- 32GB capacity for up to 9,500 songs, 25 movies, and 320,000 photos
- 10 hours of audio or 4 hours of video on a single charge
- 4.8-inch TFT LCD touchscreen display with 800 x 480 pixel resolution and 16 million colors
- Supports MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, AAC+, FLAC, and OGG Vorbis audio formats; MPEG-4
- One-year limited warranty
The movie portion worked really well. For that, I give this device 5 STARS...I actually downloaded movies to my Amazon Unbox, then hooked up the Archos and bam, instantly on my new Archos 5 (well, after the movie downloaded to my unbox in 1.5 hours).
The music portion also works flawlessly. Not really any hiccups there, and the sound was good, but could be better. For that, I would give it 4 stars...
SO FAR SO GOOD RIGHT?
WRONG
First, I had the reset this device 5 times in 2 days because it just plain froze up. I would get multiple error messages when I was connected to internet, dropping the connection frequently (and yeah, I'm pretty skilled at making that work). TERRIBLE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE.
And I don't want to hear how a simple patch or download will fix this issue. If it doesn't work out of the box, than DON'T SHIP IT!! I've been reading that apparently, Archos is getting slammed with this stuff after only a week.
FOR THAT, it gets 1 STAR and should get ZERO stars!!
Second, the Appslib was never installed on this device. I called customer service, was talking to someone in 5 minutes, who then put me on hold for 45 MINUTES!! After 45 minutes (I only stayed on hold that long cause I was watching NFL game so I had nothing else to really attend to at the time), the phone rang for 10 more minutes, and then, line went dead. PATHETIC!!!!
I am reading that some software update added actually might have been the reason for the Appslib to never appear, and if you look at Amazon site, they pulled the 160GB version.
For that, I give it NEGATIVE STARS...TERRIBLE service and TERRIBLE that this device did not come preloaded as advertised.
I am sending it back and will use my Toshiba Netbook to watch movies on the plane rides for now. I'm really disappointed. The device itself was really nice and sleek looking. The interface was nice.
The resistive keyboard was kind of annoying as it took a pretty good finger press to make it respond, but worked well enough. I learned to type pretty well on it in 2 days.
I'm ANNOYED!!!
I would have bought the ZuneHD but the screen is too small for movies, as well as the Ipod touch..
I'm now considering the Viliv ex70 as I've heard great things and it's gotten favorable reviews.
I've read Archos history but wanted this device to work...The Android platform has a lot of potential and anything google touches pretty much works as advertised.
Now, I'll have to shop around a little.
I can tell you one thing...unless people start giving this device 4-5 stars when the bugs are worked out, I'll never buy another thing from this company.
EDIT TO REVIEW:
I have downloaded a new firmware update and the device is no longer needing to be reset constantly. It also does not lag any longer and seems a little more snappy and responsive. I'm going to hold on to it for now and see how this plays out over the next 3 weeks. I'm actually flying to CA for a sales meeting next week and so it'll be tested well. If I find it is just needing more debugging it's going back and I'll also update again.
I have 2 movies that I just loaded to it from Unbox. Wolverine and The Dark Knight...Both look very good, although I'd love to get my hands on a HD version of these movies to push to the device.
I'm nervous, however, to buy the HD plugin because I've read somewhere that it does not work or does not read that you have purchased it.
One last thing:
I also just read now that on the Viliv you can actually run Windows 7. It has a camera, and if that is the case, you can snap photos and then ink on them which I do when I'm on job sites taking photos and marking up buildings and plans. That seems practical to me. However, it's expensive (around $800-$900) and this device would be GREAT if these bugs go away.
Let me also so, GET THE 32GB NOT THE 160GB model. The 32GB runs SSD and it very snappy. It's also half the weight and thin.
I'd say it's as thin as my wife's iphone and as heavy as holding a large starbucks coffee. It's light and thin.
I have yet to try the GPS software but plan on downloading it from the disk provided to get the 7 day trial out of it. I'd LOVE that to work. Has a lot of potential when the 3D maps are available for the US in 2nd quarter of 2010.
