compromises have been needed to get your hands on the new platform:

The Novo 7 does not have access to many important apps. (See our mini-review)
Other tablets are supplied with Android Honeycomb, expecting you up do the ICS update yourself.

The Asus EeePad Transformer Prime, despite blazing performance, comes with many rumours that wireless connectivity is compromised by the metal case. Plus the proper details say this too is delivered with Android 3.2.

But for this new Archos tablet there are getting to be fewer issues.

There are some caveats however:

The base version comes without much internal memory (8gb) on the basis that you will buy a supplement (like the one below) for yourself if you need it.

The body is plastic. Although it's quite good quality, it does flex a bit. And it is quite a bit fatter than the sexiest tablets like the iPad 2, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Toshiba AT200.

3G access, if you want it, comes either via your mobile phone, or via a special

accessory which plugs into the main unit (see right). This is rather like the standard laptop solution except that the stick can be fitted flush into the body in place of a blank that comes when you first get the tablet. In the greater scheme of things, this is probably a good thing.

Compare the Specifications