RSS Feed
Twitter
Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
- 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
ARCHOS, distinguished for its technological innovation, now introduces its new Archos 5 Internet Tablet. This product combines all multimedia know-how, which is famous for ARCHOS with the Android operating system. It offers an uncompromising Internet, media and TV experience in a customizable interface. Constantly evolving with the continuous arrival of new applications, you can personalize your ARCHOS 5 Internet Tablet perfectly reflect your taste and needs.Archos, award-Winn
Rating: 
(out of 112 reviews)
List Price: $ 379.99
Price: Too low to display
Slim Wifi Camera 1.2GHz Android 2.3 4GB Capacitive Touch Screen 7" MID Tablet | US $39.99 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday May-23-2012 10:48:43 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
 | US $134.95 (0 Bid) End Date: Wednesday May-23-2012 10:49:17 PDT Bid now | Add to watch list |
Find More Android Products
Posted in 
Tags:
Review by Alan E. Moore for Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
Rating:
I just got my new Android 5 500GB direct from Archos yesterday and its quite a beauty. I’m upgrading from my old Archos 5 250GB, so that will be my primary point of comparison. I also have the following to compare to: iPod Touch 64GB, Archos 605, Walkman X, Samsung P2, and a host of other MP3 players large and small.
Given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than astounding, I pretty much figured that this upgrade for Archos would be similarly understated. Mainly I just wanted the extra hard drive so I could backup all my laptops onto my music player. I was wrong! The new Android version seems to have a whole new feel both in form factor and the new software. I had heard that Archos was having problems with the software, but they seem to have ironed most of them out as of 1.1 firmware release. I did update my firmware immediately, and the process was quite smooth.
I’m going to rate this player on my absolute scale. I will also be making notes on the value of the upgrade from my old Archos 5. Note: I mostly use this as a media center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.
Let’s get to it then, these are the things I love about my new Android:
1) 500GB — totally awesome amount of disk, I can now put just about every digital file I own on the Archos.
Easy and regular firmware updates — with a WiFi connection, the firmware updates are easily performed on the unit itself. That’s the easiest system I’ve seen of all my players. One thing I’ve learned about Archos over the years, they will put out a steady stream of firmware updates.
2) Android interface — the overall feel of the software interface has definitively improved with the integration of Android. Effects are crisper, the esthetics are cleaner, things seem to happen faster. I especially like how easy it is to access the most recently played song or video from the main screen, pops up with a little thumbnail that you tap on and voila, resumes right where you left off!
3) Apps — with Android we now have access to some serious app selection. Of course, nobody compares to the Apple App Store, but this comes the closest.
4) Weight — this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.
5) Dock/DVR — this popped right into my old 5 DVR and started playing right away. I still think this is the best DVR/Player combination available of all the MP3 players.
6) Video/Hi Def — of the players I have owned, this has the best, biggest, and highest resolution screen.
7) Portrait/Landscape — Archos has borrowed the iPhone trick of rotating the display according to orientation. I guess they have an accelerometer in there now, I dunno. Still, its fun to see this feature on an Archos. Its a lot easier to navigate playlists in portrait mode.
9) WMV/MTP mode– very smooth interface to Windows for either Media Monkey or Windows Media Player.
10) Dedicated volume button — power and volume buttons have been conveniently located onto the top edge. This is actually much easier to use when it is docked on the DVR (which is where mine spends most of its life!).
11) Sound quality is quite good, sounds great through my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.
12) WiFi/Browser — has a good browser and WiFi connection has worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch’s, although Safari is probably the slightly superior browser. The bigger screen also helps for browsing. Overall I’m inclined to give the Archos the top ranking for browsers.
13) I just discovered Twidroid, one of many apps pre-loaded, allows me to check my Twitter in a really nice format — love it!
14) Portability — well there’s only so much portability that can be expected with a screen and hard drive this large. This new design is smoother and rounder so its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry around as a handheld device, fits nicely in my hand as I stroll about the house trying out all of the Android Apps! In any case, this is not as portable as a Touch but I think its pretty good for a small computer — which is basically what this is.
15) No extra plug ins needed (so far!). Always in the past I’ve laid out another $40 for additional Archos plugins to play iPod format music and other video formats. So far I haven’t had to do that — thank you Archos
16) Archos will stand behind their product. I’ve had to send in a couple of Archos units over the years and they have always been happy to either repair or replace the unit without quibbling about it, as long as its under warranty. Note: it did take two weeks to get my unit back!
