CNET Editor's rating: 8.7 out of 10
Reviewed by
Donald Bell
Review date: 08/30/07
Release date: 08/30/07
The good: With top-notch video resolution, incredible viewing angles, and integrated support for wireless movie downloads, the Archos 605 WiFi is the best of its breed.
The bad: Battery life is only average. Many users will need to shell out extra for software and hardware accessories they'll wish were included.
The bottom line: The Archos 605 WiFi portable video player is one of the best mobile distractions money can buy.
If you ever want to excite a gadget fiend, just walk up and whisper these words into their ear, "Touch screen...WiFi...high-resolution...Mac-compatible..." If remotely human, your friend should be salivating on himself just as we did when we read the specs for the Archos 605 WiFi. Starting at just $229, the Archos 605 WiFi refines the screen resolution and usability of its previous effort, the 604 WiFi, and sets a new standard for affordable, exceptionally designed portable video players (PVPs).
Design
Only a few companies can compete with Archos when it comes to both product and interface design. The 605 WiFi is as elegantly conceived as anything we've seen from Apple or Sony. Measuring 4.75 inches wide, 3.25 inches tall, and just a hair more than a half-inch thick, the 605 strikes that front-pocket sweet spot; it's big enough to do video justice, yet small and thin enough to comfortably fit in your pants pocket. The recessed 4.3-inch TFT LCD screen is not only bright, colorful, and glare-resistant, but it displays at a resolution of 800x480, making it one of the highest-resolution PVPs on the market. We're also happy to see that the screen valiantly resists smudges despite its dual-duty as a touch screen.
While screen quality alone puts the Archos 605 ahead of the pack, small touches such as a built-in kickstand and an internal speaker really put this player over the top. Our only disappointments with the 605's design are the scratch-prone metal panel on the front, the lack of a universal USB connection, and the choice of white buttons that will surely pick up grime and discolor over time.
Nothing makes watching a movie more impractical than having to hold your PVP in your hand for more than an hour. The Archos 605 WiFi's hearty fold-out metal kickstand is a small but essential design touch.
Features
With most portable media players, what you see is what you get. But with any Archos product, the gear you buy is a base to which you can add additional features, for a price. Some accuse Archos of skimping on features to maintain an artificially attractive price, but you can also think of it as Archos allowing their customers to purchase only the features they want. Either way, the out-of-the-box 605 comes with most of the features people want in a PVP, and plug-ins--such as high-definition video playback, Internet radio, and others--cost only $20 a pop. Unfortunately, to truly take advantage of the 605's Wi-Fi, you need to spend an extra $30 for the Opera Web browser plug-in.
For your $30, thankfully, the Opera browser is Adobe Flash-enabled (unlike a certain iPhone) and works exceptionally well. Need to type in a password or a URL? The 605 WiFi's touch screen presents a responsive, iPhone-esque QWERTY keyboard. If you need one good reason for paying the extra $30 on the Opera Web browser, it's that any Flash-based video from sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, and CNET is automatically detected by the 605 and presented in full screen.
Of all the accessories for the Archos 605 WiFi, the most expensive, and perhaps the most worthwhile, is the Archos DVR Station.
Even if you don't intend on giving Archos a single extra penny for plug-in features, you'll still love the player. The 605 WiFi comes with an MP3 player, a video player, a photo viewer, a PDF viewer, and the Content Portal feature, which uses the Wi-Fi connection to grab content directly from a handful of providers such as YouTube, Cinema Now, and BurnLounge. In particular, Cinema Now offers a great selection of mainstream movies that can be downloaded to your device for as little as 3.99. (It's worth mentioning/warning that Cinema Now also offers an exhaustive selection of adult-video content.)
Archos seems to have thought through almost all of the 605 WiFi's features. By default, the music player supports MP3, WMA (including DRM-protected files), and WAV files. You can purchase support for additional formats, such as AAC. During playback, the music player displays album artwork, allows for your music library to be sorted by ID3 tags, and gives you the ability to bookmark long files such as lectures and audiobooks.
The Archos 605 WiFi comes packaged with a case, a pair of styli, earbuds, and a proprietary USB cable.
The Archos 605 WiFi's video player is equally polished. It supports playback of MPEG-4, AVI, and WMV formats at up to 30 frames per second, covering most of the bases for common video files. You can buy optional plug-ins at $20 a pop for formats such as H.264 and MPEG-2/VOB files. Once you're actually playing video, you can bookmark, resize, and skip through your movie with ease.
