Archos Diamond S Smartphone Review
For the original German review, see here.
The Diamond S by the French manufacturer Archos offers state-of-the-art mid-range technology for an RRP of 229 Euros (~$260). A 5-inch AMOLED panel, octa-core SoC, 2 GB of RAM and a micro-SD slot for expanding the storage is part of the bundle. The user does not have to accept limited connectivity; in addition to LTE, two SIM card slots can be utilized.
The Diamond S has plenty of rivals and there are now really good smartphones in this price range. We used Honor's 5X, OnePlus' X, Motorola's Moto G3, Samsung's Galaxy J5 and Allview's E4 for comparison in this test.
Case
The casing of Archos' Diamond S is made of a plastic and glass composition. The plastic bezel of our white review sample has a light gold color which looks elegant alongside the white Gorilla Glass 3 surfaces. The back is also absolutely sleek and is highly susceptible to fingerprints. However, they are not as obvious on the white version. The smartphone can also feel very smooth due to that. The relatively large surfaces above and below the screen are striking, and they make the Diamond S the lengthiest smartphones in our comparison group reaching 145 mm (~5.7 in). However, it is also the slimmest smartphone with 6.5 mm (~0.23 in), and the camera lens does not jut out. In total, the smartphone is pleasant to hold and does not need much room in the pants pocket, either.
The build and stiffness do not quite convince us. The smartphone can be warped and twisted visibly with little effort, and it produces loud cracking noises. Furthermore, both physical keys on the right are very wobbly, and the micro-SD slot's cover is a bit too deep in the casing and does not close absolutely flush. The battery is integrated and cannot be replaced.
Connectivity
Mediatek's MT6753 octa-core SoC alongside an ARM Mali-T720 MP4 graphics unit and 2 GB of working memory are inside the Diamond S. The internal storage has a capacity of 16 GB. Roughly 10.8 GB of that are available after initial setup. However, this volume is reduced to just 9.3 GB as soon as all preloaded apps have been updated. Expanding the storage via a micro-SD card is possible (max. 128 GB). Apps cannot be moved to the SD card after they have been downloaded. However, Archos offers a feature dubbed "Fusion Drive", which allows using the additional storage as internal memory like in the latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
A micro-USB 2.0 port that also provides USB OTG for easily connecting peripherals is situated on the upper edge. We could connect a USB flash drive without problems in the test. Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi Direct and DLNA are present for wireless data transmission. Furthermore, an FM radio that can be used with headphones is installed.
Software
Archos ships the Diamond S with an unmodified version of Android 5.1 Lollipop. We are therefore dealing with the Vanilla edition of the operating system. The manufacturer leaves it up to us whether we install third-party apps ("Asphalt Nitro", "Modern Combat 4", "Spider Man Ultimate Power", "News Republic" and "Office Suite"). In case this offer is not needed, the user only gets a file manager and Archos Video, a player that can search the Internet for videos and TV series. Otherwise, solely the usual Google apps are available. It is not yet known whether an update to Android 6.0 will be launched.
Communication & GPS
Two micro-SIM cards can be inserted in Archos' Diamond S. Both slots support 3G, but LTE can only be used with SIM slot 1. LTE Cat. 4 with transfer rates of up to 150 Mbit/s in downstream (50 Mbit/s upstream) is the maximum here. However, the frequency coverage is limited (see specs earlier in the report). Therefore, the smartphone is not the best choice for frequent travelers. The integrated Wi-Fi module only supports the 802.11 b/g/n standards in the 2.4 GHz network. Consequently, the high-speed ac standard and 5 GHz network cannot be used, as the case in many of the comparison devices. The reception was unremarkable during the test.
Archos' Diamond S utilizes A-GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou for localization. We had a signal within seconds in the apartment (near a window) with an accuracy of 5 meters (~16 ft). The accuracy improves by one meter (~3 ft) outdoors. We also test the accuracy on a bike tour, and compare the outcomes with the Garmin Edge 500 navigation system. However, we noticed that the smartphone did not track as regularly, which sometimes resulted in clear shortcuts. The performance is still satisfactory with a total deviation of approximately 400 meters (~0.25 mi). That should still be enough for navigating in a car. Better solutions exist for more accurate application fields, for example navigating on a bike.
Telephone & Call Quality
The stock phone app should not puzzle anyone, and it offers direct access to contacts. It is also possible to favor one of both SIM cards for making calls. The call quality did not convince us because in addition to background noise (cracking, static), minor interruptions were noticed occasionally. The earpiece's decent volume has to be highlighted. The included headset is not particularly high-quality, but it will fulfill its purpose.
