Archos 605 reviewed: it gives the giddiness, indeed
By Nilay Patel 
posted Jul 12th 2007 9:06AM
posted Jul 12th 2007 9:06AM
The French PMP-maniacs over at ArchosLounge gotten their hands on the biggest and baddest of Archos' fifth-generation lineup, the 605 WiFi, and it looks like the device is pretty sweet. The user interface is praised as being exceptional, using 3D effects and the whole of the 4.3-inch touchscreen to make navigation simple. That screen wins high marks for another reason, as well: while it's a tiny bit grainy, the scratch-resistant surface somehow doesn't pick up any fingerprints or get greasy -- the bane of all touch devices. The Opera browser has been refined and now works with more websites (no Flash, though), while video streaming seems to work as advertised, although content is currently a little limited. Other than that, the only downsides seem to be the lack of an IM client and the fact that thinness comes at its usual price: the battery is no longer user-replaceable. We're not complaining, though -- this $300 music-playing, video-streaming, PDF-reading, widgetized wonder seems like a hit to us. Check the read link for the entire massive review, and here's hoping that recent FCC approval means we'll see this thing hit shelves in the States soon.
if i didn't know any better, i woulda thought you were talking about the iphone.
Exactly why the iPhone is good, but not as revolutionary as the media likes to think.
> A continuous breath was perceptible during a use with
> intra-auricular ear-phones (and not that with will intras).
> In short, I am pleased to say to you that there,
> not breath in the honey cages.
Hard to tell WHAT exactly they're talking about. Honey cages--mmm! And I thought German made for amusing translations to English.
Steven Paul Jobs, relax and take notes...
where is 705 at?
its the same as the 704 but thinner and uses the 605 feature set
I think I'll make my final decision of what to get when the Cowon Q5 is reviewed and out in the US.
How big is the HD?
First.. I'm voting you down, doesn't mean much, but I feel better about it because you didn't do the following:
1. RTFA
2. Perform any Due Diligence
3. Rely on some else to think for you.
There are 4 versions... 4gb, 30gb, 80gb, and 160gb.
Now, there is your answer, and a few hints to help make your future life much more fulfilling.
Major Malfunction, what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
@ Matt
How the hell is my comment insanely idiotic, rambling, or incoherent? It says in the article how big the HD is you tool job. You didn't read it, its on the first page. You didn't go to the website to see for yourself either, which means you are lazy. Which is why I placed #3 in my list, albeit I said you "didn't" rely on someone else to do your thinking for you.
You a Bush-School-Of-Thought kinda guy? If you can't convince them, confuse them?
It's a joke dude, it's just a movie quote. It's just technology and there's no need to get angry over comments on engadget. You can respond to this thinking you have the last word and you win but the truth is I could care less.
@Matthew: actually, you *couldn't* care less.
300 dollar for all that??? I'm gonna get dough from my insurance company because my iPod photo is broken. If Apple doesn't come out with an all touch screen iPod in the coming two months I'll be buying my first Archos.
not quite, the browser and a couple of the codecs cost extra (around $20 each)
Nice move, EXACTLY what I did two months ago. =) (except upgraded to Archos 604)
The price actually starts at $200 for the Archos 605 WiFi with 4GB Flash memory and the SD card slot instead of the 30GB harddrive.
that's just the kind of bad habit people have
why should you buy an Apple touchscreen device when Cowon and Archos already have them out?
because it's Apple?
besides which I'm quite sure the new iPods won't have half the features of the current Archos players
Archos is great and it's always nice to hear good reviews.
I like the picture of it on the grill.
Interesting - I wonder if it'd work in the CLIE NX series (I'm still holding on to). The one Sony came out with years ago is only 802.11b.
HEY! That's MY name!
Anyway, my friend really wants one of these.
Hmmm...If it's possible to get this thing to play FLAC and get an Optical LOD so I can hook it up to an external DAC...I might just get one of these!
Why would they remove the ability
for user replaceable battery ?????
300 Euro !
HOW MANY GB IS IT? 30
30, 80, and 160.
It will have a 30GB, 80GB, 160GB, and a 4GB flash version that will have an SD slot. The price stated is only for the 30GB version, but with more stores carrying it in the US, prices will go down. When I picked up a 605wifi last year, it was going for $500 on websites and I got it for about $375 at Sams.
As for wifi, it has 802.11G.
As a side note, the review says no Flash support, this is not entirely correct. You will have to purchase a plugin to enable flash making the millions of videos on youtube available, not just a handful like the iphone. This is in fact the only portable device that can handle Flash at the moment.
