Archos 50c Oxygen revealed: 8-core flagship smartphone ready for MWC

Archos has jumped the gun ahead of next week’s Mobile World Congress trade show in Barcelona, revealing a line-up of new smartphones and tablets led by the 50c Oxygen – an eight-core flagship handset that will cost less than £200, significantly undercutting the likes of Google’s Nexus 5.

The 50c Oxygen is a 5in Android-powered handset with a 1,280×720 resolution IPS display, powered by a Mediatek MT6592 Octa-Core processor running at 1.7GHz. Paired with 1GB of RAM and a Mali 450MP4 GPU, the 50c Oxygen should comfortably out-pace anything in the current Archos line-up. 8GB of internal storage can be increased using the microSD card slot.

At the back, an 8-megapixel rear camera with autofocus and LED flash uses a backside illuminated (BSI) sensor and is capable of 1080p video recording. Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11n Wi-Fi, a 2,000mAh battery and dual SIM-card slots have all been squeezed inside a sleek-looking black handset less than 8mm thick.

The 50c Oxygen will run Android 4.3 Jelly Bean out of the box, although Archos makes no mention of an upgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat in its press release – we’ll be sure to ask at next week’s MWC. Archos doesn’t skin its Android handsets with a custom user interface, so we don’t expect the 50c Oxygen to be any different.

The handset marks the first time Archos has used MediaTek’s 8-core CPU. “MediaTek is very pleased to see its portfolio of dual-, quad-, and octa-core “Systems-on-a- Chip” well represented across ARCHOS’ breaking new smartphone line-up,” Siegmund Redl, MediaTek’s VP and GM of Corporate Marketing in Europe, said of the announcement. “This is another proof-point of MediaTek’s commitment in making rich multimedia features, leading edge multi-processing and multi-mode connectivity available to everyone at affordable price levels.”

The 50c Oxygen is set to go on sale in the UK SIM-free, although no official release date or a concrete price beyond the vague sub-£200 figure has been announced.