Archos 704-WiFi unboxing and hands-on
By Peter Rojas 
posted Mar 6th 2007 6:56AM
posted Mar 6th 2007 6:56AM
As promised, those hands-on pics with the new Archos 704-WiFi that was officially announced earlier today. Click on the gallery for pics and commentary.
WTF??
I don't know.... It seems a bit big. But if you can use it as a small media centre, streaming audio from the network, but with a good display to choose from.... But that is not why it is made.
It also seems good to read e-books.
- Unomi -
I agree whole-heartedly: WTF?!
Wow that thing is huge! I was about to be upset since I just got a 604 Wi-Fi for Valentine's Day but after seeing the pictures, I remain very happy with what I've got.
It does look nice and I'm sure it would be great for trips and such but I'm just not seeing a whole lot of practical use for what i'm expecting to be a pretty hefty price tag.
Any chance GPS will get thrown into this? If not, where's my Cowon Q5?
My 604 is great for watching movies on flights (which is what I bought it for), but a bigger screen would be welcome. This thing was not intended to replace your iPod, it;s for portable video. It;s still a helluva lot more portable than a laptop.
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Geez Archos could have just thrown a dvd drive on that thing and still had room left over.
Why doesn't Archos has a bigger share of the PMP market??? They have very high end equipment that kicks iPod to the curb. But yet, I hear very little of buzz around this company.
Arshad, I kiss you.
Nice looking device, when is it coming on sale?
A video of the Archos 704 here:
http://archoslounge.net/Exclusif-ArchosLounge-premier.html
Three comments (from an owner of the AV700)
- Navigation: Without buttons it seems MORE difficult to navigate the 704. It seems one's fingers will have to be the stylus. I use my AV700 in my car and the buttons are easier to get along with.
- Form Factor: the thing is wider than the AV700, which really shouldn't be so. Plus the plugs are all on the side and the bottom, which makes it a mess when actually hooking it up and almost forces you to buy the cradle. The AV700 had all its plugs neatly tuckered in the upper right corner.
- HD space: Why 80GB? If you add a 160GB one, I'm almost there. (my 100GB is pretty full) STill, this one I would have to actually play with before buying.
um whats the skin thats being used on the 700p?
HUGE!
I was holding out for this... but I think i'm gonna go in a different direction. I love its video capabilities... but i'm a music guy too... that thing is just way too big.
If you consider it is a replacement for a portable DVD player, then this thing (undoubtedly) costs way too much, but it would be a lot easier/nicer than dealing with the kids DVD discs while on a car trip... once you've got them all ripped and converted.
Then again you do have to rip and convert and you lose all the special features of the DVDs. Ripping isn't too bad, but converting is time consuming and a pain. I'd be much, much more inclined to buy something like this if it could play ripped DVDs as-is. I.e. rip-only, playing the VIDEO_TS folder with no conversion to some other video format necessary, no loss of video/audio quality and with all the DVD features intact.
Read about the product before you knock it. It is capable of playing .vob files (hence your VideoTS Folder).
That sounds good, but what exactly does it mean to be able to play a vob file? I though the vob files were only the video/audio (not menus and such). Further, they aren't complete - the movie, unless very short, is split up over multiple vob files. Can anyone with one of these devices confirm or not that it can play ripped DVDs as if it were the physical DVD, with all the features intact?
Does anybody know whether it can play DivX or not?