14 DAY TRIAL // French company Archos has just announced the upcoming availability of its first smartphone powered by Windows Phone 8.1 operating system, the 40 Cesium. Along with Archos 40 Cesium, the company has also announced that it will offer a Windows 8.1 tablet, the Archos 80 Cesium.
According to Archos, the Windows Phone smartphone will be available for only $100 (€75) outright beginning September. The Archos 80 Cesium tablet will be available on the market starting October for just $150 (€115).
Obviously, at this price, you shouldn’t expect any impressive features, but the French handset maker is known for its cheap products, so it’s no surprise that its first Windows Phone 8.1 handset is an affordable one.
The 40 Cesium has been confirmed to ship with Windows Phone 8.1 operating system out of the box. Archos has also announced that the smartphone's back cases will come in three colors: blue, black and yellow.
Unfortunately, not much is known about the smartphone, except that it will sport a 4-inch capacitive touchscreen display, probably with support for 480 x 800 pixels resolution.
On the inside, Archos 40 Cesium has been confirmed to pack a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 processor, but there’s no info on the clock value. We suspect that the smartphone will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU, but the info has yet to be confirmed by Archos.
It will most likely feature 512MB of RAM and either 4GB or 8GB of internal memory, but users will be able to further expand storage up to 32GB via microSD card slot.
As shown in the press photos, Archos 40 Cesium packs a rear-facing camera with LED flash and video recording, but other details on the main photo snapper are still a mystery.
We can’t say that the smartphone will also include a secondary camera on the front for video calls, but once Archos publishes the data sheet of the 40 Cesium, we will certainly know for sure.
Design-wise, Archos 40 Cesium feels rather cheap, so if you don’t want your phone to look like that, you should look for alternatives in the same price range, such as Nokia Lumia 630, or even cheaper the Lumia 530.
“Our upcoming line-up of consumer products delivers amazing performance, superior design and impressive affordability. We are committed to making technology universally available and are proud to shape the market by providing high quality, yet attainable devices,” says Loïc Poirier, CEO of ARCHOS.