Archos Launches Budget Android Lollipop Smartphones, One Windows 10 Mobile Variant
Archos launched a mid-range Diamond S smartphone with Android 5.1 Lollipop, a lower-end Android-powered Archos 50e Helium, and a Windows 10-powered Archos 50e Cessium. The Helium and Cessium handsets are essentially the same phone, but one has Windows 10 on it (we presume Archos meant "Windows 10 Mobile") instead of Android Lollipop.
The higher-end Archos Diamond S costs only £160 and has a Mediatek MT6753 octa-core processor that contains eight Cortex-A53 CPU cores and a Mali-T720 GPU. The device also features a 5" HD Super AMOLED screen protected by Gorilla Glass 3, 2 GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, a 16MP camera on the back and an 8MP front-camera for selfies and higher-quality video-chats. The phone supports Bluetooth 4.0 and LTE and comes with a 2,300 mAh battery, which is likely to be adequate at best for a 5" device with an HD display.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Archos Diamond S |
|---|---|
| SoC | Mediatek MT6753 |
| Screen | 5-inch Super AMOLED |
| Resolution | 1280 x 720 |
| RAM | 2 GB |
| Storage | 16 GB |
| microSD support | Yes (up to 32 GB) |
| Camera | 16MP |
| Front-camera | 8MP |
| LTE support | Yes |
| Dual-SIM | Yes |
| Battery | 2,300 mAh |
| Dimensions | 152.6mm x 76.4m x 8.4mm |
| OS | Android 5.1 |
The twin Archos 50e Helium and Archos 50 Cessium both cost only £99 each. The hardware of the two devices is identical except for the operating system that each is running, and Archos's CEO believes this way, users will get to pick their favorite OS.
“By providing a choice between two almost identical hardware models, we allow the customer to focus on what they like on the inside: the user interface. Android and Windows are both fantastic and provide varied software experiences," said Loic Poirier, CEO of ARCHOS.
The two cheaper devices come with the lower-end Snapdragon 210, which includes a quad-core 1.1 GHz Cortex-A7 CPU and an Adreno 304 GPU. They also have 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage (which likely doesn't leave too much room for apps on either of the two models), microSD support up to 32 GB and a 5" HD IPS screen. There's an 8MP camera on the back, a 2 MP camera on the front, and a 2,100 mAh battery. The two budget devices also support LTE and Bluetooth 4.0.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | ARCHOS 50e Helium/50 Cessium |
|---|---|
| SoC | Snapdragon 210 |
| Screen | 5-inch IPS |
| Resolution | 1280 x 720 |
| RAM | 1 GB |
| Storage | 8 GB |
| microSD support | Yes (up to 32 GB) |
| Camera | 8MP |
| Front-camera | 2MP |
| LTE support | Yes |
| Dual-SIM | Yes |
| Battery | 2,100 mAh |
| Dimensions | 147mm x 72.5mm x 8.5mm |
| OS | Android 5.1/Windows 10 Mobile |
All three devices will be shown at IFA next week and are expected to launch in November.
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Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
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thundervore 8GB phones are so terrible. By the time all the prebundled Google apps update and you install Facebook you phone till tell you "insufficient storage" after a few months.Reply
I deal with this every time Facebook, Google Maps and Google Games wants to update where to get space I have to uninstall and then update :(
16GB should be the minimum standard for entry level phones -
targetdrone Reply8GB phones are so terrible. By the time all the prebundled Google apps update and you install Facebook you phone till tell you "insufficient storage" after a few months.
I deal with this every time Facebook, Google Maps and Google Games wants to update where to get space I have to uninstall and then update :(
16GB should be the minimum standard for entry level phones
Atleast this entry level phone has a SDHC slot unlike some flagship phones that cost 4 to 5 times as much with only 32GB of storage. -
razor512 Archos is the worst electronic device maker ever?Reply
They constantly design things with sub par specs, and cut corners. For example, during a time when most device makers were using capacitive touch screens, and wide viewing angle TN panels, archos was using narrow viewing angle TN panels and restive touch screens, all while charging close to the price of better devices. Furthermore they started early on the process of non user replaceable batteries and no SD card slot -
loki1944 I wish they'd make a new version of their old 250GB/500GB Archos, still have mine, but the connectors are terrible and go bad over time; something with mini-displayport+screen+capacity would be awesome. More awesome than an 8GB phone anyway.Reply -
alextheblue Reply8GB phones are so terrible.
16GB should be the minimum standard for entry level phones
It's not as big a deal on the Windows version. You can uninstall any preinstalled apps you don't want, for one. Second, Windows Mobile has better SD card support. You can basically have everything but the OS moved to the SD card, and have it default to the SD card as well for future photos/videos/downloads/etc.
With that being said, i'd still prefer more internal memory but these are low-end devices.