The Archos 3 cam Vision player has a beautifully animated user interface a video camera FM radio & transmitter and plays the largest range of audio and video formats. It’s as simple as entertainment should be.

• 8 GB capacity for up to 4000 songs or 20 hours of video


• Up to 14 hours of audio or 4 hours of video on a single charge


• 3-inch TFT LCD touchscreen display with 400 x 240 pixel resolution


• Supports MP3 WMA WAV FLAC APE and OGG audio formats; MPEG WMV FLV AVI and RMVB video formats; JPEG BMP and GIF image files


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

ARCHOS award-winning for its constant technology innovation now introduces its new ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet. This product combines all the multimedia know-how that ARCHOS is famous for with the ANDROID operating system. It offers you an uncompromised Internet media and TV experience in a customizable interface. In perpetual evolution with the continuous arrival of new applications you can personalize your ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet to perfectly reflect your tastes and needs.

• 160GB capacity for up to 47500 songs 145 movies or 1.6 million photos


• 10 hours of audio or 4 hours of video on a single charge


• 4.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution and 16 million colors


• Supports MP3 WMA WAV AAC AAC+ FLAC and OGG Vorbis audio formats; MPEG-4 MPEG-4 HD (up to 720p)


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

Right Sized and Right Priced

• 8 GB capacity for up to 4000 songs


• 14 hours of audio or 4 hours of video on a single charge


• 3-inch LCD touchscreen display with 400 x 240 pixel resolution


• Supports MP3 WMA and WAV audio formats; MPEG 1/2/4 WMV FLV AVI RM


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

The Archos 2 Vision 8GB MP3 Player is an affordable yet sleek way to carry all your daily entertainment needs everywhere you go. Store up to 4000 songs photos or videos to the player for live playback on the 2 inch LCD screen.

• 8 GB capacity for about 4000 songs; 10 hours of audio or 4 hours of video on a single charge


• 2-inch color LCD display with 220 x 176 pixel resolution


• Supports MP3 WMA and WAV audio formats; AVI video format; JPG image format; TXT and LRC text formats


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

The ARCHOS Key is a handy USB key with numerous features for daily usage. Listen to and record your FM radio programs enjoy your music anywhere transmit your music directly to your car radio using the FM transmitter or store personal data files. You can also use the built-in micro SD card reader to extend the capacity at your convenience.

• 4 GB capacity for storage of up to 1000 songs (expandable via micro SD)


• 12 hours of playback on a single charge


• Backlit LCD display with 96 x 40 pixel resolution


• Supports MP3 WMA and WAV audio files


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

The ARCHOS 32 is an exciting 3.2? touch screen Android? device. Smaller than a pack of gum the ARCHOS 32 is able to play multiple video and music formats download applications to fit your lifestyle connect to the Internet and shoot videos with its built-in camera

• 8 GB capacity for about 4000 songs 80000 photos or seven full-length movies


• Download and install Android apps from the AppLib store while connected to a Wi-Fi network


• 3.2-inch TFT LCD touchscreen display with 400 x 240 pixel resolution and 16 million colors


• Supports MP3 WMA WAV AAC OGG and FLAC audio formats; AVI MP4 MOV 3GP MPG PS TS VOB MKV FLV RM RMVB ASF and WMV video formats; JPG BMP PNG and GIF image files


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

A connected Android palm-sized tablet. Just a simple tap on the home screen of the ARCHOS 43 internet tablet and you’ll be accessing all the major functions you need throughout the day wherever you are: HD video playback HD camcorder apps emails and full Internet browsing.

• An incredibly thin device with beautifully rounded lines this device sports a large 4.3? touch-screen and g-sensor


• A connected mobile device with a sublime user interface 3D graphics accelerator and Wi-Fi connectivity.


• The best portable HD* video playback experience anywhere viewing experience


• Built-in HD* camcorder Film important moments of your life and share them on the Internet or display them on TV with the built-in HDMI connection.


• The Web browsing experience with the Android browser is intuitive and complete thanks to Flash 10TM** compatibility

More detail ...

The ARCHOS Key is a handy USB key with numerous features for daily usage. Listen to and record your FM radio programs enjoy your music anywhere transmit your music directly to your car radio using the FM transmitter or store personal data files. You can also use the built-in micro SD card reader to extend the capacity at your convenience.

