Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"Announced alongside the Archos 5, the Archos 7 is in the same class of devices, except that it boast an even larger display and storage (320GB max). The display resolution stays the same (800x480), that might be great for those who think that such a resolution is too small on a 5" device. That might make the touch-interface even easier to use as well. Just like its smaller sibling, it supports WiFi and 3.5G, making it a potent wireless device. Other than that, they pretty much share the same capabilities."

Prices range from $350 to $550 depending on the screen size and the drive capacity. If you like the tablet options of something like the Nokia N8xx series, but long for more storage and can live with a little less ability to customize, this could be a sweet device.

Edit: The above quote references 3.5G for some reason when it really appears they mean that it has a 3.5mm headphone jack. Good catch Dyvim. Or them mean 3G. Thanks lobber. Or maybe they mean both!

"So it seemed a natural progression when the company announced it was branching out, and adding a static set-top box-style network media streamer and recorder to its range. The TV+, as it's known, does everything the 605 can do, but doesn't have the constraint of portability and so is able to offer far more storage (250GB of it to be precise) to store all your video, music and photos on. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well it did until I hooked the TV+ up and began to play around with it. The thing is, what looks like a remarkable feat for a portable player simply doesn't translate to a device designed to sit permanently beneath your telly. And that's precisely what the TV+ is: a non-portable version of the 605 Wi-Fi, with the same user interface, menu system and an almost identical range of capabilities."

As I was reading this review, I was pretty much thinking the same things that the article concludes - "It's not a particularly good media streamer. It's not an elegant alternative to Sky Plus or a decent twin-tuner DVR. Its on-demand content is as-yet limited, and its user interface is clunky". Although this gets me thinking that launching this kind of a device is now becoming something of a syndrome - launch a beta and hope for the best. I wish Archos has thought about the end-to-end experience before launching a sub-par product, no matter how many overall features they tried to pack in.

"We'd already heard about Archos' deal with France's SFR to build 3G+ into upcoming players, but the folks at PC INPact have now turned up what appears to be some of the firmest details yet of those plans, and the first player to support 'em. That player is supposedly the Archos 606, which is described as being the same size as the Archos 605, but with a screen 1-2 centimeters bigger and a casing that's entirely black (it's also said to boast a 30GB hard drive). Unfortunately, there's no official pictures of the device just yet, but the folks at Archos Lounge have put together the mockup above to feed the speculation in the meantime."



Of course it looks A LOT like an iPhone, but I'm curious how thick it will be if it is using a hard drive instead of flash memory. On the pro side, if this sports an 800x480 screen it will address what I think is a big drawback of the iPhone.

"Archos will be one of the first to provide a dedicated portable media player with cellular Internet access, the company has revealed during this week's Mobile World Congress show. While short on information, the news indicates that at least one device in Archos' next generation of players will include 3G or better services that allows it to connect to the Internet anywhere it can receive an appropriate signal from a cell tower. The feature should provide extended access to the web through the Opera web browser included with the company's higher-end players."



A nice media player and a portable web browser covers most of the portable needs of a casual user, so this seems like a match made in heaven.