The
Archos 5 has already been
thoroughly torn apart in French by the cats at Archos Lounge, but there's nothing quite like getting your hands on a device for yourself, and while we found Archos' latest to be impressive in terms of raw ability and features, actually using all those features wasn't always smooth going. Although the 800 x 480 4.8-inch touchscreen is laudably bright and clear, it's still a resistive touch panel and feels like one, depressing slightly with each press and reacting a bit slowly in general. We used two different builds of the firmware, and while the second was an improvement, it still hung badly at times and occasionally crashed out hard, requiring a reset. The Opera-powered browser
rendered fine, although it scrolled a bit choppily, and the
mail client was functional, but obviously not capable enough to be used day-to-day -- it can't delete IMAP emails, for example. We were also a little annoyed by the constant come-ons for accessories and plug-ins -- plugging in the charger pops up an
ad for a dock -- and we were left wondering why album art was
downscaled so crappily with such a great display available. We also tried out the DVR station accessory, and while it upscaled the
interface and
content to 720p admirably, we were unable to get it to recognize component video in from a TiVo HD. That's basically the story here: the 5's got terrific potential but nothing's quite there yet -- too much seems missing, broken, or otherwise unpolished right now. There are more firmware updates scheduled, so we'll see how things go, and we may well be singing a different tune entirely when the plug-in enabling the 5g's built-in 3G modem is released, but for now we'd say we're a little disappointed in what should be a kickass little player.
posted Sep 29th 2008 8:32AM
Pretty.
Yeah, I'm so glad that most PMPs are being designed with looks in mind now. Especially in the terms of GUIs. I remember the original Archoses (or is it Archosii?) - like big grey/silvery slabs of plastic.
I think it's archii X-D, I do believe you're talking about jukebox series, one of the models was the first PMP, and it was great with its like 1.5" screen
This is probably why I won't ever own an Archos, all they do is nickel and dime you til you pay twice what you'd pay for a fully featured Cowon player.
Yes, but most people haven't even heard of Cowon. They just go to a store uninformed and get this.
actually you're wrong, the fully loaded cowon costs a lot more than an archos, and the "nickel and dimeing" usually still doesn't get to cowon's prices all while saving users that don't want everything some money, still archos and cowon has a lot of their own charms that the other can't match but archos has really stepped it up with this model
I was debating between this and the Cowon O2... ended up ordering a Touch 2G. My first Apple product, and I wouldn't have even considered it if it wasn't for the very large homebrew/porting community.
On another note, last year, and even three years ago I would have told you Archos makes ugly, weak hardware with crappy battery while nickel and diming you, and that Cowon makes attractive and very practical PMP like the A2... and now I'm not sure at all. The new Archos PMPs are quite attractive and so is the GUI, and Cowon still charges "premium" prices while their hardware and ideas are stuck in the past. So I really don't know.
Actually I don't feel that they are nickle and diming customers. Their players are reasonably priced for what you get and there are addition options in a ala cart model of payment.
It could be a lot worse, it could be like Apple and you just get what codecs they choose to give you and you have no say.
"Actually I don't feel that they are nickle and diming customers. Their players are reasonably priced for what you get and there are addition options in a ala cart model of payment."
Exactly. I know my last Archos was only used with the DVR station to record shows directly, so I had no use for any plugins and saved money over buying a similar product from their competition.
I don't know when choice became "nickel and diming".
Cue Charbax's fanboy defense in 3-2-1...
Such a shame that it still crashes and hangs! I have a 605 and no number of Firmware updates or fixes can stop the hanging. Booo. Eyecandy.
my iPhone does all of that great
Wahh Wahh. First fanboi post of the day.
Does it have flash? I didn't think so.
I dunno, I think I beat him with my Cowon fanboy post.
He clearly stated "fanboi" and not "fanboy"
If you'd be long enough on this site, you would clearly know that "fanboi" is for Apple fanboys :p
can your pmp make a phone call?
nope
Can your precious IPhone hold more than 16gb of storage, act as a DVR and output to a TV? Some of us would like to store and record lots of media on the go instead of having phone functionality thank you very much.
In my experience, Apple fanboys are the most annoying of all companies' fanboys. : )
@ Chin-Poh
Can the Archos even do that without crashing or asking you for plugins?
And I'm not even any type of fanboy...
This is a really a piece of crap player. I got one from Amazon and with in 24 hours it was on it's way back to Amazon. The dam thing kept crashing locking up. When I did the frimware update it only applied the first of two updates available and I had to DL the second one and install it myself. Then I found the updates removed 2 of the nice video wall papers they were just gone.
Check back in 6 month maybe then it will work then. Until then stay away stay far far away consider your self warned.
The english version of the Archoslounge review's here :
http://www.archoslounge.net/The-Archos-5-review-on-ArchosLounge,8336.html
This is a nice try by Archos, but they simply don't have the vision and attention to detail as Apple. The iPod Touch 2G is a much better choice for portable internet device and media player.
Wait a sec...you get an advertisement just by plugging it in to charge? Is this device free or what?
I don't have terribly many pet peeves, but that is sure as hell one of them. I paid for your fucking device/media/whatever - don't bombard me with advertisements unless I go asking for them.
