Archos Arnova jumps into netbook market

The name Archos is more often than not associated with that of portable media players, but this time around the company decided to take the plunge into the world of netbooks with the Archos Arnova. This machine will target the budget-minded, where it is powered by a 533MHz ARM-based processor, coupled with 128MB RAM, 2GB of internal memory and the now ancient Windows CE 60 operating system. Judging by those specifications alone, you can more or less tell that it is much more suitable for surfing the Internet than doing anything else, and we would advise against running more than just a few applications unless you don’t mind having everything slow down to a crawl. Retailing for £126.75 a pop at Amazon UK, it translates to slightly more than $200 if it were to make its way Stateside. Other hardware specifications include a 10.2-inch TFT display, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connectivity, a 2100mAh battery, a trio of USB ports, an Ethernet jack and an SD memory card slot. We do hope to see this jump through the FCC’s hoops in due time though, as it might just make for a simple, large screen Internet surfing machine.