Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB)
by Archos
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List Price: Our Price: $129.99 You Save: $220.00 (63%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Network Media Player See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (80 GB)
Customer Review: ARCHOS, read this and you can double your sales...
Summary: 4 Stars
Problem # 1:
The process of buying the separate plug-ins is painstaking and will leave a bad taste in your mouth afterward. The only "out of the box" experience customers are having is one that says, "Nice, I can't use any of the features that made me want to buy this thing in the first place until I buy and install all the extra plug-ins" (which are NOT easy to install until you talk to tech support, btw).
Solution:
Bundle them in the unit - even if you have to increase the retail price. I'd gladly pay more to not go through what I did for installing plug-ins.
Problem # 2
The design of the Archos 605 feels and looks cheap. This is astonishing to consider when your main rivals (and market leaders iPod, Creative, etc.) all have cheaply-produced (yet slick and cool-looking) molded plastic outfits. The worse part is the rough-finished, sharp-angled, powder coated faceplate that surrounds the display on the 605.
Solution:
Smooth out the sharp edges and rough, grabby finish around the display. Remember, that's where people's fingers will be doing the most work. Bottom line...you should make a unit that looks good and feels good to hold or NO ONE will buy it over your competition (ESPECIALLY WOMEN).
Problem # 3:
The lack of a proper charger to accompany a $300+ unit is madness. I know the highest margin items are all the add-ons and accessories, but this is going too far. Right now, I've had this unit two days and the long USB charging time is only increasing my dissatisfaction with your product and company.
Solution: Include a damn charger!
Finally, even though I may have harsh comments for the unit (Archos 605, 80GB) and Archos' marketing angle, it's only because I think the 605 has the guts of a REAL iPod killer. The video is awesome and the features blow Apple's Touch away. I'm only adding my two cents as a picky, impatient consumer who wants to see a unit that he can actually recommend to friends, family, and everyone else.
Come on guys, make it happen so I can buy a Gen 6 and make my iPod
Touch-owning friends weep with jealousy! When you do, your sales will DOUBLE because electronic junkies like me will tell anyone and everyone to buy one.
Customer Review: Well-made unit, pricey extras..
Summary: 4 Stars
I've had several PMPs over the years, including an original Archos Jukebox, a Zune, a Nokia tablet, and various Apple products. My newest is the Archos 605 Wi-Fi.
The 605 packs a tremendous amount of functionality in a relatively small package for a reasonable* price. Physically the unit is heavy, but comes with an integrated (and somewhat sharp) kickstand. The GUI is well laid-out, and is duplicated in a row of buttons on the right-hand side. These are understandably small, though have no backlighting. There is a sculpted curve across their face in an attempt to make them easy to differentiate by touch, but if you use this unit under low lighting conditions be prepared to hit the wrong button a few times. Oddly, the direction keys (arrow up, down etc.) are not arranged in a logical pattern; in future versions this might be best served with a small joystick or 4-axis touchpad. The touchscreen works well, though the unit had no provision for storing the stylus. A fingertip works also, but not the best choice if you want to avoid smearing the screen. The resolution is superb, and I've been able to play movie files of several different types without conversion hassles (but see note below).
The only negative for me were the "plugins." The device is marketed as the 605 "Wi-Fi," but in order to utilize the built-in Opera browser, you need to purchase a $29.95 license to enable it. Additionally, to view .MPG files (unless you want to convert them beforehand) you need to buy the $19.95 cinema plug-in. So budget up front for these items if you want the functionality. Other oddities: the volume is on a bit of an odd curve; the sound ceases abruptly before the volume is all the way down, and the highest setting is not terribly loud. That might be good, however, if you're giving it as a gift to a child whose hearing you wish to protect.
Overall, I'm very happy with my purchase. I'd make a few changes to the next version, but this is a solid, reliable piece of gear with plenty of attractive features.
Customer Review: Just about Perfect
Summary: 4 Stars
This device is just plain awesome. The screen is just the right size for traveling. And with the resolution it has everything I've played on it looks superb. I haven't needed to purchase any of the extra plug-ins yet. I normally encode video to divx due to its ability to play on just about anything. The only caveat with that is that for whatever reason avi type files are limited to 2GB (this only came up once when I was trying to watch a movie that was nearly four hours.) I've recently discovered that it will even play some flash based games; though the processor is pretty limited so some games run pretty slow while others simply won't run.