And the extra purchase of plugins is a good thing. They have to buy a license to allow these features, and many people don't need them. On my 604wifi, I have never needed nor have I purchased the AAC or M4A plugin.
On a side note, just noticed in the review that it now supports enabling and disabling subtitles.
"This is in fact the only portable device that can handle Flash at the moment."
The Nokia N800 got Flash 9 in its recent firmware upgrade (for free)
This Archos also plays DivX files instantly, you don't even need to wait for it to download completely, just find any DivX .avi file link on the Internet, click and after 5 seconds of buffering, it starts playing in full screen. Youtube/Dailymotion/Google Video also works on this Archos instanly in full screen. No other consumer electronic product supports Flash video like this one does.
Yes Nokia N800 has got Flash, but not in a way that can be used for anything special. Nokia's Flash support is a fake one, Nokia N800 is not powerfull enough for Youtube video streaming in full screen mode as the Archos here is.
why does the archos get a pass for a sealed battery but the iphone has everyone up in arms? why would you not be complaining?
Because when I have to send in my phone, which I need and use multiple times a day just to change a battery that is annoying as hell. Sending this media player in causes me no trouble though. One is slightly annoying, the other leaves me without a necessary piece of equipment for functioning day to day in my job.
Archos let's you double the battery capacity with the $50 Battery Dock which you can attach under it. So arguably you will always have good battery life even though the internal battery is not changeable. But hopefully that until then, Archos will provide a cheap and quick battery replacement service, maybe there could even be a toolkit battery replacement service being made available at your local Archos reseller store.
because Archos isn't as big as Apple,that's why :)
Internal batteries have *no*, I repeat *no* advantage to removable batteries. Just downsides. Why the portable audio industry at large ignores this is beyond me.
Digital cameras don't have such stupidity. Laptops don't. Phones don't (ignoring the fruity kind). Etc.
there are plenty of battery packs from the ipod ecosystem that will work with the iphone, and the sim is removable so you can always use another cell if you have to send your iphone in. on the other hand, a sealed battery shaves precious thickness off a device's casing and prevents people from needlessly wasting li-poly cells and improperly disposing of them, not to mention using badly manufactured cheap cells which can negatively affect any electronic device you use them in.
i guess i just don't understand this giant fear that you'll either have a shorter battery life (70%) four years down the road or will have to spend two days without. i know i'll have replaced any device by then simply because something that makes more sense will be out before any of that happens - color me crazy :shrug:
kevin @ Jul 12th 2007 4:25PM
there are plenty of battery packs from the ipod ecosystem that will work with the iphone
------------
More bulk. More cost for the battery pack. Why?
and the sim is removable so you can always use another cell if you have to send your iphone in.
------------
Good to see that they didn't integrate the sim
on the other hand, a sealed battery shaves precious thickness off a device's casing
-------------
No it does not. All (nearly all) battery covers are merely clip-in or screw-in affairs with no additional thickness.
and prevents people from needlessly wasting li-poly cells
----------
How?
...and improperly disposing of them,
----------
how? When phones die, ipods die, etc. do you think the bulk are recycled? How would a non-removable battery prevent their disposal?
How about their batteries? not to mention using badly manufactured cheap cells which can negatively affect any electronic device you use them in.
-------------
The "saving us from ourselves angle" can also be looked at this way: price-gouging from the manufacturer, who uses "standard" Li-Ion cells at ridiculous mark-up. There is no guarantee of "safe" cells from manufacturer or third-party, as recent events have made clear.
i guess i just don't understand this giant fear that you'll either have a shorter battery life (70%) four years down the road
----------
Or run out of battery in the middle of your day, or trip, or....
or will have to spend two days without.
----------
Or spend time looking to recharge and the constant downtime, instead of easily switching a new battery in there, with minimum added bulk in the bag and virtually no downtime.
i know i'll have replaced any device by then simply because something that makes more sense will be out before any of that happens - color me crazy :shrug:
-------------
That's the problem living in a disposable society where the products themselves CAN be used for years, but are limited by the life and not-care factor of 500ish usable charge-cycles of a Li-Ion battery.
kevin @ Jul 12th 2007 4:25PM
i guess i just don't understand this giant fear that you'll either have a shorter battery life (70%) four years down the road
-----------
Four years, btw, would be *very* optimistic! Must be a very light user. I'd venture to guess that the bulk of battery replacements are made within 2 years; the anecdotal evidence sure suggests that - especially for something like a phone, used every day.