• 4 GB capacity for storage of up to 1000 songs (expandable via micro SD)


• 12 hours of playback on a single charge


• Backlit LCD display with 96 x 40 pixel resolution


• Supports MP3 WMA and WAV audio files


• One-year limited warranty

More detail ...

a great player for me

this review was updated on 12/27/2009.



my archos 3 vision absolutely meets or exceeds my personal requirements for an mp3 player!



times are tough so when my mp3 player was stolen in july 2008 i honestly tried to use my aging windows mobile phone with windows media player as a replacement player for over a year. however that solution had several limitations and frustrations. there were workarounds but i grew tired of them.



the stolen player was an archos g-mini which i had owned for several years and i really appreciated it's features so that is the main reason i shopped for a new archos player first. the archos 3 vision player has all of those same features with heaping helping of style storage and added features.



pros:

- it has style

- priced under $100

- plenty of storage space

- fits comfortably in all pockets

- good quality video on beautiful screen

- random play by folder artist album and genre

- better than average playback quality with a good equalizer

- total access to music at all times (without proprietary software)



neutral:

- battery life

- no firmware updates yet



cons:

- screen scratches quickly and easily

- the on screen control dial is almost useless for browsing tracks



the screen is beautiful and will also scratch quickly. my device had a 0.25" scratch within 24 hours of use but i could only see it when the device was off. luckily i have lots of screen protectors so cutting one to fit was easy. i could not see the scratch unless the screen was off. with the protector on the screen looks much less beautiful.



the on-screen dial is certainly not the easiest navigation interface i have ever considered. if you prefer to use random play or pregenerated playlists the on-screen dial will likely never be a concern for you. however if you require the ability to browse through every song on your device so you can carefully consider which track is worthy of your listening time at this very moment this device is not for you.



a couple bugs that i expect to be remedied with firmware updates...

- the button hold function sometimes requires a redundant switch on and off in order to switch off properly.

- the device will not remember my personal background picture; i select a picture but when i turn the device on again a different default background is displayed and my personal background picture is still available quickly by cycling through the default selections.



when i posted this review i had owned the player for 2 months and the video features were basically useless to me. i thought i would occasionally use video playback during long train rides or plane trips but music is really all i need... i knew i had paid a price for the feature so i felt committed to actually using the video playback and realized 1 very good use when i thought ahead to load it with a few downloaded holiday shows that i knew both of my youngest kids would enjoy. i also purchased a cheap speaker carrying case and the result is that watching shows on daddy's player was a hit during stressful holiday road trips and it is not something they will expect for everyday driving.



however i still could live without video playback and i have recenly had a chance to play with the archos 2 vision player which a friend purchased as a gift to himself. it has a screen that is barely big enough for showing id3 tags but if you do not need and will not use video playback i highly recommend that player because it has the same basic player features for about 40% less price. that player also has a simpler control scheme for browsing tracks.More detail ...

1st Impressions: big and beautiful!

I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I'm upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB Archos 605 Walkman X Samsung P2 and a host of other MP3 players large and small.



Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately and the process was quite smooth.



I'm going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.



Let's get to it then these are the things I love about my new Android:



1) 500GB -- totally awesome amount of disk I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface -- the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper the esthetics are cleaner things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps -- with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course nobody compares to the Apple App Store but this comes the closest.

4) Weight -- this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) Dock/DVR -- this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def -- of the players I have owned this has the best biggest and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape -- Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now I dunno. Still its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

8) Easy and regular firmware updates -- with a WiFi connection the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That's the easiest system I've seen of all my players. One thing I've learned about Archos over the years they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode-- very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button -- power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is quite good sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser -- has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch's although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I'm inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid one of many apps pre-loaded allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format -- love it!

14) Portability -- well there's only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer -- which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I've laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven't had to do that -- thank you Archos :)

16) Archos will stand behind their product. I've had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen -- sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens including iPod/iPhone are capacitance which means stylus won't work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in :)



Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I'm less than thrilled about:



1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 -- as I understand it Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn't get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back -- but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I'm also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You're not going to find one at the local Best Buy I'm afraid. In the past I've resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don't always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren't fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.



For me this is still the best player of its class -- that class being large hard drive big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities and overall I'm impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again if you don't mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players it just depends on what you care about the most.



Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App Browser and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems :)



Update 11-7-2009: I've been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.



Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 -- a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I'm backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.



Update 12-18-2009: I've been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes seems even more stable now.



Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven't seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!



Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.



Update 8-1-2010: Firmware 2.0.28: This version is stable. I had a little trouble with my player and had to send it in for a new one. Tech support was quite responsive and helpful turn around time was pretty good and the new player works great. New features make for much better gaming from what I hear (I don't do gaming on it myself). Having given up the player for a while I've come to the conclusion that the Archos actually has the best sound of all my players!More detail ...

1st Impressions: big and beautiful!

I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I'm upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB Archos 605 Walkman X Samsung P2 and a host of other MP3 players large and small.



Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately and the process was quite smooth.



I'm going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.



Let's get to it then these are the things I love about my new Android:



1) 500GB -- totally awesome amount of disk I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface -- the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper the esthetics are cleaner things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps -- with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course nobody compares to the Apple App Store but this comes the closest.

