Testurteil: "3 out of 5"
Test: Einzeltest: Archos 50 Platinum
Zitat: The good: + The Archos 50 Platinum is well built for its £209.99 SIM-free price. It’s plasticky, yes - it reminds us of Samsung’s original Galaxy S - but it feels like it could take a tumble or four, unlike HTC’s delicately carved One or a precious iPhone 5, and despite its large display, it’s easy to handle, since it’s a mere 8.9mm thick. Ports are sensibly placed, and you can pop the back cover off to get at the 2,000mAh battery (which runs a bog standard day or thereabouts) or pop in a microSD card for storage space, which you’ll want to do since you only get 4GB standard. Turn it on, and you’re left with relatively untouched Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Outside of Google’s Nexus line, this is a rarity, since most phone manufacturers try to stamp their own mark on the open-source OS, and usually fail in doing so. This is Android 4.1 as Google designed it, and it blazes too thanks to the quad-core 1.2GHz processor ticking away inside. There are just a handful of extras to Google’s already incredible suite of mobile apps, like Google Maps and Chrome, including Archos’ excellent video player, which handles just about every file format under the sun, and even lets you stream wirelessly from other computers. Where the Archos Platinum 50 comes into its own however is with its dual-SIM tech, which lets you run two phone numbers at the same time from the same handset. We’ve seen the odd Android phone with the tech in before, but none as powerful and impressive as this, or as easy to set up. It’s a niche market to fill in the UK, sure - dual-SIM phones are usually associated more with developing countries where people in the same family will share a handset - but if you carry around two phones at the moment, your own and a work one, this might just be what you asked for.
The bad: - The Archos 50 Platinum can keep up with the relentlessly increasing average smartphone screen size, but it can’t match some of its rivals on resolution. Its 960x540 display looks a tad grain and washed out compared to the vivid HD displays on Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and S4 phones, the Sony Xperia Z and Nokia Lumia 925 (nor for that matter does its average eight megapixel camera). Of course, the Archos 50 Platinum is substantially cheaper than most of them - but not all of them, its fatal flaw. The 8GB version of the LG-made Google Nexus 4 sells for just £239 on the Google Play store, which is a staggeringly good deal, even a year on - its quad-core processor and HD screen are still first class - and it’s in the process of being updated to Android 4.3 right now, leaving Archos two versions behind, even if they are minor updates. The Google Nexus 4 only beats competitors on unlocked prices, mind - for some reason, it’s just as expensive as rivals on contract - but since the Archos 50 Platinum is only being sold unlocked, it’s a like for like comparison. Unless you need a dual-SIM, the Google Nexus 4 is almost as cheap, and far more powerful.
We’re glad to see Archos finally getting into the smartphone game, but it faces stiff competition. Too stiff, in fact: since Google’s very own (and quite possibly subsidised) Google Nexus 4 Android smartphone packs better specs and more up to date software for only slightly more, there’s little to no point in the Archos 50 Platinum phone if you’re shopping for an unlocked handset. Unless that is, you know you need a dual-SIM handset: in which case, go forth, with our blessing.