Pictures also look fantastic on this screen due to its pixel density.
Can't really comment on the music playing abilities, I use my phone for those duties.
One thing that gets overlooked is the ability to stream networked media. When you have shared your media in Vista as soon as you connect your Archos to the network it is discovered as a UPnP device and will allow you to stream anything across the network. This includes video, pictures or music. I can't say I will use this feature constantly but it was a pretty cool find and one that might come in handy from time to time.
Now for the bad news:
Battery life isn't as great as advertized, when is it ever. I tried a burn in test and got about 4.7hrs continuous video play with the backlight turned down halfway and the headphone volume set about 75%. This is the one thing preventing me from giving a full five stars, but i would still give it four and a half if that was an option.
It does take a surprisingly long time to charge the battery. I'm not sure if it's the full eight hours like they say but if not it's pretty close.
Lastly, and this is just nitpicking, it's surprisingly heavy. It feels very solid in your hand and a lot heavier than it looks.
Customer Review: It's A Keeper
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this unit from B&H Photo in December for $225.00. I have owned this player for 3 months now and waited till now to write a review. At first I was not sure if I was going to keep it. But after owning it for 3 months now I have decided it is a keeper. For whats available on the market today for this size screen it is one of the best, my other choice would have been the Cowon A2 or A3. One of the reasons I chose the Archos 605 was it had both touch screen and buttons for navigation, which turned out to really be a great feature. I don't use the WI-FI so I can't comment on it. Picture quality is pretty good but becuse it is touch screen the sharpness is not as good as the Cowon. Some of the CON's - Battery life is not very good, does not last as long as Archos states, the built in speaker is terrible, amplitude on the volume could be better, charging time through USB is 8 hours or more (buy the mini dock), there are a lot of add on's you may or may not need to buy, depending on your needs, but these add on's can easily add an additional $100,00 or more to the initial cost, but I think many people will be happy with the unit as it comes and will not need any of the add on's, the mini dock is worth the $25.00 tho. Archos needs to update the firmware to take care of some of the small quirks, they have not had an update since May 2008. Better support would be nice. Some of the pro's are, large display screen, easy to navigate the menu (having both the touch screen and buttons is really nice), supports ID3 tags, easy to connect to your PC to transfer files, can store and play some flash games, has thumbnails and other neat features in the photo display, shows tiny video icons on the video menu screen.
Having this unit for 3 months now, I've decided it's a keeper, it's not perfect but I'm pleased with it.
Customer Review: Napster - to - Go WORKS on the 605....
Summary: 4 Stars
Had a great deal of trouble finding out if Napsters protected To-Go content worked with the 605 - finally got mine and they do indeed work (have to sync through WMP of course.)
This is a great do-it-all player for those looking for something a bit more robust than the iTouch'es. We'll probably never see the day when Apple allows us to record video content directly to an iTouch so for me this is about a thousand times more usefull - why pay .99 an episode for Lost when I can simply set my 605 up to record the entire season for free?
Do your own research, actually look at the pro's/con's of this unit and don't purchase blindly. Too many user reviews here state things they returned the unit for that have information readily available on the web.
This unit does cost extra for features/plugins - thats not a negative, only for those of you that did no research would it be a problem. Knowing the cost for the features I wanted helped me pick this unit out, huge hard disc, incredibly speedy video playback (compared to my wifes Zen and my old Zen Vision M) and the ability to record AUDIO and VIDEO from any source.
I use this unit mostly for video, however 60 gigs of Napster to-go tracks come with as well - I also record audio from live DJ sets directly to the device, all of which are handled insanely well by this unit.
I give it 8/10 heres my breakdown:
PROS:
-Insanely nice screen, viewing angle is great compared to other similair products
-Huge hard drive
-DVR Features (extra $$ for the dock)
-Web portal is nice for when you are out and about
CONS:
-non-standard USB jack
-no place for stylus on unit