5 Responses to “Archos 5 500 GB Internet Tablet with Android”

1. Alan E. Moore Says:
   March 6th, 2010 at 3:22 pm

   I just received my new Android 5 500 GB Archos directly yesterday, and quite a beauty. I’m upgrading my old Archos 5 250 GB, which is my main point of comparison. I also have the following to compare with: 64GB iPod Touch, Archos 605 portable X, Samsung P2, and many other MP3 players, large and small.

   In given that my iPod Touch upgrade this year was less than surprising, I almost thought this update for Archos is also underestimated. Mainly, I just wanted the extra hard drive so I can save all my laptops on my music player. I was wrong! The new version of Android seems to have a whole new meaning to both form factor and the new software. I heard that Archos had problems with the software, but they seem to have ironed most of them as 1. 1 Press firmware. I update my firmware immediately, and the process is fairly smooth.

   I will note a player on my absolute scale. I will also take notes on the value of upgrading my old Archos 5. Note: I use most often present as a multimedia center to play music and video; secondarily as a backup drive.

   Let’s get to it then it is things I love about my nine Android:

   1) 500 GB – totally awesome amount of disk I can now put almost all digital file that I have on the Archos.
   2) Android interface – the overall feel of the software interface was significantly improved by incorporating Android. The effects are sharper, the aesthetic are cleaner, things seem to happen more quickly. I especially like how easy it is to access the song most recently read or video from the main screen appears with a little sticker that you tap and voila, resumes exactly where you left off!
   3) Apps – with Android we now have access to some serious selection app. Of course, no one compares to the Apple App Store, but this comes closest.
   4) Weight – this actually feels lighter to me than my 250GB.
   5 ) Dock / DVR – what right has arisen in my old 5 DVR and started playing immediately. I still think is the best DVR / player combinations available for all MP3 players.
   6) / Hi Def Video – actors that I owned, which has the best, most and better screen resolution.
   7) Portrait / Landscape – Archos has taken the iPhone trick of rotating the display based on orientation. I think they have an accelerometer is now, I do not know. However, his pleasure to see this feature on an Archos. Its much easier to navigate through playlists and portrait modes.
   easy and regular firmware updates – with a WiFi connection, the latest firmware are easily accessible from the apparatus itself. It’s the easiest I’ve seen all my players. One thing I learned about Archos over the years, they will put out a steady stream of updates of firmware.
   9) WMV / MTP mode – very smooth interface to Windows for two Monkey Media or Windows Media Player.
   10) dedicated volume button – power and volume buttons are conveniently located on the top edge. It’s actually much easier to use when it is anchored on the DVR (which is mine, which spends most of his life!).
   11) The sound quality is very good, sounds good my Klipsch speakers and seems to have more oomph than my other players.
   12) WiFi / Browser – a browser and a good WiFi connection worked well for me. I think the keyboard is better than the Touch, although the Safari browser is probably slightly higher. The larger screen also allows for navigation. Overall, I am inclined to give the Archos the forefront browsers.
   13) I just discovered Twidroid, one of many applications pre-loaded, allows me to check my Twitter in a format very nice – love it!
   14) Portability – well there is the portability as one would expect from a screen and hard drive of this size. This new design is smoother and rounder, and its a little more comfortable in a pocket. It is very easy to carry a handheld computer, fits nicely in my hand as I walk into the house to try all Android Apps! In any case, it’s not as portable as a Touch but I think its bad for a small computer – which is essentially what it is.
   15) No additional plug ins required (up ‘now!). Always in the past, I expected another $ 40 for additional plugins Archos to play music using iPods and other video formats. So far I have not had to do – thank you for Archos:)
   16) Archos will stand behind their product. I had to send some units Archos over the years and have always been happy to repair or replace the unit without quibble about this, as long as its under warranty. Note: it takes two weeks to get my unit back!
   17) Multi-threading: Now I show my engineer / geek side. This baby can do a lot of things at the same time, unlike the iPhone / Touch can really do one thing at a time. The Android can do other things while listening to music. I love the little bar on the roof as you can get down and move on to other tasks running.
   18) Built to stand, very nice feature.
   19 ) Stylus touchscreen friendly – sometimes you just get tired of trying to type a tactile keyboard with greasy fingers! In general, one of my favorite touch screens. Most touch screens, including the iPod / iPhone, are capacity which means pen does not work
   20) Micro USB cable plug-in: Finally a USB standard and you can make based on the stand all connected:)