Cameras & Multimedia
The camera app in Archos' Diamond S provides fairly extensive setting options including many photo settings, such as white balance, ISO rate, saturation and focus. Furthermore, various photo modes are available like a picture-in-picture mode, live photos and panoramas. Only slow motion shots are not possible.
An 8 MP sensor is on the front, but its results are rather disappointing. Details are muddy and colors are pale even in good light. Image noise is visible in low-light and the colors look unnatural. Better handsets exist for selfie fans. The front-facing sensor records videos in HD quality (1280x720 pixels).
The rear-facing primary camera takes photos in a maximum of 16 MP and records videos in Full HD. It does a much better job than its front-facing counterpart, and enables making average photos. The high resolution is noticed positively at the edges in our test chart, but the pictures are not really sharp in practice. That is easily noticed, for example, when zooming in on the photo in scene 1. Furthermore, the pictures are too dark and some details are lost. The good brightness appealed to us right away in the low-light scene (scene 3), and we could recognize all details although image noise is comparatively high. The camera in Archos' Diamond S is absolutely sufficient for occasional snapshots.
Accessories
Besides the smartphone, a 5-watt power supply, USB cable, headset, SIM tool, quick-start guide and warranty information is found in the box. Archos also offers some universal accessories.
Warranty
Archos' Diamond S comes with a 2-year warranty.
Input Devices & Handling
The stock Android keyboard in preloaded. Apart from swipe inputs, there are no limitations in terms of functions. Of course, other keyboards can be installed from the Play Store.
The capacitive touchscreen detects inputs using up to 5 fingers at the same time, and offers decent gliding properties. The inputs are still detected reliably at the edges. We find it a bit too bad that the Android buttons are implemented as onscreen buttons that reserve a part of the screen. Especially in view of the available space, sensor keys could certainly have been incorporated below the display. As said, the physical keys are rather wobbly but they function reliably.
Display
Archos furnishes the Diamond S with a 5-inch Super AMOLED panel. It has a resolution of 1280x720 pixels, which equals a pixel density of 294 PPI. Some rivals offer the Full HD resolution (Honor 5X, OnePlus X), and the reproduction is not razor-sharp subjectively, either - especially when used to smartphones with higher resolutions. However, that is complaining on a high level; there are no restrictions in practice.
The maximum resolution in a pure white image is 375 cd/m² and increases to just over 400 cd/m² when bright and dark image components are distributed equally (APL50). Those are good results that lead to a very high-contrast picture alongside the low black level (0.0 cd/m²), and are in no way inferior to LCD opponents. The brightness does not increase further when the brightness sensor is enabled.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Brightness Distribution: 95 %
Center on Battery: 357 cd/m²
Contrast: ∞:1 (Black: 0 cd/m²)
ΔE Color 6.11 | 0.5-29.43 Ø4.91
ΔE Greyscale 4.12 | 0.5-98 Ø5.2
Gamma: 2.24
| Archos Diamond S 5", 1280x720, Super AMOLED | Honor 5X 5.5", 1920x1080, IPS | OnePlus X 5", 1920x1080, Active Matrix OLED | Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 5", 1280x720, IPS | Samsung Galaxy J5 5", 1280x720, Super AMOLED | Allview E4 5", 1280x720, IPS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Screen | 15% | -27% | 15% | 2% | 19% | |
| Brightness middle | 357 | 535 50% | 312 -13% | 418 17% | 349 -2% | 534 50% |
| Brightness | 363 | 521 44% | 314 -13% | 407 12% | 353 -3% | 503 39% |
| Brightness Distribution | 95 | 85 -11% | 91 -4% | 95 0% | 93 -2% | 82 -14% |
| Black Level * | 0.43 | 0.49 | 0.57 | |||
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 6.11 | 4.88 20% | 6.28 -3% | 3.92 36% | 5.22 15% | 5.65 8% |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 9.91 | 8.66 13% | ||||
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 4.12 | 5.2 -26% | 8.24 -100% | 3.81 8% | 3.96 4% | 3.69 10% |
| Gamma | 2.24 98% | 2.26 97% | 2.12 104% | 2.27 97% | 2.08 106% | 2.15 102% |
| CCT | 7272 89% | 7766 84% | 8145 80% | 7361 88% | 7308 89% | 7289 89% |
| Contrast | 1244 | 853 | 937 |
* ... smaller is better
Devices based on SAMOLED panels normally offer different color profiles for adapting the color reproduction to personal needs. That is also the case in Archos' handset. However, the options are hidden under "MiraVision". In addition to the preset profiles, the user mode provides extensive settings starting with contrast, saturation, sharpness up to color temperature - very good. We performed our measurements in factory settings - the results are overall middling. The average shifts are 6.11 (colors) and 4.12 (grayscale) compared with the sRGB color space reference where the target rates are less than 3. The image impression is subjectively very good. Videos and photos are displayed very vividly primarily thanks to the high contrast.
