The ARCHOS 7 home tablet is designed to bridge the gap between a smart-phone and desktop PC, according to the ARCHOS website. This would indicate that it is really meant for the tech savvy and digital media fanatic but, after playing with it for a while, it is really more suited to the average consumer looking for a good medial player with some style.
The ARCHOS 7 has a 7” touch screen display with built in speakers that deliver a lot more sound that you would expect. It has a built in kickstand so it can be displayed on a table or counter without investing in a special stand like you need to for the Apple iPad. Even more impressive is are the dimensions, 8” by 4.2” and only ½” thick. Weighing in at less then a pound it can easily be held for viewing while relaxing in bed or take around town in a purse or small bag.
As a video player the ARCHOS 7 is outstanding. In 720p the images are crisp and clear. It also supports all the major formats right out of the box like .avi, .mov, .flv, .mp4, MPEG-4, RealVideo and H264.
The built in WiFi connects to the Internet easily and makes browsing the web a snap. Unfortunately, there is no accelerometer so watching streaming videos is torture. Another drawback is the fact that there is no way to change the orientation so reading web pages requires a lot more scrolling.
It uses the outdated Android 1.5 and doesn’t have access to the Market with 50,000 apps designed for the Android OS. ARCHOS has the AppLib store with 1,000 apps available and plans to add another 2,000 soon. All this is not a big deal to the average user but techies will be disappointed.