17) Multi threading: now I show my engineer/geek side. This baby can do a bunch of different stuff at the same time, unlike the iPhone/Touch which can really only do one thing at a time. The Android can be doing other stuff while you are listening music. I love the little bar on the top that you can pull down and switch to any other task that is running.
18) Built-in kickstand, very nice feature.
19) Stylus friendly touch screen — sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a touchscreen keyboard with fat fingers! In general, this is one of my favorite touch screens. Most of the other touch screens, including iPod/iPhone, are capacitance which means stylus won’t work
20) Micro USB cable plug-in: finally a standardized USB plug and you can have it resting on its kickstand while plugged in
Given that the Archos tops the class in several categories, and continues to be the best 500GB 5 inch screen player available I give it about a 4.7 stars out of 5 (round to 5). There are a few things I’m less than thrilled about:
1) Update: I believe you can now format your drive in a Windows friendly format on 1.7.96 version of firmware. External hard drive EXT3 — as I understand it, Archos changed to the EXT3 hard drive format for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can no longer simply select hard drive MSC mode, plug the Archos into a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You have to install an Ext3 driver such as EXT2 IFS on your Windows PC. Once I did that I was able to access the hard drive and backup files to my hearts content.
2) The playlist interface didn’t get much of an upgrade and its still kind of clunky. I want to simply tap my playlist and it starts playing. Often times I have to do a couple of extra taps to get the thing playing.
3) We lost the dedicated play button and removable battery a while back — but I still miss them both! None of my favorite touch screen players has either of these features. I’m also missing the brown metallic color and the rubbery backside.
4) Finding a case for this baby is no easy trick. You’re not going to find one at the local Best Buy I’m afraid. In the past I’ve resorted to ordering my Archos cases from European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player that is not an iPod or a Zune.
5) As always with Archos, you must remember that you are dealing with a French based company. This means that they don’t always provide the best support/service/upgrades to us Americans.
6) Lets face it, Archos is always playing catch up. Some of the new features aren’t fully functional yet. I do have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS over the course of the next 6 months. The Apps available are currently a bit limited. I expect this will improve over the coming months.
7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is more for the hobbyist who wants a cutting edge experience that may take some messing around to get it just the way you want it. If you want something easy that requires minimum effort then iPods are going to be more your cup of tea.
For me this is still the best player of its class — that class being large hard drive, big screen PMP players with other fun features. Android makes for some fun possibilities, and overall I’m impressed with this as an upgrade. Once again, if you don’t mind a smaller screen and you love apps I suggest you get an iPod Touch. If what you care about most is sound quality you may want to get a Walkman X. For me those are your top 3 touch screen players, it just depends on what you care about the most.
Note: 10-23-2009; I upgraded to firmware version 1.2.03 which fixes some App, Browser, and YouTube issues. Apps do seem happier now, upgrade process was very smooth. Still happily listening to tunes for about 8 hours a day with no problems
Update 11-7-2009: I’ve been running version 1.2.15 with a host of bug fixes and the unit does seem more stable in general now. Wifi is working better and USB connection seems more reliable.
Update 11-23-2009: Upgrade to firmware v 1.3.07 — a long list of bug fixes including a few improvements that I had hoped for to control the scanning of multimedia files/ ArcLibrary. Got an AppsLib update which seems to work more reliably. There seem to be a lot more apps available now (300 ish) in AppsLib. Just keeps getting better and better! Still is playing music day in and day out with no problems and I’m backing up 2 laptops worth of files onto my 5 IT.
Update 12-18-2009: I’ve been on firmware 1.4.16 for over a week now. Lots of little fixes, seems even more stable now.
Update 2-11-2010: Firmware 1.7.33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work, I ended up reformatting the drive and starting anew. However, power saving seems to work a lot better and I haven’t seen it reset itself for quite a while now. This seems to be the most solid release yet!
Update 4-8-2010: Firmware 1.7.96: just keeps getting better! Several annoying bugs fixed, Deep Sleep and Windows hard drive modes have been added as helpful new features among other things. This seems even more stable than previous versions. This is still my main car and home music player of choice.
Update 8-1-2010: Firmware 2.0.28: This version is stable. I had a little trouble with my player and had to send it in for a new one. Tech support was quite responsive and helpful, turn around time was pretty good and the new player works great. New features make for much better gaming from what I hear (I don’t do gaming on it myself). Having given up the player for a while, I’ve come to the conclusion that the Archos actually has the best sound of all my players!
