All in all, I would say that the screen on the Kobo Arc 7 is about equal to the screen on the Hisense Sero 7 Pro. It’s not the best quality screen, but it’s also not the worst. You can’t always make that claim with cameras on budget tablets.Īt 1024 x 600, the Kobo Arc 7 has the same screen resolution as on most budget Android tablets. They were low resolution images, yes, but still recognizable. I took numerous pictures of myself and all were recognizable. The VGA resolution camera is intended for video chatting and selfies, and it pretty good. Like many budget tablets, the Kobo Arc 7 is equipped with single camera on the front and no camera on the back, along with the the same basic camera app as on most budget Android tablets. I briefly owned a Kindle Fire HDX but not long enough to develop a dislike for the sharp edges. Sidenote: To be fair, Kobo isn’t the only tablet maker to follow this trend Amazon used a similar design aesthetic when coming up with the third generation Kindle Fire Android tablets. For example, having the USB port on the upper left edge is a better design than putting it on the bottom edge or the upper edge it’s more convenient to hold the tablet while it is charging if the cable is draped out to my left than if it is plugged into the top or the bottom of the tablet. That’s what I thought when I laid my hands on the Aura at CES 2014, and that’s what I think of the Arc 7.īut I will give Kobo credit for sticking with a generally good build quality, and for having the insight to distributing all of the buttons, ports, and card slots on several edges towards the upper half of the tablet. While it is visually eye catching, on a tactile level it is unappealing. You can see it on their newer 6″ ebook reader, the Aura, as well as on all 3 tablets launched this year. Kobo started this "no edge left soft" trend with the release of the Kobo Aura HD in early 2013. This tablet forgoes the curved shell found on Kobo’s earlier hardware (and many other Android tablets) in favor of sharp corners and an angled rear shell. I have held many Android tablets over the past few months and none were less physically appealing than the Kobo Arc 7. It looks like a regular Android tablet, but then I picked it up. The volume buttons are on the right edge, and the USB port, HDMI port, and headphone jack are on the upper edge. There’s a single speaker on the back, while the power button and microSD card slot are on the upper edge. It has a 7″ screen with a camera centered over one of the short sides. HardwareĪt first glance the Kobo Arc 7 looks like your typical Android tablet. This tablet wasn’t built to compete with all the other tablets on the market it was made for Kobo customers and folks who want to read on their tablet. This is by no means the best tablet on the market, but that’s okay. I bought it in early January 2014 from Best Buy for retail ($149). It was introduced in August 2013 and shipped about a month later. The Kobo Arc 7 is Kobo’s 3rd seven inch Android tablet.
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