If you're willing to shell out another $99, Archos offers a hardware accessory called the DVR Station that unlocks the 605's ability to act as a sophisticated digital video recorder. By docking the 605 in the DVR Station and connecting it to your television, the 605 effectively becomes your home entertainment system. Instead of using the 605 WiFi's 4.3-inch screen, the DVR Station displays content on your television, allowing you to browse your music and movie collection, flip through photo albums, and even surf the Web from the comfort of your couch, using the included remote control.
Performance
First and foremost, the Archos 605 WiFi is a video player, and an unrivaled one at that. Portable video players such as the Cowon A2 or the Creative Zen Vision:W simply don't offer comparable video resolution, not to mention the capability to download movies wirelessly or act as a full-fledged DVR.
As a music player, the 605 weighs in at the bulkier side, but its sound quality equals that of most of our preferred MP3 players. Both the customizable five-band equalizer and independent Bass Boost controls err on the side of subtlety, but we think they offer just the right amount of sonic sculpting without mangling the sound into an overprocessed mush. (The same sound enhancement features apply to movie audio playback.) For those of you pulling media files from both a Mac and a PC, you'll be happy to know that the 605 WiFi can boot in multiple USB modes, both MSC and MTP, allowing it to work as both a drag-and-drop hard drive and a Windows Media Player device.
If we have a single complaint about the 605's performance, it's the battery life. Rated at 16 hours for music and 5 hours for video, Our lab tests came up a little short of Archos' expectations, with just 13.5 hours of audio playback and 4.7 hours of video. The results aren't bad considering all the power that gets sucked up by the 605's high-resolution 4.3-inch screen. Although similar products such as the Creative Zen Vision:W have better battery-life scores, they also work at a lower resolution than the 605 and don't have the power demands of a Wi-Fi antenna to deal with. If you're looking to extend playback time on the 605, you'll need to invest another $49 for an Archos external battery pack that plugs into the bottom docking port.
Final thoughts
The Archos 605 WiFi is one of the most impressive portable video players we've seen all year and its low price tag makes it very hard to resist. You may end up spending another $100 or more on extra features and accessories, but 605's ability to take the sting out of road trips and air travel should make the investment all worthwhile. While many of us are waiting to see what Apple conjures up for the holidays, its doubtful that anything in the iPod family will include the 605's drag-and-drop hard drive support, wireless music and video rental, or DVR functionality.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Most Amazing Player on the Market.
I have owned and or used multiple mp3 players over the years (Creative, Archos, Irvier, Ipod, Sansa...) and I have ...
I have owned and or used multiple mp3 players over the years (Creative, Archos, Irvier, Ipod, Sansa...) and I have never been so pleased with a purchase. The Archos 605 has it all. I have owned the Archos 605 for a little over a week. Screen and UI: The screen quality is very high and is higher than what I have seen on any other player currently on the market. The screen shows amazing detail and the coating for the touch Screen is great because it decrease glare. The touch screen is very responsive and UI is simple through the touch screen and slight less easy through the buttons on the side but having both touch screen and side buttons seems to aid in navigation and makes this the easiest player I have ever used. Video: The videos are clean and clear. Amazing quality and since you are able to adjust videos to multiple sizes screen you are able to see videos in great quality. Also when you highlight a video in your browser the icon gives you a preview of your video which is a great little touch and the Archos 605 is filled with little extras like this. Music: The music interface is great and with the touch screen you get amazing search capabilities similar if not better that the ipod. The sound quality is good but I do wish the volume could be higher, but I also tend to play my music a little too loud anyways. Photos: The screen quality assists any displaying your pictures in the best possible way. Touch screen gives you an easy way to zoom in and out and to go from picture to picture. You can also save your pictures to the main screen and you can even zoom into a particular part of a picture and save that. You can play music during your slide shows which has multiple transition effects and you can download and save pictures from the internet (web browser plug-in needed). Content Portal: Archos comes with its own content portal which you do not need to purchase the web browser to connect to. The Content Portal gives you content where ever you can find wifi. You get cinema now which allows you to buy or rent movies, TV shows, music videos and Daily Motion which is like youtube and is free. And other providers are on the way. Wifi and Web: Connecting to your wifi is easy and you can also connect your network and stream music, video, and pictures to your player. The web is a fun and easy to use but you will have to buy a plug-in to utilize. The touch screen is easy to use, and the screen quality makes it very easy to read pages without zooming in, you can also double tap on any screen and enlarge a page. The pages load at a decent rate and you can view pages like youtube (that run on flash 7, future firmware upgrades will allow for higher levels of flash) and view the videos on full screen. The Web Browser is a plug-in so it will cost extra but I figure if I did not want a web browser and I had one I would dislike having to pay for one, especially when I could have saved the built in cost of 30 dollars. DVR: The DVR is easy to use like all Archos players to have owned. I purchased the travel adapter, so I just plugged in the AV into my TV and pressed recorded. Record quality is very high and process is very easy. The DVR function is great because you can copy anything on TV and take it with you on the go. But it should be known that the Travel DVR does not come with a charger.