Review by Sean Pasell for Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
Rating:
I have to say that I went against my gut when purchasing this device, as it looked really nice, and really, I wanted it for watching movies, listening to music and checking the internet quickly when I am on the run in airports.
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.
Review by Mezo for Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
Rating:
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.
Review by ViBu for Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
Rating:
First let me start off by saying I’ve used every version of Android extensively and I know ways around faulty apps with free alternative apps in the marketplace. Please keep this in mind while reading this review. Also, I used a friend’s Archos 5 for 3 days before I bought my own Archos 5 8GB from Radioshack (The Shack?) for $[...] I fully reconfigured and updated his device with Google apps support and Google sync. More on that below.
Pros – beautiful build quality, beautiful screen, nice size that’s bigger than a smartphone but small enough to fit in a large pocket, Access to the entire Android Marketplace after enabling Google apps, Google apps support and Google Sync on the Archos after enabling them. SD card slot for easy storage upgrades
Cons – Touch screen works but isn’t as responsive as it should be, device can lag at times (but this isn’t all that unusual with Android devices in general) Some apps didn’t work as advertised. icons don’t always use space in the best way resulting in large gaps between icons
For anyone that wants to truly see what the Archos 5 Android can do, they should install the Google apps after updating to the latest firmware. I understand this should not be necessary for a device such as this but under the circumstances, it’s highly recommended, only take a few minutes and is easy to do. The Android Marketplace alone gives the device so much extra firepower and flexibility that it cannot and should not be ignored. GPS default app isn’t working right? Use Google Navigation. Can’t get Pandora to run in the browser? Use the free Android Pandora app. Hate the default Archos 5 browser? Get Opera, Xscope or Dolphin browser in the Marketplace. It’s that simple.
I will keep this as brief as possible. Archos did screw up big time by releasing a device that has potential but shipped flawed, buggy and gimp. I wouldn’t be surprised if lawsuits are being prepared for false advertising considering some of the default apps don’t work. But despite this, I still liked the device because as I mentioned above, after installing the Google apps and marketplace, I was able to fully customize the Archos 5 Android to run like I needed it to run with the exception of the touchscreen. I didn’t use Archos’s software to playback video. I used Astro, Xscope or the Android Gallery. I didn’t use the default music player either. I used the default 1.6 Android player and “3″. I even switch the home launcher with DXtop and custom skins and icons. I tried to get the Archos to run similar to my Nexus One as best I could and the results were impressive. Also considering added storage through SD card is a welcome addition as well as the bluetooth tethering support. Speaking of which, I used the Bluetooth File Transfer app from the marketplace to transfer files from my Nexus One to the Archos 5 Android and it worked without any problems. That’s my constant theme for this review. If you are familiar with the Android Marketplace, you can find apps that function better than many of the default apps that ship with the Archos, It made my life less stressful for sure. Video playback is great, music playback is great even though the speaker is good but not the best I’ve heard on a portable device. I had no stalls, freezes or crashes in the 3 days that I’ve ran the Archos and I ran it pretty hard.
The problems I did have all revolved around the touchscreen. Archos really should have known better and simply put a capacitive screen on the device. What’s the point in having a touchscreen if it isn’t going to be as responsive as it should be? Really. This was almost a deal breaker for me until I came to grips with it. It’s still not as good as my Nexus One, not by a long shot but it’s doable for the tablet. If lack of screen responsiveness can be addressed through software, then Archos should make that priority one. The stability issues are being dealt with as I just used the device with the latest firmware and it was very stable. But Archos should keep at it to ensure that the Archos 5 Android becomes a monster that will almost never fail.
Summary, if you’re an experienced user of Android and can deal with a resistive touchscreen then I’d say the Archos 5 may be for you. Android Marketplace will provide so many apps that will add so much functionality to the Archos, that is almost worth the price of admission alone. Audio and Video playback are great with Android apps, there are a number of good browsers to use for the web allowing you to download Youtube videos…almost any video you find actually and run it direct from the unit. I had no problems with Wifi as I’m running a Linksys WRT54G router. My only other gripe is that my PS3 will not recognize the Archos as a mass storage device.
If you want overall ease of use without the hassles of constant firmware updates, if you want a more responsive touch screen and a “it just works, out of the box” experience, then buy Apple and never look back.
