As expected, Archos is getting into the smartphone game. And as expected, the company is hoping to undercut competitors by offering dirt cheap phones.

Starting in May, customers in Europe will be able to pick up an carrier unlocked, unsubsidized Archos phone for as little as $100.

Archos phones

All of the Archos phones feature WiFi, Bluetooth and HSPA+ as well as FM audio and A-GPS. They all come with Google’s stock Android user interface, access to the Google Play Store, and Archos Media Center software.

Archos 35 Carbon

For $100 you get a pretty basic phone called the Archos 35 Carbon, which features a 3.5 inch, 320 x 480 pixel display, a 1 GHz Qualcomm 7225A processor, 512MB of RAM, and 32GB of storage.

archos 35

The Archos 35 Carbon does have a few nice touches including an IPS multitouch display, an ambient light sensor, and a microSD card slot. But there’s no mistaking this budget phone for a high-end device.

It has VGA cameras on the front and back and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Archos 50 Platinum

Next up is a phone with a 5 inch, 960 x 540 pixel display, Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean software, and a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm 8225Q quad-core ARM Cortex-A5 chip.

archos 50

The Archos 50 Platinum has 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, and a microSD card slot. There’s an 8MP camera on the back, and a 2MP camera on the front. The phone has a 2000mAh battery.

Archos plans to charge $220 for an unlocked Archos 50 Platinum. While that’s more than twice as much as the price of the Archos 35 Carbon, it’s still a pretty good price for a phone with these specs (although just 4GB of built-in storage for apps and media is pretty underwhelming).

Archos 53 Platinum

The top-of-the-line Archos 53 Platinum has a bigger screen and a bigger battery than its smaller sibling. The rest of the specs are pretty much the same.

archos 53

Equipped with a 5.3 inch, 960 x 540 pixel display and a 2800mAh battery, Archos says you should be able to get up to 15 hours of talk time over a 3G network with this phone,  which is more than 50 percent more than you’d get with the 5 inch model.

Like the Archos 50 Platinum, this phone has 1GB of RAM, 4GB of storage, Android 4.1.2 software, and a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm 8225Q quad-core CPU. This model has a suggested retail price of $250.

via ArcTablet

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7 replies on “Archos introduces range of unlocked Android smartphones for $99 and up”

  1. You gave the prices for the first two phones, but not for the Archos 53. Do you know the price?

  2. The specs seems very similar to some phones introduced by Yarvik recently. Dual sim (one GSM, one UMTS) and all.

  3. These look really cool. I still have a bad taste in my mouth from buying a Archos 43 (the one that had a resistive touch screen).

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