Archos GamePad goes on sale in the US for $179

The portable gaming device is available now, equipped with a dual-core CPU; physical buttons and analog sticks located on either side of a 7-inch touch panel

Ivan Zhekov, Published 03/22/2013

The Archos GamePad tablet has been available in Europe for a while and it seems the mobile gaming system is ready to try its luck across the pond. Reportedly, the French-made device is now available to customers in the United States (via online retailers) and has a starting price of $179.

First unveiled back in August of 2012, the GamePad is, as the name implies, a gaming tablet based on an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. It is also a Google-approved product, which means users will have access to the Google Play store. The USP of this tablet is perhaps the fact that it comes equipped with 12 ‘facial’ and 2 ‘shoulder’ buttons that are complemented by two analog sticks, thus “giving you full control for your games”.

In terms of specs, the slab is equipped with a dual-core ARM chip operating at a frequency of 1.6GHz and a quad-core Mali 400 MP video card. Moreover, it features a 7-inch multi-touch (5 points) display with a 1024-by-600 pixels resolution, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash storage (expandable by up to 64GB via the built-in micro-SD/SDHC card reader slot).

The Archos GamePad further offers a front-facing web camera for video calls, one USB 2.0 port, a mini-HDMI output, G-sensor and Wireless LAN connectivity, and weighs 330g (about 11.6 oz.) with the integrated battery.