I’ll update this review as I spend more time adding apps and files to the device to see if it holds up over longer periods of intense use.
——————————————————————————————————
UPDATE: 4-10-10 I’ve spent the last few days really putting this device through it’s paces and I’ve learned quite a bit. First and foremost, after calibrating the touchscreen, I can say that it’s definitely functional with finger use. No stlyus needed. But it’s not as good as a capacitive screen and rightfully so considering the Archos 5 Android has a resistive screen. With that in mind, I can navigate the Archos fine with my fingers and type fairly well on the virtual keyboard. Calibrating the screen is key and it very easy to do considering you’re prompted to calibrate the device on the first power on. Not sure why my friend didn’t do this with his Archos 5 Android. The unit has been very stable as well and only crashed on me once when I had two browsers open, one having multiple tabs and trying to run video at the same time while running two other apps in the background. (I’d like to see a 1GHz Archos 5 Android with 512mbs of DDR3 instead of the 128mbs that’s used now.)
I’ve thrown quite a few video formats at it, Xvid, Divx, Mp3 and Mp4 videos etc and they’ve all worked with the exception of two that needed a codec that Archos offers for a price. That sucked and I passed on it. The only other format that I have to try is .FLV which I fully expect to not work but I’ll be happy to be proven wrong. Transferring files from my PS3, Nexus One and PC to the Archos was very easy once I put a 16GB microSD card in the unit. The PS3 and PC wouldn’t play nice with the Archos until then.
The unit is very stable after installing the Android 1.6 update. But I decided to not put the Google Marketplace on my unit as the Archos Marketplace has quite a few apps in it and I realized without a constant internet connection, Google sync wouldn’t be worth the install. Any apps I needed I just bluetooth pushed them from my Nexus One to the Archos using the free Bluetooth Transfer app in both marketplaces.
Also, I was wrong about the video playback being better in Android apps as opposed to Archos’s own apps. I’ve found that once you use a Android Launcher (Home Alternative app, DXtop, Open Home, Panda Home etc) on the Archos, you lose the Archos icons for music, video, photo playback that’s part of the Archo’s software that runs within Android. You need those apps and can have them on your desktop as widgets if you get them from the Archos marketplace under Multimedia. They’re free too. What this does is allows you to run Android apps as much as you want but also have the more robust Archos video app and the far superior codec support as customizable widgets without missing a beat.
I did have problems with the playlist creation with the Archos music player. Although I like the layout of it once songs start to play. But at this time, it’s just easier for me to make playlists using the default Android app.
The photo gallery is a matter of preference. Archo’s Gallery is superb and images look fantastic on the screen along with a larger sized thumbnails for easy viewing. The Android Gallery is good and images quality still looks great but the thumbnail view isn’t as big and doesn’t look as slick especially after seeing the excellent Android 2.1 gallery.
I believe that the Archos 5 Android tablet is a great device with some negatives that can be fixed with software updates and/or revisions. I didn’t buy the larger 500GB, 320GB or other sizes because I wanted the slimmer form factor of the 8GB version. It offers a lot of flexibility and power for such a small device and isn’t sold at a premium. Having the ability to run Android .apk files regardless of the lack of Google Marketplace support means users can still get access to the huge catalog of Android apps available and run them on their devices. If potential buyers are already running Android smartphones then they’re ahead of the curve. It could benefit from more RAM in future versions as the device lag at times but the lag was no where near as bad as some people have made it out to be. It’s not G1 or Mytouch 3G bad where the device locks up for minutes at a time. If Google wouldn’t make this a “Google Experience” device then they must have something truly special in the pipeline but as it stands, even at a much cheaper price for the 8GB version, Archos 5 Android does quite a few things that a Ipad can not.
4-20-10 UPDATE
This will be my final update for the Archos5 Android as I’ve put it through it’s paces pretty good since I’ve started using it.
I found out that the device will play flash movie files (.flv files) native without having to encode the video for playback in a different format. A Archos rep recommended saving videos to the archos one by one as opposed to bulk saving because bulk saves can damage the files en route. I bulk transferred a number of .flv files and all were corrupted but I can confirm that doing as the archos rep suggested works. I decided to put the Google Experience apps on my Archos because, quite simply, the process is so ridiculously easy and fast there was no reason not to. This device has great potential but there are still some things that could have been better.
