14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile World Congress (MWC) is set to kick off next week, but French company Archos has decided to go official with three new smartphones that will be showcased at the trade fair.
Archos 52 Platinum, Archos 59 Xenon and Archos 62 Xenon are now part of the handset maker's growing portfolio of mid-range Android smartphones.
Those who are looking for a cheap Android smartphone, as an alternative to high-end devices, will be pleased to know that Archos has already confirmed the prices its new phones will be available for in the coming weeks.
Archos 59 Xenon will be available for purchase for £119.99 ($185 / €165), while the Archos 52 Platinum will cost £129.99 ($200 / €180). The last one, Archos 62 Xenon will sell for £139.99 ($215 / €190) outright.
The French company has yet to announce exactly when these smartphones will be available on the market, but we suspect more details will be available next week when they are showcased at MWC 2015.
In the meantime, let's see what they have to offer. The cheapest of the three, Archos 59 Xenon sports a 5.9-inch IPS LCD capacitive touchscreen display that supports HD (720p) resolution, an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a secondary 2-megapixel front-facing camera. The phone is powered by a 2,500 mAh battery.
All three come with ARCHOS Media Center apps
Next in line, the Archos 52 Platinum features a smaller 5.25-inch IPC display that supports HD (720p) resolution, but the same 8-megapixel camera on the back and 2-megapixel secondary camera in the front. It's also powered by a 1,750 mAh battery.
Last but not least, Archos 62 Xenon is a huge phablet thanks to its 6.27-inch IPS display that supports HD (720p) resolution. The phone packs a similar 8-megapixel camera on the back, but a better 5-megapixel camera in the front. Curiously, the Xenon 62 drains energy from a rather small 2,300 mAh battery.
It's also worth mentioning that all three smartphones are equipped with MediaTek's MT6582 chipset that packs a quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz, 1GB of RAM, 8GB of internal memory and microSD card slot. Sadly, they will ship with Android 4.4 KitKat operating system.