4) Weight -- this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) Dock/DVR -- this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def -- of the players I have owned this has the best biggest and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape -- Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now I dunno. Still its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

8) Easy and regular firmware updates -- with a WiFi connection the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That's the easiest system I've seen of all my players. One thing I've learned about Archos over the years they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode-- very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button -- power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is quite good sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser -- has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch's although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I'm inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid one of many apps pre-loaded allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format -- love it!

14) Portability -- well there's only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer -- which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I've laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven't had to do that -- thank you Archos :)

16) Archos will stand behind their product. I've had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen -- sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens including iPod/iPhone are capacitance which means stylus won't work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in :)



Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I'm less than thrilled about:



1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 -- as I understand it Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn't get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back -- but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I'm also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You're not going to find one at the local Best Buy I'm afraid. In the past I've resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don't always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren't fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.



For me this is still the best player of its class -- that class being large hard drive big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities and overall I'm impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again if you don't mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players it just depends on what you care about the most.



Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App Browser and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems :)



Update 11-7-2009: I've been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.



Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 -- a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I'm backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.



Update 12-18-2009: I've been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes seems even more stable now.



Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven't seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!



Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.



Update 8-1-2010: Firmware 2.0.28: This version is stable. I had a little trouble with my player and had to send it in for a new one. Tech support was quite responsive and helpful turn around time was pretty good and the new player works great. New features make for much better gaming from what I hear (I don't do gaming on it myself). Having given up the player for a while I've come to the conclusion that the Archos actually has the best sound of all my players!More detail ...

You get what you pay for.

I just bought this player recently and have had no bad experiences with it. The touchpad to switch songs is not AS sensitive as I might like but overall the player is great. It comes with the software to convert videos to a format it will pay. You can easily drag and drop files into folders. The sound is good. For the price it is a great little player.



I think the player pictured by the seller is a more updated version than the one I actually received. The pictures added by customers look almost identical to what I have. There is no FM transmitter on this device. Though the product I have works perfectly fine the vast difference between the product shown and what was received makes it begin to feel a little like false advertising rather than a good bargain.More detail ...

It's not perfect but I'm happy with it

I bought this to replace a Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black) that had been stolen. I really liked my Zen but I wanted to see what new stuff had come out in the time since I bought it. This led me to getting the Archos 605 80GB instead mainly because of the optional TV hookups. I've never liked to watch movies or TV shows (or even music videos) on my PC monitor because I can't relax and enjoy something passive while I'm at my computer. I'd also never used the Zen's video capabilities much because the screen was too small. The Archos 605 on the other hand could be hooked up to a TV (with the DVR station or other accessories--I bought the DVR station) which would allow me to watch downloaded TV shows and movies in comfort--and even better with other people (it's difficult to crowd around a computer desk to watch a movie) plus I'd be able to watch stuff on the go with its larger screen.



The wifi access web browser plug-in and PDF reader also helped sell me on the Archos 605. I particularly looked forward to being able to read ebooks in PDF format.



So when I ordered the Archos 605 I was thinking of it as an MP3 "with benefits."



When the Archos 605 arrived I found out that its screen was totally large enough to watch video comfortably. Shortly after I got it I watched two and a half seasons of Weeds on it. It's fantastic! I can carry a TV show into the kitchen to grab a snack etc. When I'm home alone I'm even able to rely on the built-in speaker--for TV shows I don't need fantastic sound quality; I just need to be able to hear what they're saying. It's very cool; I'm very addicted. :)



Like I said I bought the DVR station with it. I had wondered how a video file from the Archos would hold up enlarged on a TV screen but no worries--the picture quality is good (we have a 32" set). I've recorded some stuff from our TiVo onto the Archos and the picture quality is good in that direction too. Since we do have a TiVo I haven't used the Archos as a DVR (with the downloaded TV listings and scheduled recordings) so I can't say how easy that is to use but it's definitely easy to manually record something and I was happy to see that I could tell it how long to record for.



As an MP3 player it's not as good as the Zen simply because it's not primarily an MP3.



One way the Zen (and probably most other MP3 players) is a better MP3 player than the Archos is that if you power the Archos 605 off while you're playing music it doesn't automatically start up where you left off when you turn it back on. Instead you boot up to the main screen and then you have to tap the "resume" icon; otherwise nothing happens. In this way it's less "plug and go" than my Zen was; sometimes if I'm only going to be driving for a few minutes (like a hop from the grocery store to the gas station) I won't bother starting it up at all. Also the way you lock the controls takes a few seconds longer than the Zen did. With the Zen you just slid the switch to the lock position. With the Archos you hold down the TV button until the lock icon appears on the screen.



If you're playing from a playlist when you turn the unit off and then you hit "resume" after you turn it back on it doesn't seem to resume the playlist--it does indeed play the song you were on but it's playing it from the album instead of the playlist so the next song after that is the next song on the album not the next song on the playlist. Possibly this is glitch that will be fixed in a firmware update (or perhaps has been--I haven't updated my firmware in a couple weeks).



