Archos Diamond Omega review

Retail box contents

Our Archos Diamond Omega review unit arrived in a familiar box. If you order the Nubia Z17s instead, chances are it will probably be shipped in a similar black-and-red container. Archos is, of course, branding their boxes accordingly but we can assume the actual accessories are the same.

Archos claims the phone supports QC 3.0 and the bundled charger is indeed QuickCharge 3 compliant, rated 12V@1.5A, 9V@2A or 5V@3A.

Nubia, however, says the Z17s supports 26W charging, which is faster than this charger allows, so perhaps they ship the Nubia model with a different charger.

The charger we got is actually all white, which is more in tune with the Archos aesthetic. The same goes for the pair or "Apple-esque" wired earbuds. In contrast, the included Type-A to Type-C USB cable comes in red-and-black and it's also flat.

Archos Diamond Omega in the hand

Last, but not least, there is a compact Type-C to 3.5mm dongle in the bundle as well, also in the black and red palette. You might want to hold on to that as there is no 3.5mm audio jack on the phone.

Archos Diamond Omega 360-degree spin

The Archos Diamond Omega is a slick device, even if not really a very slim one. It's a solid 8.5mm thick and weighs in at 170 grams, despite packing a rather conservative 3,100mAh battery. Even though the specs haven't really changed all that much over the regular Nubia Z17, the bill of materials has.

Gone is the metal back, replaced by a lighter, curvier and shinier glass finish. It is probably lighter than the metal alternative, but also likely more fragile. The surface itself is not marketed as Gorilla Glass, or any similar alternative either, meaning a case might be advisable. Plus, it is a true fingerprint magnet.

Nubia engineers are using curved aRC front glass technology to achieve the bezel-less look. The Z17, Z11, and Z9 all used this simpler and far less expensive approach. The idea is aRC uses some clever optics to sort of stretch out the edges of the picture onto the curved part of the glass. It is a cool trick but not without its drawbacks, like image distortion along the edges.

In this particular implementation, however, the glass seems to be thicker and this perhaps makes the distortions near the edges more prominent than usual. It's still nothing that bad and it doesn't hurt the phone's premium looks.

In terms of finish, you get an undisclosed version of Corning Gorilla Glass on the front. For the the Nubia Z17 the company introduced the aRC 2.0 design, which reportedly provides some additional shatter protection thanks to a cushion layer between the screen glass and the metal frame.

In the case of the Z17s though, we found no mention of aRC 2.0 on the Z17s press materials so we can only guess whether it's used for this phone or not.

Hardware overview

Having touched upon the front glass of the Archos Diamond Omega, we should address the unusual 17:9 aspect ratio. The taller display has clearly taken up some extra space up front but there is still arguably plenty of chin room left for Nubia's signature round red home button and a pair of capacitive controls. Only, these are all gone from the Archos Diamond Omega. All you are left with here is on-screen navigation.

Re-styled front

There's plenty of space above the screen too. The Archos has a pair of 5MP selfie shooters to show for it and there is also a tiny notification LED, on the right side of the earpiece.

The curved edge of the screen continues into a chamfered edge of the metal frame of the phone. Overall, the sides of the handset are nicely rounded and pleasantly polished with enough space for a good, secure grip. Just like the back, however, you can never quite get it clean from fingerprints.

The glass/polycarbonate back is similarly curved to match the front, but with an even glossier and more fingerprint-prone finish. It's not the only reason we miss the metal on the back of the Z17 - the material used on the Archos has too much of a plastic feel.

Glossy back.

Some people favor polycarbonate over metal exactly for its durability but we think the combination of glass and plastic would've only made sense in this particular case if the Archos/Nubia phone offered wireless charging. With or without such charging though, it's clear that this year glass backs are the trend and the manufacturer has been following suit.

As for the rear-mounted fingerprint reader, it is both conveniently positioned and really dependable and fast. No complaints there.

Left-hand side

The left side of the phone is almost entirely empty. It only houses the SIM tray. That can take a total of two nano SIM cards but, sadly, no microSD card.

Right-hand side

The opposite is not really busy either. The volume rocker and power button are nicely sized and positioned within comfortable reach. They are also easy enough to distinguish by feel even though they have the exact same finish as the rest of the frame and visually blend in nicely.

Top and bottom sides

There is nothing out of the ordinary at the top and bottom of the Archos Diamond Omega / Nubia Z17s either. The former is almost entirely blank, save for the pinhole of the secondary, noise-canceling mic and a pair of very subtle antenna strips.

These are mirrored at the bottom as well and are likely an insurance policy, more than a necessity, considering there's no metal anymore to stand in the way of signal reception. They blend in well anyway with the general aesthetic.

The bottom houses a single speaker (sadly, no stereo), the primary microphone and a USB Type-C port.