Archos 80 Xenon

Let’s face it: The Archos 80 Xenon is a budget tablet, plain and simple. Judging the device purely on those terms, the Xenon certainly does well enough but in general the specs set this tablet firmly among the realm of neat toys for adults.

Archos apparently designed the 80 Xenon as a (very) inexpensive alternative to the Apple iPad Mini. The 8-inch reproduces the Mini’s 1024 x 768px resolution well enough, but the similarities more or less end there. The 1.2 GHz quad-core Snapdragon S4 with 1 GB to draw on isn’t the most impressive in terms of speed, but video-first users will be enthused with the supplementary Adreno 203 chip dedicated solely to graphics – a serious plus in what might have a molasses-slow video display. Gamers, naturally, should be looking elsewhere for proper satisfaction.

Shocking – even at this price – is the extreme paucity of memory: Would you believe just 4 GB of internal storage? (Seriously, is this an Atari console?) Some other features try to make up for this, in particular the micro SD card that can jump the storage up by 64 GB. Lots of support is aboard in the Archos 80 Xenon, including for 2G, 3G, Bluetooth and WiFi. A single 2 MP back camera is standard as well.

A best-case scenario? Sure, maybe for kids or as an easy gift idea – particularly for users that want something to mess about with and then dispose of in favor of more technological sophistication…