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: Good movie player for plane trips
Summary: 5 Stars
The movie player worked great on our 3 hour plane ride. My only complaint is I wish the volume could go a tad higher than its current maximum. Otherwise, we liked it very much.Digital camera Review: Great Concept, Bad Design
Summary: 3 Stars
First off, let's go with the positives.
Assuming you pay up the money to get the plug ins, you can play pretty much anything you want except for those windows exclusive formats. The screen is amazing and the browser is great. The 605 has all the features to be an Ipod killer.
And that's when the negatives come in. first off is the horrible build quality. I've had an archos in the past and i made sure to get an extended warranty on this thing. I've had it for a week and the shape of the device seems to be changing. there are now curves where there should be straight lines. The touch screen works well enough with practice, but Archos decided to give 2 styluses(or is it styli) in the box. Only problem is that there's nowhere on the device to put those babies. But the styluses aren't really necessary. The access to the Archos download services via wifi seem like a good idea, but the products are way too expensive, especially videos.
If you want a device that will make you say "sweet" everytime you figure out another one of its tricks, i'd say go for it. If you want reliability, then stick with the Ipod or the Gen 2 Zune even though they don't have nearly as many features.
Digital camera Review: Great Media Player! Make your Friends Jealous!
Summary: 4 Stars
This is my second Archos. I replaced my old 550 with the 605 and I am quite happy with the upgrade!
Bad:
Volume is low - With the headphone supplied the volume was very low. I replaced the headphones with a pair of in ear Sony's and now I don't have an issue. I thought the supplied headphones were uncomfortable anyways.
USB Charging ONLY (out of the box) - There are NO USB plugs on the unit. The only way to charge the unit is via the supplied USB cable. You will have to buy one of the Archos adapters to charge the unit via a wall adapter. I bought the Mini Dock. It has Power (international plug included btw), USB, and video out.
Extra $$$ for Plug In's - Some of the features that are loaded on the 605 are not available unless you pay an additional fee, like the web browser. The web browser costs $30. Kind of annoying if you did not know that going in. Once you buy the plug-in, you get a code that you type in to the 605 to unlock it.
Good:
WiFi - Very easy to connect! It doesn't seem to have the strongest antenna I've ever seen but it works just fine.
Web Browsing - The Opera browsers is great! Plays streaming video and audio files, like YouTube or any flash based sites very well. You just have to be a little patient some times when clicking links, I don't think it has a ton of RAM, so it can lock up if you don't let the pages load all the way.
HUGE Screen - I just flew to Italy and watched four episodes of Band of Brothers in wide screen. Looked and sounded amazing.
Play Music while Browsing or Looking at Pictures - Great feature! You can leave the music player and go to the web or your photo albums with out stopping the music. Great for slide shows.
I am quite happy with the 605! Highly recommend it!
Digital camera Review: Great Multimedia Player
Summary: 5 Stars
Great photo and video resolution, really nice audio quality, good Internet connectivity, and easy to navigate. Easily syncs to Windows Media Player to download files. Somewhat awkward to use touch screen keyboard on Internet access, but not much of a problem. You will really need the Mini Dock or DVR Gen 5 Dock to fully use the whole capability of the unit and charge it quickly so plan to pay for accessories. Internet browsing also requires extra money to download Opera OS, but it works well. Great unit especially for those who spend a lot of time on airplanes.Digital camera Review: Great PMP player minus charger
Summary: 3 Stars
The Archos 605 is a great movie player when it comes to color and navigation. However, it needs an ability to bookmark a movie so that you can easily navigate back to where you left off after powering off. I had to buy a separate wall charger as well. The Archos 605 comes with a USB adapter that acts as a dual charger or interface. The problem is that charging the Archos by USB is very inefficient compared to a wall socket. Once I bought a 3rd party wall socket charger the Archos charged quickly. I don't know why they don't ship a normal charger.