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 The Archos 7 is a gigantic piece of technology. The screen is just about the best one out there for (somewhat) portable video. Sure it's not as portable as the iPod Shuffle, but the ability to view decent-sized videos is great. The Archos 7 is also very extensible, letting you toss on Flash apps like it's no big deal, or download additional content via one of their web-based applications. Not only is the Archos 7 software extensible, which the iPods are quickly becoming, but it has impressive hardware add-on options. The Archos 7 can digivolve into some sort of all-in-one contraption with DVR, GPS, a helmet cam, hot plates, and a fully funcitoning sawmill. This level of expansion gives the Archos an edge over those annoyingly adept iPods.
The Archos 7 did ok on our audio quality tests, but not perfectly. It has a very weak output power and a lot of distortion. It did well on other tests, however, like frequency response, crosstalk, and noise. The packaged headphones are bad, but that should be any buyer's assumption.
Overall, the Archos 7 is an impressive device that could really use a firmware update to make it as slick as the iPods of the world. If it had some slightly better controls and a new coat of software-based paint, the Archos 7 would be an Apple killer. As it is, it's a bit awkward to use and not as user-friendly as it could be. It's also almost prohibitively expensive at $450 for the 160GB version and $550 for the 320GB version. Sure those are huge hard drives, but most consumers just don't have that kind of money. While we'd definitely recommend the Archos 7 to those who want a giant screen that can optionally have GPS and DVR, we really some firmware update makes the thing a bit easier to use and a bit easier on the eyes.
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