Archos 35 Smart Home Phone review

A smartphone for your landline

Archos 35 Smart Home Phone
Promises smartphone features for your home phone - but doesn't quite deliver

TechRadar Verdict

Pros

  • +

    Easy to use

  • +

    Internet connectivity

  • +

    Apps

  • +

    Android OS

Cons

  • -

    Not as useful as a mobile smartphone

  • -

    AppsLib store

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Having a smartphone in your pocket that does everything from checking your emails and posting on Facebook to talking on Skype isn't too much of a big deal these days. But having a phone that can do all that while connected to our landlines is rarer.

This is what the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is. A non-mobile smartphone, if you will. The good point is that you get a touchscreen, and an Android operating system on the phone. Finding contacts to ring is as easy as on a mobile phone.

The phone itself feels like a rather cheap Android smartphone, and it doesn't have a particularly inspired design. Still, it's easy to use, especially if you've used a smartphone before.

While apps are supported, you're limited to getting them from the third party AppsLib store, rather than Google's own.

Verdict

While it's nice to be able to use some of the smartphone features on your home phone with the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone, most of us will have a more powerful device in our pockets already.

There is a lingering sense that the Archos 35 Smart Home Phone is an answer to a question that no one has really asked.

Matt Hanson
Managing Editor, Core Tech

Matt is TechRadar's Managing Editor for Core Tech, looking after computing and mobile technology. Having written for a number of publications such as PC Plus, PC Format, T3 and Linux Format, there's no aspect of technology that Matt isn't passionate about, especially computing and PC gaming. He’s personally reviewed and used most of the laptops in our best laptops guide - and since joining TechRadar in 2014, he's reviewed over 250 laptops and computing accessories personally.

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