BEWARE, not matter how much you want something...BEWARE
UPDATE #2: Done with it. It is going back NOW. I did the firmware update and it did NOTHING to help this machine. At first it appeared to make the system work faster, but then, it has frozen up 2 more times. Furthermore, I tried to install the GPS 7 day trial using the disk and the device again froze up. Sorry, but I cannot believe that these people would let these go out the door KNOWING it has issues. How the hell can they NOT know? If everyone here but one person has given this thing pretty poor marks, are they only using fully functional and perfectly tested devices?
Literally, look at the reviews and you will see what I am talking about. It's amazing to me that a company would do this. Yes, large companies have devices that periodically are returned defective. But at the rate that these people are getting complaints, you have to wonder how this could go on for the period of time that it has.
So, Archos will never get another dime from me, unless of course they come out with a fully functional non brick like device that people are raving about. I believe my next device will be a Viliv. I have read review after review on those devices and they are almost all positive. The machines perform the way they were intended to, unlike this one.
And it's too bad...this is such a nice looking and feeling device. The screen is nice, it feels really easy to use in the hand...It's a shame it just does not perform.
Buy Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android Now
Just don't buy this product. It's a simple as that.Mine never really worked.
Despite buying the optional HD video software, the device isn't able to play HD (720) content properly. I constantly have a/v out-of-sync problems. The video lags the audio. All the time. Then you pause, resume playing and it's ok for 5 minutes but then it drifts out of sync again.
Accessing the microsd card is a disaster. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. You need to keep on inserting and removing the card.
The battery doesn't even last an hour if you are playing videos
The device gets extremely warm (so warm that it is uncomfortable in your hands)
But what's worst is that you are on your own if you buy this. Archos support doesn't exist!
My device had all these problems. I logged tickets with their support and nobody *ever* bothered to respond. Then one day my Archos just stopped working completely. The screen would just flicker and never turn on.
So I wrote a letter to the CEO or Archos and returned this awfully engineered piece of hardware to them. All I got back is a standard letter telling me my warranty has expired (which for the record isn't true) and an offer to repair my Archos 5 for 148 EUROs.
Stay away from Archos.
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update 10/20/10:save your money i have had to have this device replaced or repaired no less than 5 times so far, and likely more than that. in all honesty, most of the time it had to be replaced b/c their support people sent me back units that were either wrong (they replaced it once with the older archos 5 model, rather than android, in a folgers-esque "lets see if he notices" moment), or because they sent me back a unit that was defective in an all new way than the device it was replacing.
due to their rediculously poor support (being without my device for weeks on end is bad support in my opinion) and treatment of their customers, i just cant recommend any of their products anymore. its like they dont QA them at all, and they make no effort to foster any customer good will.
below is my original review, if only to contrast exactly how much my view of this company and device has changed.
-----------------------------------------------
This is a great device with a few minor interface issues and bugs. im not going to write a thesis on this, so ill just boil it down. just to let you know, ive previously owned an archos 604wifi and an archos av420.
the pros:
the interface is very slick, it takes some getting used to but once you do it is great! its MUCH tighter than any apple product in the way the interface works seamlessly throughout the entire experience despite what application you are using.
set up was very simple, streaming from either web radio, pandora, or my personal network (all via wifi) was amazing. surprisingly the battery life doesnt seem terrible either. i havent done any strenuous tests yet, but i used the device last night constantly streaming web radio via wifi, connected to bluetooth devices, and with the screen on and active while i was browsing the net a bit (looking thru applications to add) for 2 or 3 consecutive hours last night, and only seemed to use 1/3 of the battery.
its more intelligent than previous versions, letting me know why certain files i have wont play on this during the transfer process. it offered to still let me copy them across for storage, but said i wouldnt be able to play them with the device. previously it would copy them, let me add them into the playlist, then bail-out of playback whenever it came across it, which was very annoying since i tend to make big playlists and use shuffle.
built in fm transmitter! FINALLY! ive been waiting for them to put this into (or at least attached to) the device themselves for a long time basically since i bought the fm receiver for the av420 /thinking/ it was a transmitter. ;) sadly i havent figured out how to get this working just yet, but i havent had alot of time to play with it in the car (thats my after-work project today).
i havent had the chance to play with the GPS yet, but making this all inclusive like that is a great idea, i hope its executed well (however i havent heard good things about teleatlas).