Publishers that put ads at the beginning of DVDs should rot in hell.
It tells you that you can get the charging dock. It's just one screen, and you can say don't show me this again.
There's one screen telling you about the availability of the dock, you can say don't show this again.
French unboxing??? Anythingbutipod has a full fledged review of the thing.
Photo 36 / 38 - a bit of self-product placement going on there, Nilay?
Great song, though.
Well that, and also I own the artwork so I can publish it without concern.
Thanks for listening though!
Thanks for the writeup.
I've been seriously considering one of the new Archos PMPs.
Now, it looks like I need to wait.
This is exactly the reason why I didn't take the leap in getting this new 5 version coming off of the 605. The aforementioned had so many inconsistencies, 2 of the buttons were not responsive all the time and the device was slugish at times. It seems they have yet to address these issues with these newer players. They look great but I refuse to pay top dollar for something that's not "ready to go" as soon as you un-box it as far as addressing these issues. One never hears about these kinds of troubles from Apple iPod/Touch users about their players when they first get them.
These units have the largest Hard Drive Storage out their. Can play a DVD with out any compression just drag over ripped DVD. These units as a video player kill any apple portable products at the moment. I use the Archos 605 and it is a work horse for playing video. have used it for 10 months now and it still works great. can stream video from my office pc / mac to my archos in my bedroom tv (UPNP). My only regret is that Archos almost doubled its storage from my Archos 605 160 GB to this model witch is over 200 GB of storage for movies to go. Any one want to buy my 605.......
Surely Engadget wouldn't complain about a buggy firmware if T-Mobile sent them the G1 to unbox a month before it's released to the general public, or if Apple had sent them the iPhone 3G a month before it was released to the general public.
Amazon has this as preorder "ships in 3 to 6 weeks".
Archos is going to be releasing bugfix firmwares in the next few weeks and so it's only "in 3 to 6 weeks" that the mass market will have full access to this product.
But even with slight web browser, mail client bugs, with a not yet available standby/resume function and not yet available HSDPA USB Dock feature nor HD resolution playback. Why complain? All those features are certainly going to be fixed and added in the next few weeks weekly firmware updates. If you don't want to get the unit with a still beta firmware, simply follow all the latest news and features and bug reports at the archosfans dot com forum and wait another "3 to 6 weeks" before deciding if this device suits you. By the time the firmware is stable, all the resellers including Amazon and Best Buy are going to be selling it so prices will also be going down as resellers lower their margins to lead in online price comparison engines.
Ah, there he is...
There's errors in your first statement already. I believe Engadget would point out that those devices may need a little more work, but not put it down since those devices are indeed still in beta and not yet released to the public. Archos, on the other hand, is already available in many online stores and retail stores near you. I passed by Circuit City today and saw a couple of Archos 5's in stock. Just because Amazon isn't shipping them yet, does not mean that the 5's are not yet available to the general public, they have been available for a couple of weeks now...
"But even with slight web browser, mail client bugs, with a not yet available standby/resume function and not yet available HSDPA USB Dock feature nor HD resolution playback. Why complain?"
Wow, you almost listed every feature that Archos advertises.
"If you don't want to get the unit with a still beta firmware, simply follow all the latest news and features and bug reports at the forum and wait another "3 to 6 weeks" before deciding if this device suits you."
Do you realize how many people make purchases without ever looking online? The Archos is an attractive piece of hardware, and that's what people see. They like how it looks and read down its list of features, but when they purchase it and take it home only to find that many of the features don't yet work because Archos listed the firmware as "beta", how do you think they would feel? I know I would feel cheated and would immediately return the device.
I bought it then returned it while it was in the mail. i got the 32gig ipod touch gen2
That was a smart move. The 2G iPod Touch is much better than this because it is more pocketable and has a much more stable operating system.
oh my god. Ipod touches are a music player. Archos 5's are for serious music listeners. That's why they're referred to as a PMP. your ipod touch is what, 8gb? exactly. the Archos 5 is minimum 30gb.
I guess I can forget about an XS202 successor.
It's an absolutely fantastic product. Great GUI improvement over Generation 5 Archos', and wide range of features. Besides that, it looks damn sexy.
A couple of problems, BETA!
Anyone looking to buy it, wait a few weeks. The Beta firmware is causing a ton of problems, me included. Mine crashed after two days and refused to start, requiring me to send it back for a new one(in progress). I'm a little pissed over that, but besides that it's a great product. It supports Opera Widgets, full flash support(some might not work if it was specifically designed to work on a full computer), and a great range of codecs. I had some fun watching Internet TV stations in random countries.
Grab a stylus, it makes the games a lot easier to play. I prefer drawing games because they're fun on touchscreens.
If you're looking for a PMP with huge amounts of HDD space, buy this!
Archos has released a firmware update see http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/13/new-archos-5-7-firmware-adds-ogg-flac-support-fixes-bugs/
This bugfix firmware makes some of this articles reported negatives even less relevant such as:
"actually using all those features wasn't always smooth going"
"reacting a bit slowly in general"
"hung badly at times and occasionally crashed out hard, requiring a reset"
"too much seems missing, broken, or otherwise unpolished right now"
"for now we'd say we're a little disappointed in what should be a kickass little player"