Archos has unveiled a range of affordable smartphones that will offer the stock Android experience for as little as £79.99.
No stranger to Android thanks to its work with the tablet format over the years, Archos is now turning its attention to the smartphone format.
In offering a pure Android experience at rock bottom prices, it certainly has the potential to carve out a niche for itself.
Archos 35 Carbon
The Archos 35 Carbon is the entry point to the range, offering a diddy 3.5-inch 480 x 360 IPS screen, a 1GHz Qualcomm 7225A processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a VGA camera.
It runs on Android 4.04 Ice Cream Sandwich with no custom UI, and it’ll cost just £79.99.
Archos 50 Platinum
Further up the range, the Archos 50 Platinum is considerably beefier. It sports a 5-inch 960 x 540 IPS display and a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm 8225Q CPU, backed by 1GB of RAM. There’s only 4GB of internal storage, but like the rest of the range it comes with a microSD slot.
Add in an 8-megapixel camera and stock Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and you have a reasonably specced mid-ranger for just £179.99.
Archos 53 Platinum
Finally, we have the Archos 53 Platinum. As the name suggests, it’s very similar to the Archos 50 Platinum, with largely the same specs. However, the 53 comes with a slightly larger 5.3-inch display and slightly meatier battery to accompany it.
The 53 Platinum is priced a little higher at £199.99, too.
Stand-Out Features
One of the main gripes critics have had with leading Android manufacturers like Samsung, HTC and Sony is their insistence on using their own custom interfaces over the perfectly wonderful Android OS. By providing a Google Nexus 4-like experience for an even lower price, Archos could be onto something.
Another interesting shared feature across the range is dual-SIM capability, which will allow users to run two mobile contracts simultaneously from a single phone.
We’ll have a better idea of how successful these tactic will be when the Archos 35 Carbon, Archos 50 Platinum and Archos 53 Platinum launch from the end of May.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.