the cons:
its ALOT thicker than it appears on the web probably dictated by hard drive size, but its basically as thick as my 604wifi. the web image was very misleading, i was expecting something much thinner.
i dont get why all the applications use the accelerometer to change orientation, but the home menu's dont? seems like a silly oversight.
it seems a little laggy, and its hung a number of times to the point that ive had to force-reboot it. im really hoping for a system update to fix this stability issue.
text entry boxes are a little odd, you cant easily click and drag to highlight parts of text to delete or edit. hoping a system update fixes this.
im pretty good with tech toys, but i have not been able to get this thing to "tether" to my phone yet. it seems to pair with phone, but my phone says there are no available services on the archos that its interested in so it never "connects". not quite sure whats going on here.
not a real con but since i am a previous owner it was a little hard to get used to: you cant choose to add an entire folder of songs to a playlist when creating them on the device anymore. at first i thought they were forcing me to add one song at a time, but its not as bad as that: what they do is make you enter the directory you want to add, choose any song and click to add it to the playlist from the menu. once you do it opens another small menu asking if you want to add just that track or all the tracks in that directory. its mildly annoying b/c it requires a few extra steps for something that seems really basic: they could have just let me add the directory and automated that functionality. im really hoping a system update fixes this as well.
booting up doesnt seem to be any better than it had been on the 604 (which was noticably longer than the 420 had been). however it does have a "stand-by" mode that appears to use no battery life and boots up in seconds. not quite sure if this really is a con since they seem to have provided a solution that is great, which is why its last. ;)
Summary:
great device, some bugs but very small and easy to overlook so far, and they should be easily fixed (hopefully quickly). im REALLY excited for this product and hope to see archos throwing its continued support behind it.
sorry, i guess that was alot longer than i hoped or expected.
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Well Despite all the reviews, I decided to order the Archos 5 160GB version. I was a little worried about what I would encounter, however there worries would soon transition from worried to eased.The make of this device is very solid and it is a little big for the pocket, but it's manageable. This device would be significantly useful for people on the go as it allows you to bring a large amount of media with you all in a neat little tablet that can handle HD output (Given some videos are going to be laggy, but this is normal for most hand held devices as they do not have the rendering capabilities that of a computer does). However to deal with this, Archos is trying to maintain regular updates. Just recently they released 2 updates for the Archos 5. If you go to the main Archos site, which is at you can look at the updates that have been released for the device. It turns out that with each update they are trying to clean up the HD output given the limitations of the hardware also they are working on another update which is called doughnut, which is version 1.6 android, I believe (which will hopefully include the android market!! :)). This device also has a TON of space.
With all this space it can have other uses as well. I, Personally, have a large collection of books and music, I used this device as a backup of all my files so that in the event that anything happens to my main machine, I will always have the files I prioritized. Another neat little thing that the Archos 5 can do is it can read PDFs and Office Files, which is nice if you ever have to edit your office files on the go. With the amount of area that is displayed by the screen, it allows for a very nice and ease of reading. At times I can find myself reading a book on it and reading it with ease with the large screen, as well as the capabilities of the software to handle PDFs. One thing to be noted by this is the fact that due to the hardware constraint, it will have to load each page after you read about half of your current page and half of the next page in order to have it load the next page. This is done to save space and maintain its longevity due to its hardware constraints. However, the transitions is very fast, shouldn't be a pain, although a very minor annoyance. One thing I should note is that some people have claimed that some videos are not able to play, although I have yet to encounter this issue.
I feel that I got a huge bargain on this device. Given its updates and overall capabilities as not only an internet tablet but also its media playback along with its touchscreen capabilities (which is acceptable, in practicality -Make sure that you configure the touchscreen when it seems to not be functioning properly) it almost feels like a steal. To sum up the review I'm going to make a list of pros and cons.
Pros
Large beautiful screen
Touch Screen
Variety of Media playback capabilities
Made with Android OS (very stable)
Can be used as a PDF Reader as well as do MORE
Has GPS capabilities
Lots of applications -AppsLib (And much more will come when android market is finally released -although there is a way to get market on it with a little trick-but it does not include all the times that are in the CURRENT market, its a makeshift to get it to work AND Google applications be installed using this little trick, Google "Android Market on Archos 5 Internet Tablet")
Lasts a good amount of time
Easy to use
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Cons
No android 2.0 (yet..?)