   Since the Archos is the top class in several categories, and continues to be the best player 500GB 5-inch screen available, I give it a 4. 7 stars out of 5 (round 5). There are some things I’m less than happy:

   1) EXT3 external hard drive – if I understand correctly, Archos has changed format EXT3 hard drive for reasons of speed and reliability. The result for me is that I can do is select the drive in MSC mode, connect the Archos to a Windows machine and expect to access the drive. You must install a driver as Ext3 IFS EXT2 on your Windows PC. Once I did, I could access the hard drive and backup files to the contents of my heart.
   2) The playlist interface is not much of an update level of its kind and still awkward. I just want to tap my playlist and start playing. Often I do a couple of additional taps for the game thing.
   3) We’ve lost the play button and dedicated a removable battery while ago – but I still miss them both! None of my favorite players touch screen has one or more of these characteristics. He also lacks the brown color metal and the rear rubber.
   4) Find an instance of this baby is no easy trick. You will not find at the local Best Buy, I fear. In the past I used to order my Archos case of European companies like I-nique and Noreve. This is generally true of any player who is not an iPod or Zune.
   5) As always with Archos, you must remember that you’re dealing with a French company founded. This means they do not always provide the best support / service / upgrades for us Americans.
   6) Lets face it, Archos still playing catch up. Some new features are not fully functional yet. I have faith that Archos will fix all the little glitches with things like GPS to the next 6 months. The available applications are currently somewhat limited. I expect this will improve in the months ahead.
   7) Keep in mind that this is not a unit for the faint of heart. This is the amateur who wants to experience art that may take some messing around to be successful as you want. If you want something hard that requires minimal effort, then the iPod will be more your cup of tea.

   For me, it’s still the best player of his category – this category are large hard drive, large screen PMP player features fun. Android made some opportunities for fun, and I am generally impressed by this as an upgrade. Again, if you do not see a small screen and you like Apps I suggest you have an iPod Touch. If you love the most is the sound quality you may want a Walkman X. To me what are your top 3 players with touch screen, it just depends on what you most.

   Note: 10-23-2009, I updated the firmware version 1. 2. 03 which fixes some App, browser issues and YouTube. Apps seem happier now, a process upgrade was very smooth. Always listen happily on air for about 8 hours per day without any problems:)

   11-7-2009 Update: I’ve been running version 1. 2. 15 with multiple bug fixes and the device seems generally more stable now. Wifi works best in USB connection seems more reliable.

   Update 11-23-2009: Upgrading firmware v 1. 3. 07 – a long list of bug fixes including a number of improvements that I had hoped to control the analysis of multimedia files / ARCLibrary. You have an update AppsLib that seems to work more reliably. There seems to be many more applications available now (300 ISH) in AppsLib. Keeps getting better and better! Still plays music festival after day without any problems and I’m backing up 2 laptops worth of files on my 5 IT.

   Updated 12-18-2009 : I was on firmware 1. 4. 16 for over a week now. Lots of little adjustments, seems more stable now.

   2-11-2010 Update: Firmware 1. 7. 33 (Android Donut) upgrade. The upgrade was a bit of work, I ended up reformatting the drive and start again. However, energy conservation seems to work better and I did not see himself cleared for some time now. This seems to be the strongest version yet!
   Rating: 5 / 5

2. Mezo Says:
   March 6th, 2010 at 6:00 pm

   This is a great device with an interface of some problems and bugs. im not going to write a thesis on this topic, so ill just boil. just to let you know, Ive already owned an archos 604wifi and an Archos AV420.

   pros:
   – the interface is very smooth, it takes some getting used to but once you do it very well! its much more stringent than any Apple product in how the interface works seamlessly through the whole experience despite what application you use.

