Archos presents 'Hello' portable smart home display with Google Assistant

Archos, the French company that is mostly known for its inexpensive Android devices, has presented its first product in the home assistant market. Archos Hello combines a smart speaker with a built-in display and will launch in 7" and 8.4" sizes.

Full technical details of the two smart home devices are still unknown, although Archos states that the 7-inch model features an 'HD' resolution while the larger 8.4-inch brother does have a clear and specific resolution of Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels). Both Archos Hello devices run on the Android Oreo operating system and will be using Google Assistant for the smart functionality. The design of the smart speakers is a combination of wood and metal, and also features a kickstand.

A 4000 mAH battery is built-in, which allows for use without a power cord although it's unclear how long the battery lasts for both models. The smart displays feature 2 GB of internal memory and offer 16 GB of storage capacity. Archos will be using an unnamed quad-core soc to deliver the necessary horsepower. You can also video chat and take pictures with the 5-megapixel camera.

Archos isn't the first to present a smart home device with a built-in screen, as Amazon launched its Echo Show with Alexa in 2017. Lenovo showed their own smart display at this year's CES.

The 7-inch version of Archos Hello will retail for 129,99 Euros (US$160) while the larger 8.4-inch model carries a price tag of 179,99 Euros (US$221). A specific release date hasn't been made available yet, although Archos aims to release the smart displays this summer.

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