The ZTE Nubia Z17 mini with Archos sauce. We had lost sight of the Archos brand in recent months. Here it is back with a nice smartphone developed with ZTE Nubia, the Diamond Alpha.
The collaboration between Chinese Nubia or ZTE and the Frenchman Archos gave birth to the Diamond Alpha, a smartphone that is positioned at the top of the range for only 349 dollars.
Original design
Like the ZTE Nubia Z17, the Diamond Alpha has an “original” style with its red oval surrounding the photo sensors at the rear. The rest is classic and well finished. There are exclusive colors of Nubia.The metal back shell accommodates the well-placed impression sensor. We also have a Type-C USB port and a jack.
Key features of the Diamond Alpha
The new Archos smartphone has a 5.2-inch screen with a Full HD resolution of 1920×1080 px. The colors are good but with only 71% of the slab used, we thought there was the possibility of doing better.
The device retains IPS technology with good performance even in direct sunlight. Inside, this Diamond Alpha features a Snapdragon 652, 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage expandable via a microSD card. No slowdown is to be reported even by opening several applications and no overheating in game sessions.
Good and not so good at the interface
It is provided by Android 6.0 Marshmallow with the Nubia UI 4.0 overlay simple to use. Too bad, there are nearly 40 applications pre-installed (not removable!).
Screen borders can be used to launch a predefined application but this is not very convenient. On the other hand, screen capture on the fly or screen splitting is much more useful.
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In addition, what is it worth in photo?
The Diamond Alpha features two rear sensors with a 13-megapixel resolution. At the front is the 16 Mpx sensor and the video recording in 4K. There are many modes of shooting more or less useful and a black and white mode convincing.
The pictures are beautiful even if we do not have a multitude of details. From this point of view, the toy of Archos is done with the hand.
A blemish on the autonomy
The 2950 mAh battery is correct on a daily basis but on video game sessions, it is difficult to hold more than five hours. In standard use, it is better than the iPhone 7 but much less than the Huawei P8 Lite, for example.
In the end, the Archos Diamond Alpha remains a very good product. The French brand succeeds a nice return to the front of the stage, with a smartphone enjoying excellent value for money. Because being offered to 349 dollars, this device really does not have to blush face the competition.