   – set up is very simple, streaming radio on the web or, Pandora, or my home network (all via wifi) was incredible. doesn’t surprise the battery life seemed terrible either. i havent done any testing yet painful, but I used the device continuously last night streaming radio on the web via wifi, connect to Bluetooth devices, and with the active screen and while I was browsing the bit of a net (looking through applications to be added) for 2 or 3 hours straight last night, and seemed to use 1 / 3 of the battery.

   – more intelligent than his previous releases, letting me know why i have some files wont play on this during the transfer process. he proposed to leave me again through the copy for storage, but said i wouldnt be able to play with the device. Previously, she copy, let me add to the playlist then lease out to read whenever he came across, which was very annoying because I tend to make great playlists and shuffle use .

   – built-in FM transmitter! FINALLY! ive been waiting to put this in (or at least attached to) the device themselves for a long time – basically since I bought the FM receiver for AV420 / think / it was a transmitter. Havent unfortunately I understood how to get this working right, but I havent had much time to play with her in the car (thats my after-work project today).

   i havent had the chance to play with the GPS yet, but all in acting like that is an excellent idea, I hope its well executed (I havent yet heard good things about TeleAtlas).

   disadvantages:
   – its much thicker than it appears on the web – probably dictated by the hard disk size, but its basically as thick as my 604wifi. Image web was very misleading, I expected something much thinner.

   i dont get why all applications use the accelerometer to change orientation, but the home menu? seems like a silly oversight.

   – it seems a little lag, and hung a few times, so that Ive Had to force restart it. im really hoping they for a system update to fix this problem of stability.

   – boxes of text entry are a little weird, you can not easily click and drag to highlight blocks of text to delete or modify. hoping that an update fixes this system.

   – im pretty good with tech toys, but I have not been able to get this thing “home” my phone yet. it seems to pair the phone but my phone says there are no services available on the Archos that his interest in that it never “connects”. not sure whats going on here.
   /> –
   

   – Booting up seems unwilling to be better than it was on the 604 (which has been deteriorating significantly longer than the 420 had been). However, it has a “standby” mode that seems to use no battery life and starts a few seconds. not sure if this is really a problem because they seem to have a solution which is great, which explains why the last.

   Abstract:
   excellent camera, some bugs but very small and easy to forget this day, and they should be easily corrected (hopefully soon). Im REALLY excited for this product and hope to see Archos throwing his ongoing support behind her.

   Sorry, I think it was much longer than I hoped or expected.
   Rating: 4 / 5

3. Pamela K. Gitta Says:
   March 6th, 2010 at 7:04 pm

   It is a sure fire way you can guarantee to reduce your technology options, and is irresponsibly slam anything that is not an Apple product. There are companies out there (like Archos), trying to give you options. It is not easy to do. It takes a lot of money, and inevitably there will be hiccups and bugs. But people are so spoiled and impatient these days they are willing to sell their soul to one company for a few pieces of crack MAC. Their loss.

   Now, the Archos: I bought the Archos 5 initial few weeks ago, and while I find this fascinating device, the fact that used a hard drive (250 GB) of storage, and disturbing fact clicks and pops from time to time, made me paranoid enough to return and order of the Flash Memory 32GB version Android instead. Also, the Opera browser on the older units are often reset while surfing without any apparent reason. But it did not work, and in full screen mode. . . I could not play my videos on my Itouch computer that my wife could not. . . well, touch. He has done everything, just not as good. In fact, use it as a book reader was almost a joke. The biggest shortfall was the way the policies were made in each application. They just looked cruddy compared to the iPod Touch.

   Well, I scoured the reviews across the web to see if I could find a comparison between the old Archos and new from someone who owned both. I could not really, and what little I can find in the comparison is very similar, “The Android news is OK, but not so different from the first version by the end

   ; Now I know there are those like me out there who want to know if the update is worth it.

   Listen up. It’s like jumping from a Yugo to a Cadillac. This device rocks! If I were to rate the original, I give it a “3″. . . it receives an “8″

   The web browsing is probably the most shocking. I have never seen a full sized computer load and display Web pages faster. The record is magnificent. Ever bit as crisp and beautiful as the iPod. All in full screen Spender! The scroll is not as smooth as the iPod, Archos, but is almost there. The volume of additional property is nothing else.