Finally changing the play mode (normal shuffle repeat one repeat all) takes a lot more navigating around than it did on the Zen. It really shouldn't take that many clicks.



Sound-wise the Archos is good as the Zen was and its drawbacks as an MP3 player aren't so onerous that I'd consider buying a separate MP3 player. The Archos does well enough.



The PDF reader however turned out to be a disappointment. First it takes several (loooong) seconds to go to the next page. Second there's no way to bookmark where you are so that you can pick up where you left off. I figured I could just remember what page I was on and use the Go To Page feature to get back to it but the Go To Page feature uses a slider which is nowhere near as quick as if they'd let me type in a page number and it takes a long freaking time for it to then load that page. Ugh. So this thing definitely hasn't replaced my Palm Tungsten for e-reading.



I haven't used the web browser or wireless much. It seemed pretty slow the times I have and there's no "tap feedback" in the Content Portal so when you tap on a link you often don't know whether the tap has registered or not because the screen stays the same while the Archos (slooooowly) downloads the data for the next screen. That's frustrating. The web wasn't as frustrating as the Content Portal; I just haven't had much of a need to use it.



Another downside is that there aren't any cases for it that will protect the unit while allowing you direct immediate access to it the way the skin I had for my Zen did. Instead it comes with a padded envelope-like case that you have to slip the unit completely out of if you want to use it. (To be fair it's much better than the cloth pouch that came with the Zen.) Leather case options are limited and all the ones I've seen require you to open the case in order to view the screen or access the navigation. The one from Archos won't even let you turn it off with the case closed which isn't very handy if you're listening to audio and want to shut it off quickly.



I don't know how many hours I'm getting out of my battery. I did listen to music for 10 hours on a recent road trip without it giving out on me but I didn't keep going to see how much more I could get out of it. I've also watched a couple hours of video without it running out of juice--and again I ended up dropping it in the DVR station (which charges it) before it did run out so all I can say about the battery is that it's lasting long enough for my needs.



Despite the caveats I've listed above I LOVE my Archos 605. I love being able to take TV shows and movies with me everywhere. I love that I can finally watch bootleg concerts and other stuff I've downloaded on the "big screen." It's easy to use. The DVR station is easy to use. The two work together seamlessly. The Archos holds a ton off stuff. It plays my music. It lets me browse the web if I need to.



I'm happy with it definitely. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that future firmware updates will make me even happier with it.More detail ...

You get what you pay for.

I just bought this player recently and have had no bad experiences with it. The touchpad to switch songs is not AS sensitive as I might like but overall the player is great. It comes with the software to convert videos to a format it will pay. You can easily drag and drop files into folders. The sound is good. For the price it is a great little player.



I think the player pictured by the seller is a more updated version than the one I actually received. The pictures added by customers look almost identical to what I have. There is no FM transmitter on this device. Though the product I have works perfectly fine the vast difference between the product shown and what was received makes it begin to feel a little like false advertising rather than a good bargain.More detail ...

Ho-hum

PROS:

Red looks cool.

Sound quality is not the best above average.

Equalizer.

Light enough to not weigh down shirt pocket.

CONS:

Seems hastily assembled

Sticky touchscreen. Poorly responsive even after many calibration.

Virtual wheel is a good concept but poorly executed.

Who still uses paper decals on mp3's or any gadgets for that matter at this day and age?

Crappy buds.

Power/lock slider switch fragile as a loose deciduous tooth.



First of this is not made to sit among the giants like ZuneHD iPod Touch 2ndG Cowon S9 Samsung P2 or Sony Walkman X Series so i didn't have high expectations when i preordered it last month. After all the old addage has always been true - that you get what you pay for. However receiving it 3 days ago and using it since was a major let down in spite of my consciously lowered expectations. The buds went to my drawer of useless cables. Then i find myself at times jabbing the screen with my finger if only to get it to respond. The virtual wheel takes some getting used to you'll find your screen display seemingly bunjee jumping up and down instead of scrolling smoothly. If you can look past these then you can have a toy that plays decent above average music.

The price has been dropping on this thing in just a matter of days since it's release. I won't be surprised to see it discounted to $50. Archos should have paid more attention to the quality of the 3 Vision especially now that they are getting more aggressive in the market with their new lines of MID 5's and the 9 that's coing out on the 22nd of this month. In fairness to ARCHOS they have a commendable tech support staff(i bought a plug-in from them for my 5).

Take it from this old man who likes to buy these toys. There are better players out there.



More detail ...

Ho-hum

PROS:

Red looks cool.

Sound quality is not the best above average.

Equalizer.

Light enough to not weigh down shirt pocket.