Battery life. The Archos 5 Android’s battery drains incredibly fast while playing media. I’m not sure which battery is used but a higher capacity battery than the one present would have been a godsend. I can use the resistive screen for a good experience but a capacitive screen would have made navigating the Archos 5 Android a great experience. The device needs more RAM. Period. Overall stability. I’m a geek at heart and tooling around with the Archos is great fun for me. I’ve loved it because I know how to get around or solve some of the problems other users are having. But the average consumer isn’t going to be as patient or even as tech savvy enough to do the same. The initial bugs with the Archos simply should not be. Yes, firmware updates have solved stability issues and bugs in some key areas but the reality is, when you’re asked to pay hundreds of dollars for a device, it should just work. Period. With that being said, I stand by my 4* review. The Archos 5 Android shows what a internet tablet should be (when the full range of Google services added) even if it’s currently geared towards the power user (Android/Linux power user really) as opposed to Joe Everyday. -1* for the need to update as soon as you take it out of the box.
Review by Jay Houston for Archos 5 32 GB Internet Tablet with Android
Rating:
This device will do everything it says it will. BUT, there are a lot of things you have to do first. So, I’m happy with the product. But it has taken me a long time to get it set up. And, there are some hidden fees that you should know about. Let me start with the positives. The Archos 5 with Android is awsome. If you like movies and videos and photos, etc. this thing is great. I copied and pasted a digital copy of a movie off of a blue-ray disc. The movie plays great on the Archos. Oh, it’ll do all of the texting and facebooking and e-mails like all the other PDAs. It has apps and all that. But the big bang is in the video. The display is great and the layout is really good. I love it. It is easy to navigate and enjoyable to use. The touch-screen is a little sluggish. But, Apple really set the bar high on that. No one does it like Ipod.
Set-up: I spent hours getting the thing set up. It crashed a lot. Right in the video tutorials at Archos.com (the video tutorials are awsome by the way) they show you how to use a paperclip to push the reset button. Yes. You will need a paperclip. I imagine someone will stop reading right there and go back to looking at Ipods. I don’t blame you. But, remember what I said. In the end, after the setup, the Archos is really good.
Portability: This is the 500 gigabyte model. So, yes it will fit in your pocket as advertised. But, it needs to be a big pocket. I bought the leather case for it. Honestly, strapping it to my belt reminded me of the Nerds movie. I don’t know anyone who would carry it like that. Realistically, it’s not something you are going to strap to your arm and go for a jog with. If that is what you’re looking for, go buy a cheap mp3 player. On the other hand, with 500 gigabytes, I have all of my music on it. That’s about 50 cd’s worth of music. That only takes up about 5 gigabytes. You get the idea.
Hidden Costs: 1) I spent several hours trying to figure out why the FM Transmitter wouldn’t work. I then found out that the device has to be plugged in to the car charger for it to work. That would have been nice to know. I hadn’t purchased the car charger. I opted for a cheaper generic window holster. So, I have to spend more if I want the FM transmitter to work. 2) The GPS only has a 7-day free trial. You have to spend about $40.00 to get the full version. 3) I’m sure there is some fine print somewhere that says what video formats will work. What I remember most is the review which says you can throw just about any format at the device and it will take it. Well, that may be true. But in order to get some of the formats to work, you have to spend another $40.00 for a software bundle.
DVR Station: I was really excited about the DVR station. I still am. But, I haven’t been able to get the video right yet. I’m hoping I can still figure out what the problem is. And, the program guide isn’t available outside of the UK. That’s right. The program guide that is advertised is not available in the U.S. That would have been nice to know ahead of time. So, it’s like the old VCR days. You have to look at your local TV listings and then manually set up the channel and time. That’s just one thing. You have to leave the device on stand-by or on the home screen when the time for the recording is about to begin. If you are on any other screen, it won’t record. That’s not a big deal I guess. But, I spent a lot of time and frustration figuring that one out.
Summary: I picked the Archos over the Ipod because it had so many features in one device. I could buy one device instead of a DVR, a GPS, and an mp3 player. Well, you have to pay extra for the GPS. And, I still haven’t been able to get the DVR to work right. Why am I hanging on to it? It’s the 500 gigabytes of storage. None of the Ipod’s currently on the market come even close.
If you have a lot of video and music that you want to take with you everywhere you go, the Archos is for you. If you’re looking for an mp3 player that has aps, get the Ipod.