Archos 605 WiFi

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http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/digitalmusic/0,39029995,49292004,00.htm

Reviewed 8 August 2007

Reviewed by Nate Lanxon

The Archos 605 WiFi is the flagship model of the fifth generation of portable media players from French manufacturer Archos. Available in 30GB and 160GB hard disk and 4GB flash versions, the 605 runs on a modified version of Linux and supports an optional Opera Web browser for full Web access. Archos' latest PMP can even support 5.1 surround sound if you buy an additional dock.

Prices start at £150. We got our hands on the 30GB model, which is available now for £200.

Design
Unlike Optimus Prime in the funked-up new Transformers movie, the 605 doesn't look particularly different to its predecessor, the 604. Its buttons still reside on the right-hand side of its display, but this time they're more plastic in their appearance. A handy kick-stand flips from the back panel allowing you to prop the player up at an angle for hands-free viewing.

A chip off the old block: the 605 retains its parent's button layout

Build quality is excellent -- it's a solid device and feels resilient to the knocks and bumps of frequent use on the move. The touch-sensitive 109mm (4.3-inch) screen is large and unusually resistant to grubby finger marks that plague so many similar devices. A pair of styluses come as standard anyway -- though there's no slot to hold one in the player.

One hand is all you'll need to hold this media-hoarding contraption, and although it can get hot with extended use, it's pretty lightweight and comfy to carry in a trouser pocket.

The brushed aluminium finish is professional and impressive

Features
When you're looking at the Archos 605 WiFi's main menu, several of the menu options don't work unless you purchase extras. Recording TV requires a docking station and you need to buy the Web browser and several codecs separately.

The 605 mounts into Windows as an external drive over USB, allowing drag-and-drop management of files. Media player functions are painless, and the transitions and slide shows through image libraries were impressive. The 605 handles folder-based sorting, really high-resolution JPEGs, BMPs and PNGs, and an Adobe PDF reader handles your documents.

WMV and MPEG-4 (Xvid included, though not DivX) are supported up to DVD resolution (although the screen is 800x480 pixels), along with MP3, protected and unprotected WMA and WAV audio files. AAC, MPEG-2, H.264 and AC-3 formats will only play after you pay for extra plugins, each of which cost €20 (about £13.50).

A USB socket sits beside one for use with the optional PVR dock

An optional docking station lets you display video content on your TV as well as allowing you to use the 605 as a DVR TV recorder. We didn't have a dock to test as we wrote this review, but expect an update after it's reached us from France. The Web browser also needs to be purchased separately, but more on that shortly.

Performance
As an audio player, the 605 has excellent sound quality. Its general warmth complements most music, leaving the highly customisable equaliser free to enhance whatever parts of your favourite music you want boosting. Playlists and ID3 tags are supported as standard, but there's no FM radio.

Video playback is outstanding and the 605's screen is incredibly sharp. We played some DVD-quality MPEG-4 files and were really impressed with the performance. Once we'd installed the optional H.264 and MPEG-2 plug-ins, we were highly impressed with video quality. Playback is smooth and various aspect ratios let you choose how to scale each video to fit the screen. You'll need to get used to the touchscreen in order to avoid using the traditional navigation buttons, which are a little clunky. Menus are fluid, enjoyable and self-explanatory. You can also access the system's root directories, should you want to.

Full-screen movies: DVD resolution looks impressive on such a small player

After installing the optional Web browser -- a version of Opera -- the entire Web is at your fingertips via Wi-Fi. We browsed sites such as Flickr, read some news in Google Reader and even watched full-screen video on YouTube. Penning an email in Google Mail was easy and the 605's page zoom worked well. When zoomed in on a page, it's easy to drag it around in any direction. Browsing is fairly fast too. Remember the Net on a 128kbps ISDN line? It's a little like that -- we'd like to see pages loading faster.  

A virtual keyboard appears on the screen when you want to type and works just like the one on Apple's iPhone. Widgets such as games and weather apps will be available in autumn this year, and will sit on top of the Opera browser.

You can access the Archos Media Portal through the main menu on the 605. It offers plugins, online streaming video from DailyMotion.com and various other content providers, including CinemaNow if you live in the US. None of these were available at the time of our review, but at the recent press unveiling of the new Archos devices, representatives of Archos and DailyMotion spoke about the partnership, so expect it soon.

Battery life for video is rated at around 5.5 hours for video, and 17 for audio. Compared to the 80GB iPod's 6.5 and 20 hours, the Archos is falling a little short. Bear in mind though, that the 605's screen is considerably larger and at a higher resolution, and it supports video files that can reach bit rates several times that of the iPod's.

Conclusion
The 605 WiFi does so many things, it's difficult to think of decent competitors. The Nokia N95 springs to mind on the phone front, and the iPod in the media player camp, but neither of them can play video or browse the Web in the same way.

Overall, this is one of our favourite media gadgets. It impresses with its beautiful screen, great hardware and its ability to play even very high-quality video -- although we're annoyed that if you opt for all the extras, you'll have to shell out an extra £50.

Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide