The Archos G9 family of super cheap Android tablets have done an impressive job of undercutting their rivals with Android 3.0 “Honeycomb” onboard. Now though, they’re set to get a big upgrade: the French gadget manufacturer says Android Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 is on the way. Get a first glimpse of ICS on a slate right here!
As you can see in the video below, Android Ice Cream Sandwich, which is reportedly due for release on the Archos G9 tablets in the first quarter of next year, is running extremely well on a prototype already. In fact, for many people, this will be a first glimpse of Ice Cream Sandwich running on a tablet at all – you can expect plenty of rivals at CES in January, but Archos appears to be the first out of the gate.
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While visually it doesn’t appear much has changed, Ice Cream Sandwich brings lots of changes under the hood which should improve the Archos G9 101 and 80 Android tablets: there’s a lot more reliance on the GPU rather than the CPU, which is why the screen transitions are so much zippier all of a sudden, and you should be able to close apps in the multitasking bar with a swipe to the left or right, as on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android phone.
Check out the video above and let us know what you think. Is an Archos G9 with Ice Cream Sandwich a match made in heaven?
