Archos 7

The basics

A whopping 320GB Linux PMP with seven-inch touchscreen, Opera web browser (supporting Flash 9), email client, Wi-Fi and multiple plug-ins and accessories. It measures 190x110x16mm and weighs 640g.

The good

Upgrade your life to Club Class with this portable entertainment powerhouse. The seven-inch, stretch-VGA display gives a genuinely cinematic experience from a gargantuan hard drive that can store hundreds of movies. Adobe Flash web browsing means you can genuinely surf the web, including BBC iPlayer and YouTube playback. A decent graphics chip enables the 7 to render menus, web pages, movies and even (basic) games smoother than Roger Moore sipping G&T on a yacht in Antigua.

The bad

Transporting the Archos 7 is like carrying a particularly expensive and fragile house brick in your bag, and the touchscreen is neither as crisp nor as responsive as an iPod Touch. Despite the 7’s Business Class pricing, Archos piles on the extras - £12 to play podcasts or AAC files, £12 to play MPEG-2 files and surround sound, £80 to record video and another £12 (probably) to play HD files, when Archos finally gets round to making the plug-in available.

The bottom line

A gorgeous display, good video playback and monstrous hard drive means this over-achieving PMP strays dangerously close to a netbook’s price – but with few of a netbook’s capabilities.