Overall the Archos is the best PVP out now. Everything functions at a high level. Other bonuses are you can also connect the Archos as a Hard Drive (which I have always preferred) or allow Window Media to manage your files. The Archos can view PDF and while I do not buy music for I tunes the Archos can play AAC files and there is a plug in to play video podcast I may get in the future. I like the idea of buying plug-ins instead of having features I would not use but have to pay for. I would have preferred that the battery life was better but it is also not terrible. I have always dislike proprietary connections and that is a big minus in my book but since most players if this capacity have it now, I guess it is just the way thing must be. I would have also liked a built-in FM turner. I also hear the internet radio will be coming out later this year. I do not see how anyone can still be interested in other players that are in the PVP market - Apple (including the new touch), Creative, Cowon and all other challengers have a lot of catching up to do.
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by cjohnbrown (see profile) -
September 9, 2007
16 out of 17 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect The Best Bar None
I'd like to address all the misconceptions from other reviewers first. Yes it has a place for the styli ...
I'd like to address all the misconceptions from other reviewers first. Yes it has a place for the styli inside the protective case supplied with the unit. Yes it has Wifi you don't have to buy a antenna plugin for it. The plugin is for the opera web browser ($30.00) it is software not hardware. If it locks up like any other brand it has a reset button on the bottom. It does video out of the box (Avi) you only need the video plugin if you want to add mpeg2 playback. First thing you need to do after charging is download the newest firmware for the unit. Mine was three versions past. This alone makes a big difference in how the unit preforms. They seem to upgrade the operating system monthly with bug fixes and new features. They finally added the free Widgets today (calculator,currency converter,weather forcast,note writer,unit converter,news reader,data vault). The screen resolution is fantastic. With the browser plugin you can view web pages in full width without scrolling all the time. The letters are very small but there is no problem reading them in the resolution this incredible screen has. This PMP does so many things it is incredible. Without plugins you can stream any content in Windows media player (10 or 11) from any PC on your home network. I have the DVR Station (less than $70.00 on the internet) hooked to my Bose system and stream music to it. The little remote with full keyboard works 65 feet from the unit through a screened inclosure from my backyard and I can see all my music picks on my big screen TV. That's another thing, once you sync the unit with the music you have on WMP you have all the artwork but you have to set the Archos in WMP sync mode in settings. Too bad these people give the 605 a bad rating without reading the manual. It took me several days to learn all the things the 605 can do yet these ignorant people return it the next day not knowing what a great piece of hardware they have. To them I say buy a ipod and munch on a apple while you light up your next joint and leave the hi-tech toys for us.
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by Jay Halase (see profile) -
November 28, 2007
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Looks to be a Winner
The usual complaint is that Archos charges for everything. We'll guess what, if it all came free, this unit ...
The usual complaint is that Archos charges for everything. We'll guess what, if it all came free, this unit wouldn't cost an amazing $300. What they charge for is what Archos would have to pay other companies for, for example Opera for the web brower. And even with everything it still stands as a good value. How many other PVPs can stream YouTube videos directly, play HD video files, and surf the web with a touchscreen?
Aside from the new features, the 605 WiFi combines the basics of the 604 WiFi with the 800x480 resolution of the 704 and the large harddrive sizes of the 504 all while actually being smaller than all of them. So a few more months and I won't have to decide
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by JonTitor (see profile) -
June 26, 2007
1. It wont cost you 299 euros. Sooner or later you will have to ...
truth about archos 605 wifi 30g
1. It wont cost you 299 euros. Sooner or later you will have to buy: (a) a carrying case. archos provide a very well built leather case with a stylus slot for 24.99 euros + P&P (b) a charging station. charging archos through computer usb needs 8-10 hrs. Archos provides a charging a mini dock for 29.98 + P&P , but you will most probably go for the battery dock (which also offers an extra battery) for 49.98 euros. Both these "docks" cut the charging time in half (apprx 4hrs). Note that buying a 5 euro universal mains usb charger will also speed up charging time, based on my personal experience (c) web browsing plugin. you purchase this from archos for 29.98 (d) the so called "cinema plugin" to listen to ac3 encoded music (mainly useful if you have divx movies with ac3 sound). Archos obscurely states that cinema plugin plays DVD but it only plays VOB files. If you copy a dvd structure to your archos it wont recognize the dvd menus even with the cinema plugin installed. cinema plugin will cost you 19.99 euros (e) you will most probably need a pair of quality earphones. If you dont already own these , a pair of creative aurvana i personally use will cost another 100 euros (f) archos usb cable is not standard on the archos connection end. You get one special usb cable with archos but you will need most probably at least one more to keep it at your work. An extra cable costs 4.99 euros.
