The Archos 9 is a nine-inch, handheld tablet PC running Microsoft's new Windows 7 operating system. Internally, the Archos 9 is essentially a low-end netbook, with a 1.2 GHz Intel Atom processor and a modest 80-gigabyte hard drive.

Of course, it's a tablet, so it uses a touch interface. Supposedly Windows 7 is designed to better handle this than previous versions of the OS. The tablet also has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and somewhat more unusually, DVB-T antennae for receiving European TV broadcasts (at least in the European model).

Since there's no physical keyboard, you'll be able to use a touchscreen keyboard, but the touchscreen is resistive and not capacitive, which means it could potentially be a little frustrating to use sometimes.

The device has been priced at $549.99 in the United States, and is available for pre-order. Archos had initially planned to ship this device on October 22nd, but clearly that didn't happen. Now the estimated ship day is "early December," with the retail launch scheduled to occur in the first quarter of 2010.

[Images courtesy of ArchosLounge.]