CONS:

Seems hastily assembled

Sticky touchscreen. Poorly responsive even after many calibration.

Virtual wheel is a good concept but poorly executed.

Who still uses paper decals on mp3's or any gadgets for that matter at this day and age?

Crappy buds.

Power/lock slider switch fragile as a loose deciduous tooth.



First of this is not made to sit among the giants like ZuneHD iPod Touch 2ndG Cowon S9 Samsung P2 or Sony Walkman X Series so i didn't have high expectations when i preordered it last month. After all the old addage has always been true - that you get what you pay for. However receiving it 3 days ago and using it since was a major let down in spite of my consciously lowered expectations. The buds went to my drawer of useless cables. Then i find myself at times jabbing the screen with my finger if only to get it to respond. The virtual wheel takes some getting used to you'll find your screen display seemingly bunjee jumping up and down instead of scrolling smoothly. If you can look past these then you can have a toy that plays decent above average music.

The price has been dropping on this thing in just a matter of days since it's release. I won't be surprised to see it discounted to $50. Archos should have paid more attention to the quality of the 3 Vision especially now that they are getting more aggressive in the market with their new lines of MID 5's and the 9 that's coing out on the 22nd of this month. In fairness to ARCHOS they have a commendable tech support staff(i bought a plug-in from them for my 5).

Take it from this old man who likes to buy these toys. There are better players out there.



More detail ...

1st Impressions: big and beautiful!

I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I'm upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB Archos 605 Walkman X Samsung P2 and a host of other MP3 players large and small.



Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately and the process was quite smooth.



I'm going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.



Let's get to it then these are the things I love about my new Android:



1) 500GB -- totally awesome amount of disk I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface -- the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper the esthetics are cleaner things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps -- with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course nobody compares to the Apple App Store but this comes the closest.

4) Weight -- this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) Dock/DVR -- this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def -- of the players I have owned this has the best biggest and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape -- Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now I dunno. Still its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

8) Easy and regular firmware updates -- with a WiFi connection the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That's the easiest system I've seen of all my players. One thing I've learned about Archos over the years they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode-- very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button -- power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is pretty good sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser -- has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch's although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I'm inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid one of many apps pre-loaded allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format -- love it!

14) Portability -- well there's only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer -- which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I've laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven't had to do that -- thank you Archos :)

16) Archos will stand behind their product. I've had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen -- sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens including iPod/iPhone are capacitance which means stylus won't work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in :)



Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I'm less than thrilled about:



1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 -- as I understand it Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn't get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back -- but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I'm also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You're not going to find one at the local Best Buy I'm afraid. In the past I've resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don't always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren't fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.



For me this is still the best player of its class -- that class being large hard drive big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities and overall I'm impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again if you don't mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players it just depends on what you care about the most.



Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App Browser and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems :)



Update 11-7-2009: I've been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.



Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 -- a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I'm backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.



Update 12-18-2009: I've been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes seems even more stable now.



Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven't seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!



Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.More detail ...

Comparison vs Archos 705

As an owner of both the new Archos 7 as well as last year's model (the 705) I wanted to provide some points of comparison between the two for anyone trying to decide whether to save some money on the older model. In general the two are very similar -- they provide essentially the same functionality although the new 7 includes a couple of new features (and includes for free some of the plugins that you had to pay for before with the 705).



Here's a quick rundown of the positive changes in the 7 vs the 705:



* Speed -- particularly of the web browser. The new 7 has a much faster CPU and renders web content at a much better pace (probably 3x the speed of the 705). Using the browser on the 705 was often painful except on pages that were geared to mobile devices. The 7 can handle even most complex pages without a problem. Since I use the device for browsing quite a bit this is a HUGE plus for the 7.



* Email -- The 7 includes a native email client that supports GMail Yahoo mail or any POP/IMAP server. It's very simple but usable. It's also free (i.e. not a plugin).



* Better screen -- The screen on the 7 definitely is crisper than that on the 705. And the colors are rendered more accurately (at least from my subjective point of view).



* Better responsiveness -- The touchscreen on the 7 is more responsive than on the 705. The increased sensitivity really helps the usability. That said people who use other touchscreen devices (e.g. iPhone) may find that the screen is still not as sensitive/responsive as other devices.



* Size -- although the screen is the same size between the 2 units the 7 is slightly shorter and thinner than the 705 (but not by much). The 7's glossy case does collect fingerprints rather quickly but that's purely an aesthetic issue.



Advantages of the 705 over the 7:



* Archos dropped the mini-USB plug that was used to connect the Archos to your computer. It now uses a proprietary connector for this purpose.



* They also dropped the USB host port from that came with the 705. The 7 includes the USB host capability but to use it you must purchase the DVR station or mini-dock add-ons. This was built-in directly in the 705 unit. This makes using the device to dump pictures from your digital camera more of a hassle as one more attachment must be carried just for this.



