Archos 7" Android tablet with thumbsticks :
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...aming-tablet-that-looks-like-playstation-vita
Not the most meaty hardware, but it bridges the gap between handheld console and Android tablet nicely.
Hardware is definitely not the most meaty but still good. The Mali mp400 in its 4 cores configuration does pretty well (Apple A4 lvl of performance in the galaxy S2).
We don't know the architecture used for the CPU but we know the clock speed 1.5 GHz.
I would bet on a
Samsung Exynos 4 dual using 32nm Samsung lithography as it's the only shipping product with such characteristic.
The thing must perform no that far from an iPad 2 (A5).
I could not open the pdf with exact specs on samsung website for some reason... But I expect those Exynos to have more L2 than both the ipad2 (A5) and the PSV.
In CPU power it beats the iPad2 in every metrics, it beats the PSV in single thread performance on clock speed alone.
I expect the Mali mp400 to be clocked a bit higher than in the Galaxy S2 (45nm version), not too mention than Archos could tweak clock speed a bit and there is a bit more room for thermal dissipation in a tablet than in a phone.
Coming with ICS I also expect 1GB of ram more than both aforementioned product (though vs the psv Android and iOs take their share obviously) but still has its importance.
Overall I expect that Samsung chips to crush the psv when it comes to battery life and the chip to include way better power management feature.
I don't expect the screen to be great but it's a pretty standard 1280/800 7inches display. Definitely a plus by self, visibility in game is better. For media and web browsing it's not even in the same ballpark imho. As a down side I suspect that it will consumes more than the PSV screen more than making up (negatively) for the gain from the SOC.
Not too bad as they should ship the thing between 150$ and 200$.
Then on a software pov, games are still sucky but ICS/Android is order of magnitude above what Sony provides with the PSV.
That's pretty much where I wanted Sony to be for the PSV. I feel almost sorry for Sony and I really question their decision processes. Archos is not a big brand that device is not threatening them but (there is always a but) how it comes Archos can ship such a device somewhere between 150$ and 200$ and make a profit and Sony loses money (it seems) on their 250$ PSV?
This imo is bad, OK PSV somehow subsidizes for other Sony division (I guess the costly screen, etc.) but they have to stop that crap, they are heading to a wall at Mach 1 speed.
I also suspect that difference in the R&D budget between both device in a blend of an order of magnitude and a few power of 2 higher in favor of the PSV.
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I would like to move and look a bit forward. I read this today (sorry it's French):
http://www.pcinpact.com/news/73435-lunreal-engine-3-depic-games-deja-porte-sur-windows-rt.htm
[OT] there seems to be a partnership between Nvidia and EPic, Nvidia is definitely playing clever in the embedded market, no matter their hardware is not the best they manage to exist and more than that. Impressive. Interestingly they point out that on that platform they ported the whole UE3 engine and hint at some ports from nowadays pc/consoles games.[/OT]
That issue I've with that is that next years (q4 2013 or may be even before) there could be follow up to that Archos initiative (by them selves or others). It's a really bad omen, really bad
I don't know how much MSFT asks for a Win8 RT license. But imagine that next years you could have refresh of such a products as this Archos GameTab, in the same price, running on tegra 4, newer Exynos version powered by dual A15 configuration, or Qualcom product based on Krait. All this with newer / faster GPU. All this faster RAM and possibly more ram.
They are to run newer version of Android or Windows 8.
I mean what will be left to Sony? They are losing one year as they can't drop the price whereas in the time the market is moving fast in the mobile front. Free to play for lot of games is closer and closer to us. Worst part they are already losing money.
Honestly it almost pissies me off CEO are bright people but some corporations still act in insane fashions... Next thing you know the clever CEO dumps another few thousand people that were actually doing their jobs properly.
EDIT
Honestly IT ACTUALLY pisses me off, I lied
