Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (160 GB)

Many of the Archos' features I loved. However, I was only able to get 2 hours of audio from a fully charged battery. I know this may not be typical, but it was a show stopper for me.

AFTER CAREFUL CONSIDERATION BETWEEN THE APPLE & ARCHOS, I HAD TO GO W/ THE ARCHOS. HERE'S WHY PLAIN & SIMPLE: PICTURE - NO SYSTEM OUT THERE NOW CAN BEAT THE COLOR & CLARITY, 160GB - PLENTY OF ROOM FOR ALL MY CD'S & MOVIES, IN THE PAST I CAN'T BEGIN TO TELL YOU HOW MANY TIMES I HAD TO DELETE ITEMS JUST SO I COULD ADD A NEW CD TO MY COLLECTION, TOUCH SCREEN - ALTHOUGH NOT AS SMOOTH AS APPLE'S, YOU'LL HAVE NO PROBLEM NAVIGATING THRU THE SYSTEM, TRANFERRING FILES - DROP & CLICK. PRICE - APPLE WANTS ALMOST $400 FOR A 16 GIG. YES A 16 GIG!!!! DO YOURSELF A FAVOR P/U THE ARCHOS.

I am an owner of both this product and its predecessor, the 604. And I have to say that it seems that Archos has listened to user complaints and gripes, but has also made a few new mistakes.

The good side of things is that almost everything has been improved over the 604 which was a very good portable media player and probably the best one out before this device (that includes the video iPod and iPod touch). The most evident thing once you turn it on is the screen resolution. It absolutely blows the everything else away. The resolution is 800x480 which is better than standard def tv. Its almost like having portable high definition, because anything more on a screen of that size would seem unnecessary. In a way, this also comes with the same welcome problem of a real high def tv, finding portable media that takes advantage of this screen.

The overall design seems to be much improved as well, while the 604 had a very strong gunmetal paint scheme. The 605 must have taken some pointers form Apple and now has a lighter design, with a lighter gray face plate and off-white buttons. The buttons are the best design improvement, as they are now contoured so that you can tell what is what without looking.

Another immediately noticeable aspect is the much bulkier size and heavier weight (at least for 160GB version), which is to be expected. The 604 was never terribly portable, as far as sticking in your shirt or pants pocket and walking around with it goes. It's meant to be taken places, not used while you're going somewhere. A good analogy would be to treat it like you would a PSP or Nintendo DS. You could use them while traveling, like on a bus or passenger seat of a car, on an airplane or while waiting for those things, but it wouldn't be a good idea to use them while you're walking or while you are driving your car (even if you're listening to music, fumbling with it might not be very safe).

For the drawback of having such a meaty design, it is countered by having much more storage, the most for a pmp, actually. 160GB can hold entire music collections, pretty much all of most people's photos and still have plenty of room for lots of movies, tv shows and audio & video podcasts (supported with highly recommended plug-in). I'm a pretty heavy user of this device and I have put thousands of photos, hundreds of songs (which make practically no dent in the hard drive space) and at the moment 410 different video files, including movies, podcasts and tv episodes and I still have 40% left on the hard drive. All this storage comes at a much better price than the 604 did. I bought that for $414 at the time. The 160GB 605 cost me $319.

The web browser is the next major improvement. The larger screen helps a lot when it comes to web browsing and the stronger processor shows when switching and loading web pages. Youtube browsing is still a bit slow and overrated, most of the time you're just better served waiting until you get home or saving a video rather than searching and streaming it. The 605 acts somewhat quirky when you start using it, but that should be improved with more firmware updates. (Note: you need to purchase the web-browser plug-in from Archos.com to use it.)

Bonuses that now come with the web browser plug-in are now free widgets and some games(currently available @ Archos.com for $9.99 for a pack of 4). These additions aren't necessary, but are a nice addition. I enjoy the "Bejeweled" rip-off Tactic 2: Vitamin and the No-Limit Texas Hold'Em games. Oh, & Sudoku, I know alot of people like Sudoku and it is there in all its touch screen goodness.

Widgets are nice way of adding some PDA functionality to this normally media heavy device. The Widgets go from mildly useful to pretty much useless, Currency and Unit Converters are useful tools that you might not find on your cell phone, Data Vault and Notes writer are a good tools for saving information and data vault makes what you write password protected. Calculator and Calendar widgets are not really useful as you probably have this stuff on your cell and it probably is more easily accessed. While World Factbook and Weather Forecast are just about useless (Factbook seems to take way too long to load so skip it, and Weather Forecast is useless for smaller cities).

The final two major improvements I'll mention are the greatly improved speaker and its volume level the ability to add parental control to your video and photo files. The speakers are much louder and clearer now. So while headphones are still highly recommended (the ones included are actually passable), now you can share music and video with people around you without having the room completely silent. The Parental Control hides files or folders that have been labeled adult content until the password protected Parental Control is lifted.

As for the bad side of the 605, it basically comes down to the battery. With the improved performance of the device and the resolution and the web browsing, you expect the battery life to take a hit. But some choices just seem unacceptable. The battery is NOT removeable, they must have taken some bad pointers from Apple on this one. When this battery goes down, you are going to have to ship it back to the manufacturer, which many 604 owners might know is a VERY unpleasant experience. It usually costs money because the warranty only lasts a year for the brand new units and the battery eventually is going to die after that. That costs money and no matter how good the service, no one likes to lose their favorite device for a couple of days to a couple of weeks. A VERY bad choice.

Another major gripe about the battery is the choice they give you to charge it, the USB cable. With a normal tiny cell phone it already takes a long time. With the powerhouse 605, it takes most of the day! The USB cable is ONLY good for charging. Read that sentence more than once, because you do not want to be watching video and/or web browsing for a few hours and then spend the rest of the day charging the device. It will basically amount to watching one movie and doing a few other small tasks on the 605 before its time to put it down for rest. Get the DVR station here or refurbished from Archos as soon as you order this or any one of the other Archos peripherals for charging the device (preferably with a wall charger or at least the battery docking adapter ).

On a final small note: the case is also not very useful. It offers little protection from falls (do NOT drop this device) and the 605 can easily slip out. Spend money on a leather case if you can.

Overall, I have to say the 160GB 605 is the very best pmp on the market right now. It has massive storage, plays many different formats of video and audio (w/ optional plug-ins) and photo, can work as a basic PDA with widgets and can even play games. It is perfect to take on a vacation or over to someone's house to share media or even to take with you to someplace very boring. It is expensive, but a good useful investment if you think you could use this sort of thing. Think of it as a device in between a laptop and a MP3 player and you should be able to figure out if you really could use this device or not. For those who already own a 604 and are wondering whether they should upgrade to a 605, my answer is yes. It doesn't have to be the 160GB version, it could be 80 or lighter 30GB, but it is definitely a great improvement.

This is my second unit in a year and Archos has obviously not solved the static problem. I waited 9 months to get the second one, thinking they would have the bugs worked out. That was a mistake! The problem occurs when streaming media over wifi while using headphones. It's totally unbearable. I sent this second unit in for repair and after 3+ weeks, have the same problem. If you don't intend on using the wifi feature to stream your videos/music while using headphones then by all means go for it!

The 605 looked nice the few minets it work, the first thing I did when I got it was to install the firmware update, after that it no longer worked. I've returned it to amazon just waiting now for my refund. Took seconds to buy but I probably won't see my money back for weeks. From all the reviews Archos is not a good product and if you have to deal with Archos customer support it seems your really going to regret buying one.