So archos will cost you 299(player)+49.98 ( battery dock)+4.99(extra usb cable)+ 29.88 (archos leather case)+P&P(apprx 15 euros)+29.98(web browsing plugin)+ 19.99 (cinema plugin)+ quality earphones(100euros)= 548,72 euros.
You can reduce this price to apprx 400 euros if you dont buy a battery dock but a universal mains usb charger, a non archos carrying case and cheaper earphones.
2. After you've spent something between 400 and 550 euros you will own a device that will :
(a) connect to any computer in your wireless network (even to your Network HDD) and copy, rename and delete files & directories (mass copy available). Archos 605 wifi supports wep, wap, wap2 security and is really fast and easy to connect. (b) browse internet at almost desktop quality due to the archos 800x480 resolution) (c) a non replaceable battery lasting somewhere between 3hrs ( net browsing, wifi enabled) to apprx 10 hrs (music listening with limited screen access). Charging the battery is annoying unless at least 5-10 euros are spent for a universal mains usb charger. Archos also states it offers battery replacing services but no charges and timeframes are specified. (d) an extremely quiet and rather fast HDD with a bit less than 30GB capacity (e) a bright 4.3inch 16million touchscreen with a 800x480 resolution (f) a very neat touchscreen user interface + side buttons to quickly operate the player while listening to music. (g) a device that needs no windows drivers/software to operate, can be configured as usb hdd, plays divx/xvid and mpeg/vcd avi files (+vob files with cinema plugin), displays photos with a acdsee pro style photo viewer with touchscreen functions for zooming and changin pictures , plays music with a multifunctional music file player which features 5band EQ, bass boost, playlist creation and album art and even displays PDF format files (which means that if you have free ebooks and can save them as pdf files you can read them using archos
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by the.gadgeteer (see profile) -
November 27, 2007
The optional stuf are ...
The screen is incredible. It's colorfull and bright and does 800x480 like no others pvp
The optional stuf are optional and it's great because you don't want or need everything and the player is then cheaper.
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by neothoms (see profile) -
August 31, 2007
2 out of 10 - Terrible buyers beware
I got this 9-22-2007 and returned it the next day and here is why...
out of the box, you won'...
I got this 9-22-2007 and returned it the next day and here is why...
out of the box, you won't find an AC Adapter. you have to BUY it separately.
they included a stylus but they did not include a slot to put it in the device? hello!? do i have to keep the stylus in my pocket? If there is a stylus, have a slot to put it in!
Now let's go to the software....
the browser... yes this device can surf the net if you BUY the freakin plugin. Don't know how much but isn't this supposed to be included in the $300 price?
It is a video player... yes when you BUY the freakin plugin. Again, this should be included in the freakin price.
records TV... yes when you BUY the dvr pack. this I understand should be a separate purchase.
at this point i am pretty much disappointed in this freakin product but wait... there's more...
I spent alot of time putting the album artwork in all my mp3s but this freakin device would only get the first artwork on the list and puts it on every freakin song.
after all this, i tried to make myself feel better by listening to the mp3s i just put in this freakin device. Guess what, It freakin freezes. not even holding down the freakin power button works.
So, after ending up not being able to use this freakin device at all aside from being a very expensive paper weight, i rushed to circuit city, returned it (still frozen) and got my cash back immediately.
This could have been THE PMP device for me if the plugins were included and i don't have to buy them.
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by HuskyDude (see profile) -
September 28, 2007
1 out of 10 - Abysmal Customer service seems unknown & my Archos doesnt work after a week!!
I bought my Archos in Germany and within a week started having problems. It wont charge properly and discharges within ...
I bought my Archos in Germany and within a week started having problems. It wont charge properly and discharges within 2 hours!! After spending ages speaking to the retailers and distributors on their website - most of whom dont deal with Archos any longer - I finally managed to get a contact number for support. I was advised that I should format the Archos as this would make it start charging properly?? Also it takes around 20 to 25 mins to transfer a 700mb file to the unit??