* They also dropped the video out connecter that was standard in the 705. Again to use this feature with the 7 you'll need the DVR station or mini-dock.



* No stylus or case included -- I've found that using my finger generally works fine but a stylus is still better/more accurate on the screen. Luckily the 705 came with 2 of them so I use the spare with my 7. As for the case you'll have to buy one from Archos to a third party if you want/need one.



Things I wish they would have improved:



* Weight -- this is one heavy device at nearly 1.5 lbs. Granted the size makes carrying it in a pocket prohibitive but the weight would do you in otherwise. Fine for a travel bag though and definitely much lighter than a laptop.



* Most plugins still not free -- The browser plugin and "web radio/tv" plugins are now free but to view many online videos and items ripped from DVD you'll need to plunk down extra $ for those plugins.



* Support for Flash 9 -- The Archos ostensibly ships with support for Flash 9 but what they don't tell you is that not all Flash 9.x versions are created equally. For example while most clips on YouTube work the version of Flash on the Archos does not support popular sites like Hulu. This for me is one of the largest disappointments of the Archos 7.



* No HD or 3G plugins available -- despite what the product description days the plugins that provides HD video thru the DVR dock (or mini-dock) and which support a 3G wireless connection thru a USB dongle do not actually exist. There's also a very good chance they never will. Archos is notorious for promoting features which are never delivered. If either of these plugins is critical in your decision to purchase the Archos 7 you would be best off waiting until they are released before making the purchase.



For me I use the 7/705 as a travel companion so I can watch videos browse the web and store digital pictures. For web use the 7 is a huge improvement. For videos the better screen is a nice improvement but for picture storage the lack of the built-in USB host port and the need to carry the mini-dock is a bummer.

More detail ...

It's not perfect but I'm happy with it

I bought this to replace a Creative Zen Vision:M 30 GB MP3 and Video Player (Black) that had been stolen. I really liked my Zen but I wanted to see what new stuff had come out in the time since I bought it. This led me to getting the Archos 605 80GB instead mainly because of the optional TV hookups. I've never liked to watch movies or TV shows (or even music videos) on my PC monitor because I can't relax and enjoy something passive while I'm at my computer. I'd also never used the Zen's video capabilities much because the screen was too small. The Archos 605 on the other hand could be hooked up to a TV (with the DVR station or other accessories--I bought the DVR station) which would allow me to watch downloaded TV shows and movies in comfort--and even better with other people (it's difficult to crowd around a computer desk to watch a movie) plus I'd be able to watch stuff on the go with its larger screen.



The wifi access web browser plug-in and PDF reader also helped sell me on the Archos 605. I particularly looked forward to being able to read ebooks in PDF format.



So when I ordered the Archos 605 I was thinking of it as an MP3 "with benefits."



When the Archos 605 arrived I found out that its screen was totally large enough to watch video comfortably. Shortly after I got it I watched two and a half seasons of Weeds on it. It's fantastic! I can carry a TV show into the kitchen to grab a snack etc. When I'm home alone I'm even able to rely on the built-in speaker--for TV shows I don't need fantastic sound quality; I just need to be able to hear what they're saying. It's very cool; I'm very addicted. :)



Like I said I bought the DVR station with it. I had wondered how a video file from the Archos would hold up enlarged on a TV screen but no worries--the picture quality is good (we have a 32" set). I've recorded some stuff from our TiVo onto the Archos and the picture quality is good in that direction too. Since we do have a TiVo I haven't used the Archos as a DVR (with the downloaded TV listings and scheduled recordings) so I can't say how easy that is to use but it's definitely easy to manually record something and I was happy to see that I could tell it how long to record for.



As an MP3 player it's not as good as the Zen simply because it's not primarily an MP3.



One way the Zen (and probably most other MP3 players) is a better MP3 player than the Archos is that if you power the Archos 605 off while you're playing music it doesn't automatically start up where you left off when you turn it back on. Instead you boot up to the main screen and then you have to tap the "resume" icon; otherwise nothing happens. In this way it's less "plug and go" than my Zen was; sometimes if I'm only going to be driving for a few minutes (like a hop from the grocery store to the gas station) I won't bother starting it up at all. Also the way you lock the controls takes a few seconds longer than the Zen did. With the Zen you just slid the switch to the lock position. With the Archos you hold down the TV button until the lock icon appears on the screen.



If you're playing from a playlist when you turn the unit off and then you hit "resume" after you turn it back on it doesn't seem to resume the playlist--it does indeed play the song you were on but it's playing it from the album instead of the playlist so the next song after that is the next song on the album not the next song on the playlist. Possibly this is glitch that will be fixed in a firmware update (or perhaps has been--I haven't updated my firmware in a couple weeks).



Finally changing the play mode (normal shuffle repeat one repeat all) takes a lot more navigating around than it did on the Zen. It really shouldn't take that many clicks.



