IFA 2014 is almost upon us and Archos wants everyone to know that it will also be there. To stay ahead of the spotlight-grabbing flood of announcements that will take place next week, it is unveiling ahead of time its new batch of budget-friendly Android devices, including two new smartphones from its Platinum line and a shiny 10.1-inch Oxygen tablet.
The Platinum series is Archos’ new venture into a more colorful but still affordable line of Android smartphones. It is advertised to have a blazing fast CPU, which in Archos’ world means a 1.3 GHz quad-core Mediatek MT6582. Curiously, the manufacturer has placed only 512 MB of RAM in here, sure to be the bottle neck of the whole device. The 50b, which is the standard bearer of the line, has a display that spans 5.0 inches but only sports a 960×540 qHD resolution. Another curiousity is the cameras, which are interestingly decent at 8 megapixels and 2 megapixels for the rear and the front, respectively. All of these powered by a measly 1,900 mAh battery.
Archos will be bundling quite a lot with the 50b Platinum, including 2 colored back cases, 1 crystal case, and an 8 GB microSD card. All for just ₤119, roughly $197 in the US. There is also a smaller version, the 45c Platinum. The 4.5-inch FWVGA screen plus the lack of the crystal case and microSD card in the package lets Archos push down its price to ₤99 or $164.
The Archos 101 Oxygen is the company’s latest entry into the tablet world and it comes with slightly higher specs. An unnamed quad-core Cortex-A17 runs the show, which could reach up to 2 GHz in speed. There is happily at least 1.5 GB of RAM in this thing, paired with 16 GB of internal storage. The 10.1-inch display is also noted to support a 1080p resolution. Not much else has been published about this tablet aside from the ₤199 price tag, around $330. All three are scheduled to launch in September, but not before making an appearance at Archos’ IFA 2014 booth next week.
SOURCE: Archos
