Archos has a very balanced and diverse budget-friendly tablet offering, including a couple of undervalued greats like the Gamepad and 101 XS. But one of the most eccentric gadgets released by Archos lately is definitely the FamilyPad.

The thing is more like a (barely) portable TV set than a tablet, sporting a beastly 13.3-inch display. It wasn’t the first of its kind, following on the footsteps of the herculean Toshiba Excite 13, but, believe it or not, it’s the first to warrant a follow-up.

Wait, what, Archos is already prepping a FamilyPad 2? Just a few months after the first edition went on sale? Precisely, and, based on a couple of messages posted on the company’s Facebook page, it’s even going to be made available “soon”.

The FamilyPad 2 comes with several important spec bumps over the first-gen, but it still kind of packs last year’s hardware. There’s a dual-core Cortex A9-based CPU clocked at 1.6 GHz inside the behemoth, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of on-board storage and microSD support.

The display is the same, both in size (13.3 inches) and resolution (1,280 x 800 pixels), which is kind of disappointing. Still, there’s a noticeable upgrade in the software department, where Android 4.0 ICS has been replaced with 4.1 Jelly Bean.

Other features include dual 2 MP cameras (just like before) and Wi-Fi connectivity, while as far as the design goes you can say the FamilyPad 2 is an exact replica of its predecessor. The two even weigh the same, at 1.3 kg, so carrying them around could turn out to be problematic.

Thankfully, Archos is planning to offer the FamilyPad 2 bundled with a free “quick stand” to make sure you can handle the 13-incher… and to blur the lines between the tab and TV sets even further.

Pricing has only been announced for Europe so far – €299, or $389. Sounds fair enough, we guess, although we don’t really have grounds for comparison, do we? Who wants one and what the heck for?

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