Sound-wise the Archos is good as the Zen was and its drawbacks as an MP3 player aren't so onerous that I'd consider buying a separate MP3 player. The Archos does well enough.



The PDF reader however turned out to be a disappointment. First it takes several (loooong) seconds to go to the next page. Second there's no way to bookmark where you are so that you can pick up where you left off. I figured I could just remember what page I was on and use the Go To Page feature to get back to it but the Go To Page feature uses a slider which is nowhere near as quick as if they'd let me type in a page number and it takes a long freaking time for it to then load that page. Ugh. So this thing definitely hasn't replaced my Palm Tungsten for e-reading.



I haven't used the web browser or wireless much. It seemed pretty slow the times I have and there's no "tap feedback" in the Content Portal so when you tap on a link you often don't know whether the tap has registered or not because the screen stays the same while the Archos (slooooowly) downloads the data for the next screen. That's frustrating. The web wasn't as frustrating as the Content Portal; I just haven't had much of a need to use it.



Another downside is that there aren't any cases for it that will protect the unit while allowing you direct immediate access to it the way the skin I had for my Zen did. Instead it comes with a padded envelope-like case that you have to slip the unit completely out of if you want to use it. (To be fair it's much better than the cloth pouch that came with the Zen.) Leather case options are limited and all the ones I've seen require you to open the case in order to view the screen or access the navigation. The one from Archos won't even let you turn it off with the case closed which isn't very handy if you're listening to audio and want to shut it off quickly.



I don't know how many hours I'm getting out of my battery. I did listen to music for 10 hours on a recent road trip without it giving out on me but I didn't keep going to see how much more I could get out of it. I've also watched a couple hours of video without it running out of juice--and again I ended up dropping it in the DVR station (which charges it) before it did run out so all I can say about the battery is that it's lasting long enough for my needs.



Despite the caveats I've listed above I LOVE my Archos 605. I love being able to take TV shows and movies with me everywhere. I love that I can finally watch bootleg concerts and other stuff I've downloaded on the "big screen." It's easy to use. The DVR station is easy to use. The two work together seamlessly. The Archos holds a ton off stuff. It plays my music. It lets me browse the web if I need to.



I'm happy with it definitely. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that future firmware updates will make me even happier with it.More detail ...

1st Impressions: big and beautiful!

I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I'm upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB Archos 605 Walkman X Samsung P2 and a host of other MP3 players large and small.



Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately and the process was quite smooth.



I'm going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.



Let's get to it then these are the things I love about my new Android:



1) 500GB -- totally awesome amount of disk I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface -- the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper the esthetics are cleaner things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps -- with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course nobody compares to the Apple App Store but this comes the closest.

4) Weight -- this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) Dock/DVR -- this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def -- of the players I have owned this has the best biggest and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape -- Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now I dunno. Still its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

8) Easy and regular firmware updates -- with a WiFi connection the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That's the easiest system I've seen of all my players. One thing I've learned about Archos over the years they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode-- very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button -- power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is pretty good sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser -- has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch's although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I'm inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid one of many apps pre-loaded allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format -- love it!

14) Portability -- well there's only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer -- which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I've laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven't had to do that -- thank you Archos :)

16) Archos will stand behind their product. I've had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen -- sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens including iPod/iPhone are capacitance which means stylus won't work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in :)



Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I'm less than thrilled about:



1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 -- as I understand it Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn't get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back -- but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I'm also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You're not going to find one at the local Best Buy I'm afraid. In the past I've resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don't always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren't fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.



For me this is still the best player of its class -- that class being large hard drive big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities and overall I'm impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again if you don't mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players it just depends on what you care about the most.



Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App Browser and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems :)



Update 11-7-2009: I've been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.



Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 -- a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I'm backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.



Update 12-18-2009: I've been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes seems even more stable now.



Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven't seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!



Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.More detail ...

Small package big value

I've only used my Clipper a couples times and I'm already very impressed. The drag-and-drop software makes it very easy to add music since I dont have to bother with installing any additional software. The buttons are large and well placed to make changing songs easy without looking. For the price its an exceptional deal. The only complaint I have is the headphones. The ear buds seem to be the wrong shape to stay in my ears. For this price though its easy enough to pick up an aftermarket pair thats more comfortable. You get quite a lot from the Clipper in a small package for a small price. I definiatly recommend this for music on the go.More detail ...

1st Impressions: big and beautiful!

I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I'm upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB Archos 605 Walkman X Samsung P2 and a host of other MP3 players large and small.



Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately and the process was quite smooth.



I'm going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.



Let's get to it then these are the things I love about my new Android:



1) 500GB -- totally awesome amount of disk I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.

2) Android interface -- the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper the esthetics are cleaner things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila resumes right where you left off!

