The Archos 101 Oxygen is one of the latest tablets from the French company, known for their affordable, quality products. We got one sent to us so let’s see how well it performed.

Lets start with the spec:

– Quad-core Rockchip RK 3288 ARM Cortex A17 @ 1.8 GHz CPU
– Mali T764 Quad-core GPU
– 2gb Ram
– 16gb Storage (Micro SD card upto 64gb)
– 10’1″ IPS Display (1920 x 1200 pixels)
– Android KitKat
– 5mp Rear Camera, 2mp Front Camera, 1080p video recording- Battery Life = 9hrs
– Included in the box is a power supply, USB cable and quick start guide.

^^A very positive start^^

First impressions out of the box is a sleek, well built, quality tablet. It’s a decent weight, not overly heavy but not so light that it feels flimsy. It feels nice in your hands. It’s got a black matte finish to its rear and is relativity thin at just 1cm think. I can easily hold the tablet and navigate using my two thumbs or lay it down and type as if I were using a keyboard. The tablet has very subtle design features which I really like.

Other than the screen, front facing camera and two speakers on the front, the majority of the buttons are on the top of the tablet. From left to right, there is a micro SD slot, microphone, USB ports, mini HDMI out, power in and volume. At the top of one side of the tablet is the on/off switch and a 3.5mm headphone port on the other. On the rear of the tablet is the 5mp camera, with a flash. All in practical locations.

The tablet is running Android KitKat which is very functional and I imagine when the new version comes out, it will only improve the tablets user interface. Generally performance is very good. It’s speedy when browsing through menus or apps and doesn’t have a problem when running multiple apps at once in the background. I played a couple of different games, those popular on the play store. The graphics were good, the game play was smooth and I had an enjoyable time using the tablet.

The screen is rich with vibrant colours and can get very bright if desired. I watched a couple of movie trailers and fouind them to be crisp and defined. The colours are very vivid, with dark scenes being watchable. Sound wise, the volume of the speakers is fairly loud and does the job, but does get distorted and can’t handle bass very well. Plug some decent headphones in and you will be in a world of your own.

The tablet has two cameras, one on the front and one on the back. The one of the front (2mp) is more than suitable for video chats such as skype. It’s not amazing quality but more than enough to satisfy your needs. The rear camera (5mp) is a little dated I feel, with mobile phones have far more sophisticated lenses. It would have been nice to see a higher megapixel camera. Having read that back, would you use the tablet to take photos if you had your phone on you? The camera has auto focus, a few settings you can adjust and does have a flash but the photos are grainy and I wouldn’t want to take my holiday snaps with it.

Overall the Archos 101 Oxygen is a good tablet. I would definitely recommend it for business use, watching tv/movies and gaming. Only downside I found was the camera quality but the argument still stands. How often will you use a tablet camera?

At a price of just £169.99, this is far cheaper than similar sized tablets from the big brands and I honestly think it would mix the field up. The tablet can be bought direct from Archos.