Display Response Times
| ↔ Response Time Black to White | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 6 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 6 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows good response rates in our tests, but may be too slow for competitive gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.1 (minimum) to 240 (maximum) ms. » 28 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is better than the average of all tested devices (20.9 ms). | ||
| ↔ Response Time 50% Grey to 80% Grey | ||
| 36 ms ... rise ↗ and fall ↘ combined | ↗ 18 ms rise |  |
| ↘ 18 ms fall | ||
| The screen shows slow response rates in our tests and will be unsatisfactory for gamers. In comparison, all tested devices range from 0.165 (minimum) to 636 (maximum) ms. » 46 % of all devices are better. This means that the measured response time is similar to the average of all tested devices (32.8 ms). | ||
Screen Flickering / PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)
| Screen flickering / PWM detected | 250 Hz |  | |
The display backlight flickers at 250 Hz (worst case, e.g., utilizing PWM) . The frequency of 250 Hz is relatively low, so sensitive users will likely notice flickering and experience eyestrain at the stated brightness setting and below. In comparison: 53 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 8705 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 343500) Hz was measured. | |||
The outdoor legibility is good even in bright environments. As with all glossy screens, direct light sources should be avoided because nothing can be recognized otherwise. The SAMOLED panel's viewing angles convinced us, and content could be recognized easily even from extreme angles - as long as there were no reflections.
Performance
Mediatek's MT6753 SoC is a member of the upper mid-range and is composed of eight Cortex A53 cores that, in contrast to the reference design of maximum 1.5 GHz, clock at 1.3 GHz. ARM's Mali-T720 MP4 takes care of video output. The subjective performance is sufficiently high also thanks to the 2 GB of working memory. Although minor lags are noticed primarily in multitasking, it does not lead to restrictions.
The handset is usually placed between the Snapdragon 410 and its Adreno 306 GPU and the Snapdragon 616 alongside Adreno 405 GPU. The Allview E4 based on the same MT6753 SoC (also 1.3 GHz) is normally on par. Only the former Snapdragon 801 high-end chip in OnePlus' X is out of reach. The Diamond S is also on par with the Allview E4 in the storage benchmarks, which is not good news. Apart from the sequential read performance, both devices are always situated at the end of the comparison field. We unfortunately could not measure the card reader's performance since AndroBench did not identify our reference card.
| Geekbench 3 | |
| 32 Bit Multi-Core Score | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| 32 Bit Single-Core Score | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| 64 Bit Multi-Core Score | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| 64 Bit Single-Core Score | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| GFXBench (DX / GLBenchmark) 2.7 | |
| T-Rex Onscreen | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| 1920x1080 T-Rex Offscreen | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| GFXBench 3.0 | |
| on screen Manhattan Onscreen OGL | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| 1920x1080 1080p Manhattan Offscreen | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| GFXBench 3.1 | |
| on screen Manhattan ES 3.1 Onscreen | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| 1920x1080 Manhattan ES 3.1 Offscreen | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| PCMark for Android - Work performance score | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| AndroBench 3-5 | |
| Random Write 4KB | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Random Read 4KB | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Honor 5X | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Sequential Write 256KB | |
| Honor 5X | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Sequential Read 256KB | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Octane V2 - Total Score | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Total | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| OnePlus X | |
| JetStream 1.1 - Total Score | |
| OnePlus X | |
| Honor 5X | |
| Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 | |
| Allview E4 | |
| Samsung Galaxy J5 | |
| Archos Diamond S | |
* ... smaller is better
Games
The smartphone benefits from the lower HD resolution (1280x720 pixels) in the gaming performance, and renders even demanding games decently. The racing game "Asphalt 8" still runs well even in high details, although we preferred medium settings for a smoother gameplay. There were no problems with simpler games like "Angry Birds 2". The sensors did not disturb our gaming fun, although fingers easily covered the speaker on the lower edge.
