The Archos 7, the bigger, beefier brother of the Archos 5, is an Internet Media Tablet that offers a slick design, a solid Web-surfing experience (complete with Flash support), and excellent video playback on a large, high-resolution 7-inch display. Unfortunately, Archos nickel-and-dimes customers when it comes to adding format support, and we had some issues getting premium movies to download from CinemaNow.
Design and Interface
Measuring 7.5 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches and weighing a hefty 1.4 pounds, the Archos 7 isn’t a device designed for toting around in your jacket pocket. But with the girth comes a sharp 7-inch (800 x 480-pixel resolution) display that’s far more suitable for watching movies than the Archos 5 (which sported a 5.0 x 3.1 x 0.5-inch, 8.8-ounce figure). The player sports a shiny gunmetal plastic finish that conveys that it’s a premium product (which is welcome considering the $449 price tag), but it attracts all manner of fingerprints and smudges.
Two dedicated volume keys are on the top of the device, headphone and AC adapter jacks are on its left side, and two non-standard USB ports are built into the bottom. Stereo speakers flank the display, and a kickstand in the back props the Archos 7 into prime movie-watching position.
Like the Archos 5, this model utilizes a touchscreen for input and navigation; We had no problems navigating the system’s intuitive menus and folders. A dock on the left side of the screen that lets you quickly access media files, TV, Internet, settings, and Add-Ons (and their corresponding sub-folders) using bright, colorful icons. The latest firmware (1.3.05) was very stable and worked in conjunction with the ARM Cortex processor to produce a lag-free experience when moving about the system.
Deep Audio/Video Formats (When You Pay Extra)
The Archos 7’s wide codec compatibility gives Cowon’s PMPs a run for the money—unfortunately, you’ll have to shell out some of yours to unlock the full power of this tablet. It supports MP3, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, WAV, WMA (protected and unprotected) on the audio end, and BMP, GIF, JPEG, M-JPEG, MPEG-4, PNG, WMV (protected and unprotected) on the visual side, but if you want AAC and H.264 you’ll have to pay $19.99 for the IMT Video Podcast plug-in. For MPEG-2, MPEG-4 (at 720p), and WMV (720p) support, it’s an extra $19.99 for IMT HiDef Video plug-in. The Archos 7 even has a built-in PDF reader, which we used to open a downloaded tax form.
Audio/Video Quality
Bundled with the Archos 7 is a pair of hard, plastic earbuds that weren’t very comfortable, but aren’t any worse than freebie earpieces offered by other vendors. Despite their rigidness, we enjoyed the extremely loud, clear sound when watching YouTube clips or playing Led Zeppelin tunes (which we transferred to the 160GB hard drive via drag-and-drop), but the audio didn’t sound as robust as that on the Cowon S9. A downloaded Terminator: Salvation trailer played back smoothly without any blurring during high-action sequences, but colors were a bit washed out.
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