   Bottom line: Archos has introduced the web browser of light-years ahead of the previous model.
   ;
   the media (video, music, photos) are virtually unchanged and for good reason: they were very good as they were.

   Bottom Line: Media experience is the same as it was. Music Player Nice, nice photo viewer, and by far the most impressive video playback, no, not Apple, not Microsoft, that nobody can match.

   Touch Screen: Many people seem to have many complaints on the resistive touch screen. Yes, it takes a bit more pressure than the screen capacity of the iPod, but I know people who have complained about these screens get less sensitive over time. The Archos screen is fine after you learn to use it (and indeed even before) Women love it because it works particularly well and is perfectly suited to using a nail where capcitive May does not work as well through this method.

   Applications: Here Archos with Android is I guarantee Apple makes very nervous. Are they still there? Are they quickly gained? You bet. Every day more applications appear.

   Bottom line: There’s a new kid in town. A bigger, more beautiful, and soon to be better all around, kid.

   Other features like FM receiver (Pod do not got it) FM Transmitter (Pod gift ‘t got it) GPS! (guess what? Pod not got it) and I could go on and on about what my wife’s iPod cannot do that the Archos can.

   Darn, but it freezes time time, or perhaps a screen freezes from time to time. Get the torches! Burn them out! Archos must die! We demand perfection!

   If I had a Nickle for every time each of you computer people hanged or stoned or what not. Why do not you throw in the trash? Huh?

   I am not in love with Archos, I do not hate Apple. The iTouch is a very smart machine that does what it does almost as well as it can be done. But not without her faults. You have not really, not Apple. Why not view it as a hard drive? Why do I have their software on my computer to use? Why have they banned Flash? Why do they mess with your legally purchased music and lock it down like it’s in Fort Knox?

   I feel like Archos sold me their equipment and making the property and signed me. They do not limit what I can do with it. They do not tell me to load anything on my computer to use. They offer a device far more versatile. Yes, with this kind of versatility and complexity there are bound to be snags. They work on them.

   Archos 5 is the base oil.

   Archos 5 Android is the real deal.
   ;
   Rating: 4 / 5

4. Sean Pasell Says:
   March 6th, 2010 at 9:03 pm

   I must say that I went against my stomach when buying this product because it looked really nice, really, I wanted to watch movies, listen to music and control the Internet quickly when I’m on the run in airports.

   Part film very well. For this, I give this device 5 STARS. . . I actually downloaded movies on my Amazon Unbox, and then connect the Archos and bam, instantly my new Archos 5 (well, after the downloaded movie on my Unbox in 1. 5 hours).
   < br /> The music also works perfectly. No real hiccups here and the sound was good but could be better. To this I would give it 4 stars. . .

   SO FAR SO GOOD RIGHT?

   WRONG

   First, I I had to reset the unit 5 times in 2 days because it just froze. I would be more error messages when I connected to the Internet, dropping the connection frequently (and yes, I’m clever enough to do the job). Terrible terrible TERRIBLE.

   And I do not understand how a simple download or patch will fix this problem. If this does not work outside the box, DO NOT Ship It! I read that, apparently, Archos is slammed with things like that after only one week.

   For this, it gets 1 star and should get ZERO stars!
   
   Then the Appslib has never been installed on this device. I called customer service, spoke to someone in 5 minutes, then put me on hold for 45 minutes! After 45 minutes (I am still waiting too long because I watched NFL game if I had nothing else to participate effectively at the time), the phone rang for 10 minutes more, then the line was cut. PATHETIC!

   I read that actually added some software update could be the reason for the Appslib ever to appear, and if you look on the Amazon site, they have drawn the 160GB version.

   For this, I give NEGATIVE STARS. . . Service terrible, terrible as this device is preloaded as advertised.

   I send it back and will use my Toshiba netbook to watch movies on the plane rides to the moment. I’m really disappointed. The device itself was really nice and sleek looking. The interface was nice.

   The resistant keyboard was kind of boring because it took a very good finger press for him to answer, but I worked fairly well . I learned to type fairly well on this in 2 days.

   I’m bored!

