Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB) by Archos
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Our Price: $374.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $134.95 (click here) Category: Network Media Player See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Archos 605 Wi-Fi Portable Media Player (30 GB)
Digital camera Review: Archos 605 wifi
Summary: 4 Stars
Decent set of features. Recording television works well with the portable DVR. The portable DVR worked better, for me, than did the Archos TV+. With the TV+, I could not record any of the HD channels, but could, although not in HD quality, with the portable DVR. Nice sound quality from the mp3 player. Nice video player. Nice screen clarity.
Web browser (Opera) crashed too often. I would not consider this a fully functioning web browser (e.g., cannot compose email). Cannot open many different file types (e.g., Word documents).
Digital camera Review: Archos 605 wifi works great
Summary: 4 Stars
I received the unit from the refurbished section. It works great right out of the box. I sold off my 30gb i**d in favor of this. The screen is crystal clear and the resolution is outstanding. No dead pixels. Drag and drop beats the alternative. Settings need changed to drag and drop or syncing with WMP11. I have never played with a Touch but so far this is more than adequate. Not gym friendly, too big and heavy to take on runs or lift weights with. Great traveling companion for long trips and airport layovers. Battery life is about average for media players.
Pro's-
Crystal clear screen
Drag and drop capability or usb drive with mini dock station.
Easy to navigate
Cons-
Too big and heavy for gym use
None other I can think of.
Digital camera Review: Archos 605 wifi, nice fancy gadget, horibal rip off
Summary: 1 Stars
OK so, i just got this thing ( the archos 605 wifi 30 gb) and as soon as i get it out, i find it needs to be charged.... not for like a few minutes or hours, more like a dew days.... you cant do ANYTHING with it straight out of the box, in-fact, i got this thing yesterday, its still charging and only has half its battery charged. (through the usb charger of course because theres on NO other way to charge it unless u shell out more money and time and effort to get the accessory like the dvr station) now as soon as you have enough juice to let it run on its own for a few minuits, you are soon to find that it cant do anything other than play music and videos and view pictures. first, when you want to play something its not hard to get to it, and the touch screan is wonderfull and big and easy to use, but the playability is horribal, the sound is decent, with a few tweeks of the mixer that you get in to it can gt beter! in order to play an album you have to go in to a side menue and select "play all tracks" in that directory, so unless your making a song by song playlist, its a huge newsuence if you just wana pop on a cd or two. the ability for the touch screan to do everything the keys do is nice, but the actual use of the player would be better if archos knew how to make an mp3 player for music lovers. as for picture and video, there probably better than the ipod, fast and quick and easy with touch screen,. as for everything else the archos can supposedly do, you need to shell out a butt load of money to do them, anything involving the wifi connection must be purchased, so if you want "podcasts" or "cinima" or use a web browser, you have to pay 19.99-29.99 each coming to an extra $70.00+tax for full functionality, not including the money you may spend on buying or downloading music to your player when you are mobile. also, for extra mulah, you can download codecs to increase the types of music and video files your new fancy player can play. or should play. the mini speaker it comes with is horrible and cant play clear sound above 3/4 the volume, if that. its dvr function cant be used without the $99.99 docking station and is annoying to use unless you get the $24.99 remote. other than all that, its a ncie little player with awesome color quality and good touch screan all still for 200$ less then the apple ipod touch or whatever is out now adays, if you include all the crap you need for it its about the same price. if you are a music lover or like to make things simple and quick on the go, this is NOT for you, i personaly think the creative zen vision M is one of the best products out there, small screan, awsome playablilty, awesome color quality, extreemly durable, almost never breaks, very simple lay out with a back butten and ability to make quick playlists and add on to what you're alredy listning to, ect. . . may not have a fancy touch screan or wifi, but it comes fully ready and enabeled to do everything you want, (charges faster, like 4 hrs max, and can be hooked up to tv to play vids with a 5-12 dollar addaptor) and has built in fm radio and voice recorder.Digital camera Review: Archos: the ipod touch killer
Summary: 5 Stars
I received the Archos 605 WiFi 30GB for Christmas and I am very impressed with the bang for the buck.
The good:
This is a well designed product that seems to be build very solidly. The image the screen produces is phenomenal. High resolution, excellent dot pitch, vibrant, well back lit, and viewable in all lighting conditions. The responsiveness is excellent and the touch screen sensitive. The box includes all of the cables and components to get you going and it actually includes a printed manual that is useful. In addition the Archos is pre-loaded with the unabridged version of the manual in PDF format on it. But you probably won't need it for much. The Archos is very intuitive to use. The UPnP features work great for streaming media to your Archos. Just setup your Windoze box with Media Player 10+ and set it up to share. MAKE SURE YOU OPEN THE PORTS IN YOUR FIREWALL SOFTWARE and very shortly you'll be asked if your Archos 605 should be allowed to access media on your computer. Seconds later you'll be able to view any picture or play any video or audio file that the Windows Media Player has in it's library. Wait until you get to play with the Archos content portal. Of course they want to sell you stuff, but the free part is the best! Just click on DailyMotion and enjoy. It is YouTube for your Archos. (Check out archos.dailymotion.com) On top of everything, the battery life is great.
The Not So Good:
The WiFi is pretty good...as long as the Archos likes your wireless router. There have been some software upgrades that have made the WiFi more compatable, but you may be forced to change the encryption scheme to get the Archos to play nice. I had to change from WPA to WPA2 on my router at home. Oddly, I have not run into any challenges at public WiFi locations. I was a bit frustrated that after purchasing the device that I was expected to spend more to get additional codecs and the opera browser. But at the end of the day I don't need the codecs and Archos is using a leveraged model that allows the unit to be cheaper for those of us who don't want or need the other features.
Why did I give it 5 stars instead of 4?
Wow, that was a hard one. The device is rock solid and has exceeded my expectations in the value department. I was a bit frustrated with the WiFi problems I had,but that has been worked out. I was also put off by the fact I had to pay for the browser, but I thought about the value proposition and decided that had the product been $30 more expensive to begin with and included the browser I would have still thought it was a great value. So, it is not a *perfect* 5 stars, but closer to 5 than 4.
If you're on the fence about buying one, just do it, you'll love it!
Digital camera Review: As I wait on hold....
Summary: 2 Stars
I loved my ARCHOS for 6 months. It worked great. The web browser wasn't lightening fast but good enough. The image is great, the sound is good. Easy to use. Movies can be purchased online using the wifi, which is handy. Now the unit is totally dead. I kept up with their updates and treated it very gently as I loved it.I turned it on one day and it would not moved beyond the welcome screen. I sent it in to be repaired, which is covered under warranty if it dies within the first year, I had to pay for shipping. Now I am forever on hold to fix an address confusion.