Hot on the heels of a retailer leak last week, Archos has today officially announced the GamePad 2 — its second attempt at an Android-powered handheld gaming device. Like its predecessor, the new GamePad features a 7-inch display, but the resolution's been upped to 1280x800 pixels. Similarly, it's now packing a 1.6GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM, which should improve performance and multitasking capabilities. Storage-wise, you're looking at 16 and 32GB options with microSD support for up to 64GB cards. Apps to SD support is included too, allowing you to push some apps to external storage. And it's running Android 4.2 Jelly Bean with the full complement of Google apps.
Archos is also touting a new version of its Game Mapping tool, which lets gamers map any area of the screen to one of the physical buttons, allowing compatibility even with games that don't natively support hardware controls. And to sweeten the deal it's throwing in full complete versions of Gameloft's Asphalt 8: Airborne and Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, fully optimized for use with gamepad controls.
The Archos GamePad 2 will be available from the end of the month, priced at €179.99.
Source: Archos
