Archos 5 MP3 Player Review - Intro

The Archos 5 is the latest offering from Archos, and has quite an impressive list of capabilities. Out of the box it's a music / video / photo playback device with wifi. One of the Archos 5's best assets, however, is the huge array of upgrade options. Unlike the Apple Store, which only provides software extensibility, if you decide you really want GPS on your Archos 5, you can go out and buy an add-on. The same goes for DVR and a lot of other options.

In terms of its core abilities as a media player, the Archos 5 falls a bit short of the iPods of this world. The menu system is easy enough to use, but the screen doesn't support multi-touch and there's not a lot of options for easily getting from one place to another. This being said, the actual media player application on the Archos 5 is great, and the photo viewer is one of the best we've seen.

The Archos 5 should be available soon for $350.

Section	The Good	The Bad
Tour & Design	Seems sturdy, nice aesthetic with impressive-looking screen.	Picks up smudges and scratches easily, big.
Hardware	A great screen and capacity, touch screen offers some tactile feedback.	The battery life could've been better, but overall there's no real complaints.
Media Interface	Great media player software.	Looks a bit plain.
Media Management	Maintains your folder structure, good equalizer.	Playlist creation was a bit awkward.
Other Media Software	Great photo viewing software.	No podcast support.
Performance	Great frequency response, very little noise or cross talk.	Weak output power, bad packaged-in headphones.
Internet & Wireless	Supports wifi.	Currently doesn't take advantage of the wifi (this could change).
Synchronization	Lets you handle everything.	iTunes faithful will miss their sync software.
Other Software	A great array of little programs with the option to expand, supports flash apps.	Sometimes the software's layout can be unintuitive, included apps add minor functionality.