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Review: Archos 50C Oxygen Smartphone

archos_50coxygen_intro

Archos may be a relatively unknown name in the UK market, but they have been producing a lot of phones in the medium and low budget range, and so far the few we have tried have been quite good. The 50C Oxygen is no exception, and it offers a thin square package, giving you a 5″ screen and octa core processor performance at only £179.00! You have Android KitKat running on this, and rare gems such as dual SIM ability as well as vanilla Android.

Following is a quick summary of the specs:

  • 1280 x 720HD, 5″ IPS Screen
  • Dual SIM support
  • Micro SD
  • 145mm x 69.8mm x 7.64mm, at only 140g
  • Octa Core 1.7GHz CPU, 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB of Internal storage
  • Android KitKat update available (originally Android 4.2)
  • Vanilla Android
  • No 4G
  • 8MP camera rear, with flash, 2MP front camera
  • 2000mAh battery

Look and feel

The phone definitely feels slick and good, not very far off from the likes of Sony Xperia Z3. While curves are sexy, there is something about square edges that appeals to the eye too.

You have the usual two ports, and a set of soft keys at the bottom to give you Home, Back and Recent apps, that doesn’t take room on your screen.

The back has a nice matt finish meaning it is not very slippery, though the screen attracts a lot of finger prints.

As far as the display goes, it is good, but it won’t blow you away compared to the rest.

Performance

8 cores and 1GB of RAM make an interesting combination. The 8 cores means you can run heavy duty software, but 1GB of RAM will fill up fairly quickly. Most of the apps I ran worked perfectly, and there wasn’t much to complain. This isn’t a power horse, but at no point do you think you are running a flimsy slow phone either. It sits in the middle, ticks all the boxes, and there isn’t much to complain about.

Storage

This may be something to do with dual-SIM, but while the phone offers 8GB of storage, I see two sets of 4GB available under storage. One is 3GB occupied, which I imagine is because of the actual OS, while the other one is empty. Not sure what this is about, or how it comes about, or how to control what gets installed or stored where. Peculiar!

Software

Ah, a lot has to be said about Vanilla Android. There is something very good and light about it. I am not a big fan of skins, and Android just works for me in its purest form. This is exactly what Archos has to offer on everything I have tried so far, and that is how I like it. You can obviously install launchers, but it is up to you.

There are a few Archos apps pre-installed, but of course you are happy to use them, or ignore them.

Camera

Not many test shots here, but that is because the camera is good, but nothing amazing. It is similar to the performance you get out of your Moto Gs and your Nexus 5s! It works.

Battery life

They say it lasts more than a day, and yes, you get just about that out of it. Once again, it works.

More information

More information on the phone can be found directly at Archos website:

http://www.archos.com/gb/products/smartphones/oxygen/archos_50coxygen/index.html

And it can be bought directly from them as well, at the following link:

http://www.archos.com/gb/store/index.html?pn=502649

Verdict

The review may make it sound all average, but at under £200, this is a very good phone, with very good all round performance. Dual SIM is useful, though you may have to lose it if you use a Micro SD card. Vanilla Android is great, and is used well on this phone.

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