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Physical Controls (6.75)
The only physical buttons on the Archos 5 are the power button and the volume button. Both are just slightly raised from the top of the device. The volume rocker is what users will probably make use of the most often during music and video playback, and its position and the amount of force required to register a press will require that it be held firmly in hand or placed on a stand of some sort. It doesn't have a lot of travel, but it does click when pushed so you know when a press has registered. The power button has the same feel and travel as the volume rocker, and includes an LED indicator.
You actually have to hold the reset button down for 15 seconds to reset,
as opposed to the 10 seconds printed on the device. This is,
quite possibly, the longest reset timer ever.
The 4.8" touchscreen is the primary interface to control the Archos 5. It is a resistive touchscreen that can register presses made by a finger or stylus, and it gives a little when pressed. This is not unpleasant, but it's not at all like the feel of the iPod Touch's capacitive touchscreen. The screen of the Archos is not as sensitive as the one you'd find on the iPod Touch, either - it sometimes takes a second press to activate the on-screen button you're trying to press with a finger. Using a stylus and pressing firmly seems to net the best results. When held in both hands, the bezel around the screen is sufficiently wide to hold easily without blocking the screen with hands.
As previously noted, the headphone jack is on the left side of the device, and when headphones are plugged in, it makes it a bit harder and less comfortable to hold in both hands to watch a video or browse the web on the Archos 5. We'd much rather that the headphone jack be placed somewhere where it won't interfere with how you are likely to hold and use the device when a hard surface is not available to rest it on.
 Display
Screen resolution (11.31)
The Archos 5's screen has a resolution of 800x400 pixels and displays 16 million colors.
Screen size (11.96)
Archos describes the screen as measuring 4.8" diagonally, but we measure the viewable area at 4.76 inches.
Pixels per inch (7.52)
The Archos 5's screen has a pixel density of 187.90 pixels per inch. This is slightly above average. Typically devices with large screens don't have a high enough resolution, and the result is a bit washed out. The Archos will deliver a good picture quality across all 4.8 inches of its LCD.
Screen brightness (5.60)
There are two levels of backlight intensity to choose from, from very dim to somewhat bright. There's also a brightness slider, which changes the relative brightness of each color.
The Archos 5 can output 339.73 candelas per square meter, which is good for a media player. It should make a more than adequate flash light should the need arise.
Built-in Speakers (7.49)
The Archos 5's built-in speakers were capable of outputting 89.8 decibels. First of all, most media players don't even have speakers. Secondly, which is pretty good for a portable media player. Most media players out there don't have any built-in speakers.
Small speaker, big sound.
Cable Connectivity (5.00)
The Archos 5 has proprietary connector ports on the bottom, and the included cable connects the device to your computer via USB 2.0. Archos offers a number of accessories that can expand the utility of the Archos 5 and make use of these proprietary connectors, such as a DVR station, GPS car holder, battery dock, and helmet cam. We don't award points for proprietary connectors, however, since they usually limit you to accessories sold by the device manufacturer, and almost always at a premium price.
The Archos 5 does at least have a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, widening your options well beyond the stereo headset that comes in the box with the device. This is an area where we particularly don't like proprietary connectors since the headphones that are included with most multimedia devices are far inferior than those that can be purchased separately.
Internal Storage (10.54)
Archos states that the Archos has a 60GB hard drive, but only 57.0GB are available to the user to store media. 60GB is not a lot, particularly for a device where video is likely to be the media of choice. Archos does offer this model with more storage, so there are options for those of you who really want to load a lot of videos on to your portable media player.
External Storage (0.0)
The Archos 5 does not have any external storage slots.
Battery Life (4.53)
The Archos 5 was able to last for 15 hours, 5 minutes, which is an average battery life for audio playback. Many media players can last for a day or more of music playback: the iPod Touch, for example, lasted for almost 30 hours.
We will update this section once we've gotten some data sets for the battery life of wifi or video playback functionality.
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