   I bought but ZuneHD the screen is too small for movies and iPod touch. .

   I’m now considering the Viliv EX70 as I’ve heard great things and it got favorable reviews.

   J I read the story, but Archos has willed that this device works. . . The Android platform has great potential, and touches on just about anything Google works as advertised.

   Now I’ll have to shop a little.
   < ; br /> I can tell you one thing. . . unless people start to give this device out 4-5 when the bugs are not, I’ll never buy another thing from this company.

   EDIT FOR EXAMINATION:

   I downloaded an update new firmware and the device is no longer needed to be reset constantly. He did not stay longer and seems a little more sharp and responsive. I’ll hold on to it for now and see how it unfolds over the next 3 weeks. I actually flew to CA for a sales meeting next week and if it will be well tested. If I find it needs some more debugging it will come up and I’ll also update again.

   I have 2 movies that I have load from Unbox. Wolverine and The Dark Knight. . . Both look very good, although I’d like to get their hands on an HD version of these films to push the device.

   I am nervous, however, d ‘ buy the HD plug-in because I read somewhere that this does not or did not read that you bought.

   One last thing:
   
   I also read just now that the Viliv you can actually run Windows 7. It has a camera, and if this happens, you can take pictures and ink, then on them than I do when I’m on construction sites to take pictures and marking of buildings and plans. This seems practical for me. However, it is expensive (about $ 800 – $ 900) and this feature would be nice if these bugs go away.

   I also do NOT GET THE 32GB model 160GB LA. The 32GB SSD works and it is very catchy. It is also half the weight and thin.

   I’d say it’s as thin as the iPhone for my wife and as heavy as holding a large Starbucks coffee . It is light and thin.

   I have not tried the GPS, but in terms of downloading from the disk provided for the 7-day trial out of it . I want this to work. A lot of potential when the form of 3D maps are available for the United States in Q2 2010.

   WARNING, no matter how much you want something. . . ATTENTION

   UPDATE # 2: Done with it. She will return. I did update the firmware and it did nothing to help this machine. At first it seemed that the system runs faster, but then it froze up 2 times. Also, I tried to install the GPS 7 days trial using the disc and the machine froze again. Sorry, but I can not believe that these people would be let go in the door knowing that he has issues. How on earth can we know? If marks everyone here, but someone gave this rather poor, they are using only fully functional and fully tested devices?

   Literally, look at the reviews and you see what I mean. It’s amazing to me that the company would be. Yes, large companies have devices that periodically returned defective. But at the pace that these people get are complaints, you might wonder how this could continue for the period of time available.

   So Archos will never be one tenth of dollar from me, unless of course they come with a brick, not as fully functional device that people are angry about. I think my next device will be a Viliv. I read review after review of these devices and they are almost all positive. The machines perform the way they were supposed to, unlike this one.

   And it’s too bad. . . This is a good example and feels device. The screen is nice, it feels really easy to use in the hand. . . It is a shame that it does not work.
   Rating: 2 / 5

5. Eric Laffoon Says:
   March 6th, 2010 at 10:39 pm

   This is my third Archos. I had an iRiver that was only Nice until I saw the Archos 605 WiFi. As beautiful as this one was, I saw the Archos 5 into a new coast to coast restart your video, playing a video and loading a Web page. There has been much better if I bought it and I loved it. When I saw it I did not wait to get it. Mine arrived 1 week ago as I write this. I sold my 605 because my wife did not. I keep the old 5 because it sells not bother when I can use it as a second unit. My wife does not either, but she wants one of them! I’ll compare to the previous version, but I want to present what I think shines and also meet some clueless posts here.

   Firstly there is no other device like this anywhere. My PC has an Athlon 64 Quad processor with 8 GB of RAM running 64-bit Linux. Loads Internet pages Archos in most cases faster than my PC! In looking at a Zune? The Archos 800×480 a 2. 94 times as many pixels as the Zune of 480×272, but only half the story because the 4. 8-inch screen is twice the pixel density of 3. 3 on the Zune. Do not even talking about iPods. My BlackBerry 8900 has more pixels. Pop up a video and marvel at a screen so good you’ll forget you’re looking at a handheld device. I have my old unit in the dock to watch television, but I prefer it in hand. (My oldest is 250 GB and bulky) The browser that renders pages unit rightly former undertaker up to 800 pixels and with continuous zoom and column smart management is easier to read .

   someone said it weighs like a PSP? Bzzt! Wrong Again. I showed mine and a guy with a PSP and he held them both and asked me to verify that its PSP weighed twice. He said it seemed suddenly like a brick. When I told him I did not have to transcode the videos to play and he could MKV was blown away. Here’s a tip. Forget that there are some bugs and come out in public with this device. Everyone who saw it began to ask questions and all my friends were very jealous, even after I had to restart in front of one of them. Battery life is also excellent as after a few charges, I managed to use all day on this game with her. In addition to that wifi is so good that I get at least 10% -20 range on my mobile hot spot that I do with my Blackberry or my old Archos 5. I also got 7 satellites locked in the middle of my house, using the free YGPS Android software I downloaded.

   The really cool part that attracted me to this Integration was Android. There are some caveats. Android is still relatively new but rapidly growing and includes the Media Center with a layer of a camera phone that does not have a phone is an extremely ambitious project. . . And let’s be clear. Nobody else is even close to that! However, there are programs Android that need work, that is not primarily a problem of Archos. When something crashes it pops up a dialog asking if you want to kill him or let him try to recover a little longer. A frustration is some programs are not offered on the AppsLib need a bar code reader photo to download and appear to behave as if they are not sure what the device is, but I think that to improve so that it is gaining popularity and get more interaction.

   One thing that people complain is that the browser does not have Flash. Uh, yeah. . . Show me a PMP that does Flash. That is the latest generation of Archos. Now try to view Flash 10. Right, does not work. Therefore a group of associated companies together on the Open Screen Project with Adobe. Guess what. Adobe and Google hopes to battle so far but it is just in beta. Wow! We need software! Being as I develop software that I know things taking longer than you expect. However, the TI chip in this unit has been specially designed to be able to make shorter work of Flash 10. The Webkit browser is better than the Opera browser in the last unit and the unit will still flash, but not integrated into the browser. Since the new software should be ready in 2-3 months you can hardly blame Archos not to invest significant efforts to Hack Flash 9 in the browser.

   I am not surprised by this unit is less than perfect. Some of the flames to Archos is really infantile. They are a small growing company. Companies without financial weight less than Microsoft are notorious for releasing software that has many features promised removed, can not run lots of software from previous releases and ships with PC companies with dozens of pages of known bugs. All this while far fewer internal changes than promised. This unit is a huge leap. I’ve had mine for a week. It was frozen on me a few times. It depends on what I do. Some things he crashed more easily. It would be nice if it were more fully debugged, but have released software that I think no matter how I tested customers have found the bugs I have not. Early adopters of bleeding edge hardware using custom software will experience higher than usual bugs. Get over it! One day you flip it on and it loads an updated firmware and is very happy. And for the guy who said he had no wifi. . . go [. . . ] Man! You can download the upgrade and install it manually, but this is less satisfactory for web browsing.

   All the previous unit this one n ‘ has not done better, but Flash video play, but has not been as good for browsing the web as they promised. . . which never move away from being great as a media player on HDTV and an excellent Web browsing with the platform. Would I want to have this unit now or wait until finishing Adobe Flash for Android and smooth Archos more bugs? Hell yes I want it now! I see the work attachment, flash and other things, and I am sure I will soon.

   There is a madness that prevails today that People at the discount of [. . . ] Gold coin with a small scratch on it, will exchange it for a brand new quarter and imagine they have achieved victory by the empirical acquisition of products of inferior quality products than imperfect. If you love to complain so that you can not enjoy an imperfect world to have someone to buy for Christmas. In this way, they have only a few weeks before you complain Adobe allows you to watch Hulu. . . that looks like shit on a Zune, and nothing at all on an iPhone. There’s nothing like an Archos. If I have to reboot the thing once every few hours for a unit that is 97% perfect months before is faultless these months are money well spent in exploration happy to handheld the most impressive yet .
   Rating: 5 / 5

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