I sent it back to Archos after owning it for 2 weeks, 6 weeks I get the unit back - now the wifi doesnt work, it still wont charge and I think it may actually run out of battery quicker!!! It also been damaged - there are scratches on it and looks like its been carried about in someones pocket for the last few weeks. I've complained to the head office who have just completely ignored my complaint!!
I WOULD NEVER BUY ARCHOS AGAIN!!! tHE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS APPAULING AND WHILST THE PRODUCTS ARE VERY APPEALING AND TO BE FAIR WHEN THEY DO WORK ARE FANTASTIC! I JUST HATE BEEN TREATED AS AN INCONVIENCE BY THE COMPANY. ARCHOS IF YOU ARE READING THIS THEN EITHER PLEASE COME BACK TO ME OR I'M TAKING THE UNIT BACK AND I'D NEVER EVER BUY FROM YOU AGAIN!!
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by laserblues2 (see profile) -
November 27, 2007
3 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Absolutely stunning product - blows away iPod Touch
I got this as a gift - at first I was slightly miffed at the extra bucks spent on the ...
I got this as a gift - at first I was slightly miffed at the extra bucks spent on the browser (Opera) and other viewers and the lack of bluetooth support, but by the time I was done I could not believe what I had compared to my son's 16GB iPod Touch. While he's locked into dealing with iTunes and playing chess with synchronizations, I'm dragging-and-dropping...on my Mac, my work PC, my laptop. The thing basically says "plug me in, I'm ready". The side buttons are textured so that you get a quick feel for which-is-which, and the screen (and integrated keyboard) are big enough I rarely use a stylus (and I have huge hands!).
Three accessories were helpful - I found a combo cig-lighter/AC USB power source for the proprietary (and VERY sturdy) USB cable so I can charge it anywhere (FWIW AC is much faster than car or USB/computer); an eBay-listed inexpensive car mount that has both suction-cup and vent-mounting, with a rotating adapter for differently configured units - it even fits the 605 WITH the USB cable hooked up to charge (Ahem, of course one never has video running in the car...) and a two-pocket PSP case - one side for the unit, the other for earbuds, cables, charger/adapter and stylus.
The WIFI reception is amazing. The antenna is at least as good as my Compag laptop, which is the best of several I've owned. I got stuck in Las Vegas' airport for a few hours and instead of pouring quarters into the local coffers I plugged into a charging station and watched YouTube videos and a movie (note - if you have a Mac, get Handbrake and convert your movies using iPod low or high resolution. High looks a bit better, especially on a TV screen, but low is best for viewing just on the Archos as it takes up much less disc space).
I called service once with a tech question and got immediate and clear, friendly help. No issues at all.
The only question I have now is whether to sell this one and get one with an even bigger hard drive - 30GB is really fine for most of my music and rotating some movies/music videos, but with 80 or 160GB I could store a LOT of movies on it!
And if I leav it laying aroun the house, I find my son using it instead of his Touch. He's a die-hard iPod devotee, and I can't think of a better endorsement than that.
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by jsliff (see profile) -
January 25, 2008
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Fantastic player, I would give a 10/10 if it wasn't for the browser in option
Fantastic player, I would give a 10/10 if it wasn't for the browser in option but let's ...
Fantastic player, I would give a 10/10 if it wasn't for the browser in option but let's face it, cheaper than the internet tablet from NOKIA an so much better... Even the Ipod Touch is not as good. I heard people complaining that it wasn't sold with an AC adaptator... so are the Ipods, others saying that it was bad to pay for accessories, what company would give them for free?
The downside is the browser in option, but such a wonderful device at this price... just bare in mind that those few bobs are well worth it.
By the way, the opera widgets that can be used once the browser purchased give the ARCHOS 605 WIFI the following extensions:
Calendar, RSS feed reader, notebook, currency converter, adress book, weather forecast and more... a well worth 29 euros for those features.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Single Best Gadget Yet
This device has ridiculous potential. Its basically a handheld computer. You can play all media, read pdfs, surf the net, ...
This device has ridiculous potential. Its basically a handheld computer. You can play all media, read pdfs, surf the net, etc. It needs support for some more doc types like doc, xls, etc. It needs to be hacked to allow downloading of anything off the net. It needs a torrent client and support for web radio. Then, you gotta pc! This device is capable of PVP + more. As a PVP, its unbeatable. However, I really hope that the archos owner base grows and we can collaborate on getting the full potential out of this thing. One last note, skinning support should be added, and the buttons are useless. They should have ditched them to make the device shorter. The fact that the whole side of the device is not just a screen, but buttons and housing as well makes it look like something from 2003, not 2007 (equivalent to 1.5 decades in tech).
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by rsvirani (see profile) -
September 20, 2007
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