3) Apps -- with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course nobody compares to the Apple App Store but this comes the closest.

4) Weight -- this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.

5) Dock/DVR -- this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.

6) Video/Hi Def -- of the players I have owned this has the best biggest and highest resolution screen.

7) Portrait/Landscape -- Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now I dunno. Still its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.

8) Easy and regular firmware updates -- with a WiFi connection the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That's the easiest system I've seen of all my players. One thing I've learned about Archos over the years they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.

9) WMV/MTP mode-- very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.

10) Dedicated volume button -- power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).

11) Sound quality is pretty good sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.

12) WiFi/Browser -- has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch's although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I'm inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.

13) I just discovered Twidroid one of many apps pre-loaded allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format -- love it!

14) Portability -- well there's only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer -- which is basically what this is.

15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I've laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven't had to do that -- thank you Archos :)

16) Archos will stand behind their product. I've had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!

17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.

18) Built-in kickstand very nice feature.

19) Stylus friendly touch screen -- sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens including iPod/iPhone are capacitance which means stylus won't work

20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in :)



Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I'm less than thrilled about:



1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 -- as I understand it Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.

2) The playlist interface didn't get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.

3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back -- but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I'm also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.

4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You're not going to find one at the local Best Buy I'm afraid. In the past I've resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.

5) As always with Archos you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don't always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.

6) Lets face it Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren't fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.

7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.



For me this is still the best player of its class -- that class being large hard drive big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities and overall I'm impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again if you don't mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players it just depends on what you care about the most.



Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App Browser and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems :)



Update 11-7-2009: I've been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.



Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 -- a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I'm backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.



Update 12-18-2009: I've been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes seems even more stable now.



Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven't seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!



Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.More detail ...

In LOVE with this device!

Sometimes you buy something and you spend alot of money and just

don't feel like you have gotten your moneys worth or don't use it

enough to justify to yourself the purchase.

Well for me the Archos device is just about the best purchase

that I have ever made. It is just incredible. I literally use it

every day. I take it on the train. I take it backpacking. I watch

TV in bed before going to sleep. I even watch it at work occasionally.

I really have no complaints whatsoever on this device!

I previously purchased the Archos 604 30GB model. And yes I bought

all the plugins... This purchase was for the Wifi and higher resolution

than my 604. After firmware upgrade it has worked flawlessly.

Everything else on the device is just great.

Let me say that I purchased the video iPod and the video itself looks

great but it is SO SMALL! The screen size on this is perfect.

I actually went thru alot of pain to get VIDEO ON THE IPOD!

Well this baby will play alot of formats the ipod will not. mpeg2

vob avi mpeg4. Just buy the plugins and you are good to go.

Yes its a little more expense.. blah blah blah

To do movie conversion I use Nero Recoder for ipod (mpeg4).

For TV shows I used bittorrent. :) Legally of course :)

Somehow there are alot of negative comments about the device.

I don't understand. I've had the 604 for about 6 months and still

rave about it. The 605 is just as nice.

If you don't own one already I'd recommend getting the 30GB one

if you can afford it. The flash is nice for expansion but is

slower for copying files to the device. Flash is getting much

cheaper (2GB SD card for ~$20 now...) though.

Anyway if you want to watch video get the Archos. If you want

a music player buy an iPod. If you want people to think you have

money buy an iTouch.

Hope my comments were useful to you. If you buy it and are

dissappointed I will be too.



The following is added after having the unit for over a month:

- I still love it

- Never had ANY problems playing video

- Never had ANY problems playing music

- Lockup has occurred using Web Browser. They are not frequent

and I am assuming that Archos will continue to make the

product more robust with Opera. They have yet to release

the widgets so my guess is that they are working on it.

So... still very happy with Web Browser

- Complaints about having special cable are goofy (see iPod cable)

- The Media Server option is GREAT! I have a Maxtor NAS drive

which supports uPnP so I don't have to copy stuff onto the

device itself. For shows > 1hr I copy them to the device because

the fast forward does not work with the media server. (If you

use PC and share then use the file browser it does)

All being said I would lower the stars to 4.5 because of the lockups

during Web Browsing. Hope the additional comments help you.

Thanks



Update on Dec 11:

New firmware makes the device even better. Haven't seen any lockups

using the webbrowser. And now it supports flash games. OK OK... so

the CPU is not that powerful and it won't play alot of games to

satisfaction but it does play the cards games just fine.

Anyway... Yes yes yes... you have to buy plugins for the webbrowser

and if you want to play some different formats... Just figure an

extra 50 dollars. But again.. if you want to watch VIDEO then this

IS the device for you. If you want music then there are ALOT of

better mp3 players out there. And the complaints about video conversion..

well 1 plugin buys you anything you would watch on the ipod.

Like I said above.. sorry if you don't like it.More detail ...