Emissions
Temperature
Archos' Diamond S is always an extremely cool smartphone. We measured at most 34.3 °C (93.74 °F) even during load, which is barely palpable. Furthermore, the heat is distributed quite evenly over the entire surface.
(+) The maximum temperature on the upper side is 34.3 °C / 94 F, compared to the average of 35.1 °C / 95 F, ranging from 21.9 to 63.7 °C for the class Smartphone.
(+) The bottom heats up to a maximum of 33.7 °C / 93 F, compared to the average of 33.9 °C / 93 F
(+) In idle usage, the average temperature for the upper side is 31.4 °C / 89 F, compared to the device average of 32.8 °C / 91 F.
Speaker
The rear-sided mono speaker is sufficiently loud with a maximum of almost 85 dB(A). However, the sound quality is very treble-heavy already at low volumes. Furthermore, the little speaker also starts to hum and produces a quiet background noise at about 50% of maximum volume. Output functions better via the 3.5 mm jack or Bluetooth.
Energy Management
Power Consumption
The power consumption of Archos' Diamond S is average. We measured 0.8 to 1.32 watts in idle mode. A comparison with the identically configured Allview E4 is interesting here, as it consumes considerably more power. Note: Not all devices in the chart below were assessed with the same instrument, and thus the results are only meant as reference points. The Diamond S consumes 3.73 to a maximum of 4.97 watts during load. The 5-watt power supply is therefore just sufficient to cover the energy requirement. The user should expect long charging times when the smartphone is loaded and recharging at the same time.
| Off / Standby |   0.12 / 0.47 Watt |
| Idle |  0.8 / 1.21 / 1.32 Watt |
| Load |
3.73 / 4.97 Watt |
    
| |
Key:
min: ,
med: ,
max: Gossen Metrahit Energy | |
| Archos Diamond S Mali-T720 MP4, MT6753, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Honor 5X Adreno 405, 616 MSM8939v2, 16 GB eMMC Flash | OnePlus X Adreno 330, 801 MSM8974AA, 16 GB eMMC Flash | Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Samsung Galaxy J5 Adreno 306, 410 MSM8916, 8 GB eMMC Flash | Allview E4 Mali-T720 MP4, MT6753, 16 GB eMMC Flash | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Consumption | -44% | 24% | 19% | -49% | -164% | |
| Idle Minimum * | 0.8 | 0.87 -9% | 0.6 25% | 0.4 50% | 1.5 -88% | 3.11 -289% |
| Idle Average * | 1.21 | 2.08 -72% | 0.91 25% | 1 17% | 2.2 -82% | 4.06 -236% |
| Idle Maximum * | 1.32 | 2.22 -68% | 1.12 15% | 1.2 9% | 2.4 -82% | 4.23 -220% |
| Load Average * | 3.73 | 5.26 -41% | 3.04 18% | 2.9 22% | 3.5 6% | 5.53 -48% |
| Load Maximum * | 4.97 | 6.34 -28% | 3.2 36% | 5 -1% | 4.8 3% | 6.33 -27% |
* ... smaller is better
Battery Runtime
The 2300 mAh battery integrated in Archos' Diamond S enables a decent life for our review sample. The smartphone lasted for almost 8 hour in our Wi-Fi test (150 cd/m², Wi-Fi script) - a good time. However, the rivals last much longer (+4 to +35%) in some cases, except for Allview's E4. The smartphone easily lasted a day of normal use; it should even manage 2 days when not used as intensively.
| Archos Diamond S Wh | Honor 5X 11 Wh | OnePlus X Wh | Motorola Moto G 3. Gen 2015 XT1541 Wh | Samsung Galaxy J5 10 Wh | Allview E4 8 Wh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battery Runtime | ||||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 475 | 643 35% | 549 16% | 526 11% | 495 4% | 315 -34% |
Pros
Cons
Verdict
The mid-range smartphone by Archos made a good impression in our test. The buyer gets a fast processor, decent display and good battery life. Furthermore, the Diamond S features useful functions like dual-SIM without having to waive expanding the memory via a micro-SD card. The biggest shortcomings are certainly the call quality and front-facing camera. Users who often use their smartphone for making calls and like to take selfies should look around among the competition. They also offer a lot of smartphone for the money, but they also have their own strengths and weaknesses.
Archos' Diamond S is a solid mid-range handset. However, better devices exist in this price range for those who frequently use their phones for making calls or selfie fans.
Archos Diamond S
- 03/26/2016 v5 (old)
Andreas Osthoff
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