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This is animefreak28's review for the Archos 605 80GB model. I've reviewed several products from Archos in the past and I'm proud to be the 1st review for the 5 Series. **WARNING** The display picture above currently 8/25/07 is not correct, that is for the 605 WiFi, and the review for the Wifi 605 is the correct display picture for this review. Pros: Bigger buttons, A kickstand, New layout, Can play .VOB and H.264 encoded files Cons: Battery life, same firmware as the 4 Series,:imited audio playback abilities The Pros and Cons are only the main ideas of the product, there are smaller ones not worth listing, but will be mentioned. Layout Same icon menu layout with a dual menu system, I don't understand why they don't simple put them all in one menu screen with a scroll bar, would be abit easier to access what your looking for. Bigger buttons (Introduced in the 4 Series) compared to the AV series are a great feature, the webcam is now on the side and their are now bigger louder speakers,the screen is shifted to the left now also. Playback One of the great features of the 605 and any of the 4/5 Series is the ability to play .VOB files (DVD's) and H.264 (.MKV and .OGM) Of course they come at a price of $20.00 for each firmware download, which is somewhat disappointing, due to the steep price tag for the 605 by it self, you'd assume the plug-ins would be already installed. Battery Life + Recharge Cycle I always bring this up in every of my Archos reviews, because it's the most important part. Archos has a hard time keeping their batteries from lasting, your going to have to buy a new battery once a year at the most, because it will end up not holding a charge due to my next section Recharge Cycle Lithium Ion is the battery type used in most of the more recent Archos products. It's great at recharging because it can hold a charge over and over again, this also is a bad thing if you don't know how to recharge properly. let's start out with a fully charged battery (100%). You drain it fully to the point where it won't boot up (0%), the recharge process should in theory go to 100%. Two factors will change this: 1.Time 2.Not Recharging the battery when it hits 0% The most common one is #2. Say you see it's at the red bar which means you have about an hour left of battery, and you recharge then, it will in theory remember this and start the recharge from there, time also will take it's toll. A year or more of recharging will wear out the Lithium battery making it not able to hold a charge for as long compared to when you first bought the product, laptops have this same problem, it's fairly common. 80 GB's Sure sounds like a lot, but for those who have huge collections, it's nothing. The Archos site states the following for the 80GB model: 80GB* hard drive stores up to 100 Movies, 800,000 photos or 45,000 songs. This is only based off the files being set to the lowest sizes, encoding your songs to say 48 kpbs instead of 192, ect. Simply note that the amount of material you can put on will vary. Price Comparisons If you want this product I'd suggest you shop around abit, go to some retail stores and ask around, Archos products aren't widely sold in America though. Online store I suggest: eBay, Google Frugle, Bizrate, pricegrabber Just to name a few, eBay will most likely be cheapest, Bizrate will show the best comparision sites, and 3rd I'd say Google's Frugle. Thanks for clicking and reading my review on the Archos 605Read full review
Pros: Amazing video quality, Easy avi.(Divx) drag and drop, great sound equalizer, easy folder navigation without having to use ID3(or similar) tagging, easy wireless navigation that can view some internet videos, great features not found in other Audio/Video players(ex. Zune, Ipod, Creative Vision M/W), touch screen, constant firmware upgrades. Cons: No FM radio, battery should last longer. Summary: Overall a great mp3 player with great features and internet capable. The reason I purchased it is because I have about 7000 music files in my computer that are from older CDs that are not MP3 id3 tagged and I cannot navigate easily by these new MP3 player like Zune, Creative, Sony, Ipod, because of navigation only by Artist, Album, Genre, etc. Only thru navigation of folders will these show correctly and allow me to find them easily. Watching downloaded or DVD movies will be very easy and highly enjoying when away from home. Very good overall.Read full review
I bought it to take along on vacations where we're in the car for long periods of time and my wife can watch a movie, or we can play some music while I drive. It has a nice touch screen feature, but I tend to use the buttons more often, except when changing the volume or skipping forward/backward on a movie. My Archos 605 has 80 GB, which I find more than adequate for my intentions. So far, I've put about 20 movies on the thing, recorded some TV shows (you need the docking station to do this), and a bunch of MP3 songs. The speakers are ok, really need to use the earphones for music though, as the external speakers aren't as good as the quality you get through the earphones. The Wi-Fi capabilites are poor, hard to get a connection even via my home internet. The web tv is also not so good, lots of channels, but unless you like the local city council for noname city, the channels dont offer you much, no ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.. The web radio however is much better, lots of channels, lots of choices and gendres. Overall, I love my Archos PMP.Read full review
This is my second archos. Besides being an adequate MP3 player, this is an entertainment unit for the road. What makes these devices cool is that they are basically a portable Tivo unit, when combined with the right docking station(sold separately). The storage capacity is the same as some Tivo's. I know, who wants to watch a whole feature film on such a small screen? But you don't have to. With the cords from the docking station, you can playback in the car(if it has AV jacks) or to any TV. Essentially, you can load many of your favorite movies on the device and take them with you anywhere. No more lugging around all those DVDs. Syncing to Windows media player seems less buggy than with previous versions. Although, a firmware update is mandatory out of the box, otherwise if you load songs and then do the update, you will have to re-load all the MP3s. The wifi addition is cool, but you have to purchase an opera browser(not included) to take advantage of it($30). Pros: cool form factor, touch screen, massive storage capacity, TV docking station and remote really cool with this version. Volume controls improved on this version. Improved data input due to touch screen, really helps. Cons: must purchase software add-ons to take advantage of full capabilities of device, accessories are expensive and necessary for even basic functions(ie, charging on the road, movie loading, TV recording, etc.) Lost the mic and voice recording on this version. SD card expansion is only on lower capacity versions. I like these devices, and recommend them. I think the OS is different, and viva la diference. Update 1/13/08: The browser plug-in is a must have, and is very functional. The device is set-up to view google videos full screen. I was impressed how quickly the videos converted to the format, and there were no drops or lags in viewing. With the browser plug-in, now you can view your local TV channel line-up which is updated regularly, you can download free opera widgets, such as a calendar, a calculator, a weather forecaster, etc. The browser really makes this device sing.Read full review
I bought the Archos 605 wifi(80 GB) to replace my old 30 GB version which after two years of great service died.It is a great player with a nice look.I have seen ipod owners with sparks in their eyes when they see this old thing..It has appeal.The draw backs are that they suck with battery life and they are technical to replace for the average user.Its hard to get through to Archos service dept.The 80GB I bought was already registered by the previous owner so it is giving me a hard to to buy the apps for it. The apps are sold to the unique machine.Oh let me add Archos has stopped making these models so when you call they talk like you are asking about a 8Track player or a Beta Max player.
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