Charging is somewhat slow (it will lose charge [when plugged in via DC-IN USB to MiniUSB] when transferring files to it, do it in chunks to deal with this issue, although you'll still lose battery life)
Somewhat laggy Video playback (should be remedied somewhat with updates)
Locks up sometimes (this was in the past, however with the new update they released I haven't seen it happen..yet?)
LONG start up time (use standby)
I hope this review helps you guys decide on buying one :)
Now to the Archos: I purchased the original Archos 5 a couple weeks ago, and while I found that device intriguing, the fact it used a hard drive (250GB) for storage, and made unsettling clicks and pops from time to time, made me paranoid enough to return it and order the FLASH Memory 32GB Android version instead. Also, the Opera browser on the older unit did reset often while surfing for no apparent reason. But it did work, and in full screen mode...and I could play my videos FROM my computer which my wife's Itouch couldn't...well, touch. It did everything her's did, just not as well. In fact, using it as a book reader was pretty much a joke. The biggest shortfall was the way fonts were rendered in every application. They just looked cruddy compared to the Itouch.
Well, I scoured reviews from all over the web to see if I could find a comparison between the old and new Archos from someone who owned both. I couldn't really, and what little I did find in comparison went pretty much like, "The new Android is OK, but not so much different from the first version in the end"
Now I know there are those like me out there that want to know if the upgrade is worth it.
Listen up. This is like the jump from a Yugo to a Cadillac. This device rocks! If I were to rate the original, I'd give it a "3"...this one gets an "8"
The web browsing experience is probably the most shocking. I have never seen a full sized computer load and display web pages faster. The rendering is beautiful. Ever bit as crisp and lovely as the Ipod. All in full screen spender! The scroll is not quite as fluid as the Ipod, but Archos is almost there. The sheer amount of additional real estate makes up for anything else.
Bottom line: Archos brought the web browser light years ahead from the previous model.
Media: (Video, Music, Photos) are all pretty much unchanged and for good reason: They were fine the way they were.
Bottom line: Media experience is the same as it was. Nice music player, nice photo viewer, and by far the most awesome video playback no one, not Apple, not Microsoft, not anyone can match.
Touch Screen: Many people seem to have a lot of complaints about the resistive touch screen. Yes, it takes a little more pressure than the Ipod's capacitive screen, but I know people that have complained of those screens getting less responsive over time. The Archos screen is fine after you learn how to use it (and really, even before) Women will love it because it works especially well and is perfectly suited to using a fingernail where capcitive may not work as well via that method.
Applications: This is where Archos with Android is I guarantee you making Apple very nervous. Are they there yet? No. Are they gaining fast? You bet. Every day more apps appear.
Bottom line: There's a new kid in town. A bigger, better looking, and soon to be better all around, kid.
Other features like FM receiver (Pod don't got it) FM transmitter (Pod don't got it) GPS! (guess what? Pod don't got it) and I could go on and on about what my wife's Ipod CANT do that the Archos can.
Darn, but it hangs occasionally, or maybe a screen will freeze once in a while. Get the torches!!! Burn them out!!!! Archos must die!!!! We demand PERFECTION!!!!
If I had a nickle for every time EVERY ONE of you people's computers hung or froze or what not. Why aren't you throwing THEM in the trash? Huh?
I am not in love with Archos, nor do I hate Apple. The Itouch is a very classy machine that does what it does just about as well as it can be done. But it is not without it's faults. You don't really own it, Apple does. Why can't you see it like a hard drive? Why do I have to have their software on my computer to use it? Why have they banned Flash? Why do they mess with your legally purchased music and lock it down like it's in Fort Knox?
I feel like Archos sold me their device and by doing so signed ownership over to me. They don't restrict what I can do with it. They don't tell me to load anything on my computer to use it. They offer an infinitely more versatile device. Yes, with that sort of versatility and complexity there are bound to be snags. They are working on them.
Archos 5 was the crude foundation.
Archos 5 Android is the real deal.
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