ARCHOS Hello 5, 7, 10 Bring Full Android To Smart Displays
Google has been pushing its Assistant to all sorts of products and services and its latest campaign involves a new breed of Smart Displays from Lenovo, JBL, and LG, among others. With the Amazon Echo Show leading the way, a new market might be on the verge of booming. Not one to let an opportunity pass, ARCHOS has unveiled not one, not even two but three Hello smart displays. The catch is that, while they do support Google Assistant, they're doing so by running a full Android OS inside.
Except for actual Android devices, Google Assistant's incarnation on the likes of the Google Home and, lately, Smart Displays, haven't exactly been based on Android directly. They're more closely related to Chromecasts, being lightweight and special-purpose devices rather than repurposed smartphones or tablets.
In contrast, the ARCHOS Hello family is exactly that, repurposed Android tablets. Not that users will probably complain. With Android running on those smart displays, they're not at all limited to the capabilities of Google Assistant. In fact, Google Assistant is just a bonus that comes from the fact that these are Android 8.1 Oreo devices.
All three mostly have the same resolution, which makes the largest 10-inch Hello 10 less pixel dense. They all have the same 2 GB RAM and 16 GB storage configuration. They really differ only in size, with the 7-inch ARCHOS Hello 7 being the sweet spot since it can be used in landscape or portrait orientations. Almost like the Lenovo Smart Displays.
Admittedly, the ARCHOS Hello 5 is the most interesting visually speaking. It is the most stylish and also most eccentric, looking like an egg with its top and front chopped off. It's definitely designed to be the center of attraction or distraction of your room's decor, but the built-in battery, a trait all three displays share, makes it easy to move it anywhere.
The ARCHOS Hello 5, Hello 7, and Hello 10 will hit shelves in Europe next month. They will cost 129 EUR ($150), 149 EUR ($174), and 199 EUR ($233), respectively. No word on international availability for these rather odd Android devices.