Archos 80 Helium 4G review

The Helium 4G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM8926 system-on-chip (SoC), which uses a quad-core Cortex A7 processor running at 1.2GHz. This is paired with 1GB of RAM. This is very much an entry-level SoC, so we weren’t expecting the best performance. Even bearing this in mind, we were still disappointed with the tablet’s browser performance. The tablet took 1,589ms to complete the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, which is slow by current standards. The tablet didn’t feel responsive when browsing complex websites, and there’s a noticeable delay between flicking on the screen and the tablet scrolling.

The Snapdragon 400 MSM8926 uses an Adreno 305 graphics chip, and it’s no powerhouse. In our Ice Storm Extreme test the tablet registered a score of just 2,813 and in Ice Storm Unlimited it managed 4,592. Even the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 6, which is less than half the price of the Helium 4G, managed scores of 6,240 and 10,305. You’re only going to get by with lighter gaming, such as Plants vs Zombies; otherwise the tablet will struggle with anything more graphically intensive.

We were pleasantly surprised by the Archos 80 Helium 4G’s rear-facing 5-megapixel camera (there’s a 2-megapixel model on the front). In our outdoor test shots it managed to produce sharp and detailed images. Colour accuracy was also impressive, and there was minimal noise even in shadow details. Low-light performance wasn’t as good with images showing a substantial amount of noise, but images are still very respectable for a tablet camera.

The Helium 4G runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, which is now quite old, especially with Android 5.0 Lollipop rolling out. Archos hasn’t changed the stock Android experience and we were particularly pleased to see some restraint when it came to pre-installed apps. Archos Video and Archos Music are installed, but there’s little else to get in the way. Archos Music and Archos Video allow you to access media on connected SMB media servers as well as play local music and videos.

It’s unusual to find a 4G tablet for just £200, but that still doesn’t make the Archos Helium 4G a bargain. We’d rather save £80, buy the far superior Tesco Hudl2 and use our phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot.