French consumer electronics company Archos has announced plans to step into the smartphone market with a trio of new upcoming smartphones of its own. This is the first time the company moves beyond its traditional tablet market with its Android expertise. Archos made its name as a media player producer, and moved into tablets industry after Google’s Android OS was released. Rumors of Archos preparing its own line of Android smartphones started appearing a bit later, and have now been confirmed to be true.
The company has confirmed plans of releasing three Archos smartphones all aimed at the budget sector of the market. The family of devices consists of the cheapest model – Archos 35 Carbon with a price tag of £69.99, Archos 50 Platinum costing £179.99, and Archos 53 Platinum going for £199.99.
The former one – the bottom-line of the Archos smartphone family is powered by Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich. The dual-SIM handset supports 3G, has 1GHz Qualcomm Cortex-A5 processor and 512MB of RAM. The 3.5-inch IPS screen has a resolution of 480×320.
The higher ranged Archos 50 Platinum pleases its users with a more recent iteration of Google’s Android OS – the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean. The model is powered by Qualcomm quad-core Cortex-A5 processor clocked at 1.2GHz and 1GB RAM. The 5-inch screen has a resolution of 540×960.
The top model of the Archos handsets the Archos 53 Platinum sports a large 5.3-inch screen with the same specifications as the smaller peer.
Archos chief executive Loïc Poirier said the company is ready to offer the market unlocked and affordable feature-rich Android smartphones.