Thanks Javi0084
Wow... Apple should sit down and take notes! This thing looks great!
Apple usually does take notes. They observe carefully and then produce something a year or two later.
I got my first Archos Gmini400 back in 2004, just after the iPod photo was released. I still remember having an argument with an iPod user trying to tell me the gmini sucked and the fact that it played videos was a waste. The funniest part was he said Apple was going to release a firmware update enabling video on the iPod photo. The jealousy was delicious.
Then low and behold, Apple released a video iPod exactly one year after the Gmini400 was released. So you Apple fanboys, don't worry, a touchscreen iPod is coming. I got my 604 wifi either last Sept. or Oct., so that means Apple should be releasing a touchscreen version in a few months.
Oh, and when I got my 604wifi, everyone I know using an Apple said the touchscreen was stupid cause it is hard to change songs in your pocket. I wonder what the complaints with this next gen Archos will be from Apple fanboys.
and The apple device will only support 2 codecs!!!
No way in hell it will have DivX or XVid.
blah!
Yup, this Archos supports DivX, XviD, Mpeg2, WMV, Real Video, H264, Quicktime, Mp4, Mp3, AAC, AC3, WAV and all of these up to High Definition 1280x720 resolution!
Only Quicktime, Mp4, H264, Mp3 and AAC of this is supported by the Apple products and you're far from having HD resolution playback support on the iPods or iPhones.
Archos plays back all codecs at up to HD 720p resolution with Component and HDMI outputs to a HDTV on this 150 grams product.
wow.. check out this:
http://archosfans.com/2007/07/12/progressive-divx-playback-does-work/
Progressive DivX Playback does work!!!
Why does support for the progressive download of DivX in the AVI container matter so much? Well this means you can access all videos from the whole Internet immediately on the Archos without waiting for the download to be completed. .. see above link
Yeah, Apple is all about making even more money on the software side. You will never see Apple sticking a DVR with a tv scheduler in an iPod. Why allow people to record their favorite shows with an iPod when you can charge to download the show online.
The only thing that sucks about this new Archos is that I just got my 604. How can I justify a purchase like this to my girlfriend. If only they had waited two years so I could get tired of my old one, damn your innovativeness Archos.
Indeed, and why allow people to rip music from their own CD's when you could force them to buy everything through the iTunes Music Store? Oh, wait....
I think it is sad that you have to "justify" anything to your girlfriend.
Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself.
Or, you could buy two and give one to her. That will shut her up.
That is part of their video download service. For a few bucks you can download movies that are available to rent and start watching them immediately. They even let you pick the content provider instead of locking you into just one.
I wonder if Apple will let people purchase music and videos from someone other than itunes?
Guess Archos needs to update their website. Didn't hear about anyone else getting flash support. Just gets annoying when they say the iPhone supports youtube, insenuating flash, when it doesn't.
Yup, according to the initial tests, the Archos supports the full screen instant playback over WiFi of the complete contents of Youtube, Dailymotion, Google Video and Kewego.
For now vpod, sevenload, metacafe, ustream, last.fm and myspace are reported to not work. But that is also because those sites use a special kind of flash video that is causing problems for now on any Linux machine and not only on the Archos as far as I have heard.
So hopefully that Archos will be able to release automatic firmware updates that will improve the full screen Flash video support even further.
This is a great piece of hardware. Like's been said over a hundred times before, the big reason people buy an Iphone over this device is not because the Iphone is "better", but because those people use ITMS. You can't use tracks from ITMS anywhere but an apple device without going through a ridiculous un-DRM'ing procedure.
If you are one of those people fortunate enough to use a different place for your online music needs, then the Archos is probably the better choice. But this will not play tracks from ITMS, so comparing the two is dumb.
What about non-DRM's AAC files though? I would think that as long as you had an AAC codec, you could buy non-DRM'd music from iTMS and use it just fine. Considering that Apple has been pushing to get the rest of the labels to follow EMI's lead, as well as offering non-DRM stuff to indies, etc. it should be less of a problem.
Yes but with a music subscription plan, you can have access to all the contents that you have bought on iTMS.
Since music subscriptions start at 5$ per month for unlimited access to music, you get access to 10 million songs from all the major record labels, and that is supported by this Archos, and I suspect that Archos will soon provide this feature directly over the built-in WiFi, so you will have access to 10 million songs for 5$ per month and not need to use a PC or Mac to do the actual downloading of content.
A combination with Last.FM on the Archos could even let you download personalised recommendations for Gygabytes of music which you all get access to legally over the 5$ per month unlimited music access.