Design Archos is promoting the Archos 5as a Wi-Fi Internet tablet, but its chromed plastic enclosure and 5-inch touch screen look more like a luxury GPS unit. In fact, for an extra $129 you actually can use the Archos 5 as a relatively sophisticated in-car GPS system. Unlike its predecessor, the 605 WiFi, the Archos 5 is controlled almost entirely by its touch screen, with the exception of a power button and volume rocker on the top edge of the device. A 3.5mm headphone output is located midway up on the left edge, making the gadget more awkward to hold than the 605 WiFi. Thankfully, a built-in kickstand folds out from the back of the Archos 5 for hands-free viewing.
The Archos 5 measures 5 inches wide, 3 inches tall, and 0.5 inch thick (or 0.75 inch thick for the 120GB and 250GB versions), making it not much bigger than the 605 WiFi. Despite its similar size, Archos was able to squeeze an extra half-inch of screen onto the Archos 5 by removing the redundant physical controls found on the company’s previous players and placing the integrated speaker on the right edge of the device instead of the front.
Features
The Archos 5 has plenty of features to brag about, including music and video playback, a photo viewer, Opera Web browser, Flash 9 video and game support, a PDF reader, e-mail support, and an integrated video download store. You also get optional support for digital video recording and output through the latest Archos DVR Station, and support for 3G and 3.5G HSDPA wireless connections through the use of USB modem dongles offered by your mobile carrier.
Despite the manufacturer’s protest that Archos 5 shouldn’t be categorized as a mere portable video player, video playback is the Archos 5’s strongest feature. Out of the box, the Archos 5 offers support for AVI, WMV, MPEG4, and Flash video content with no transcoding necessary for videos sized at or below 640×480. Although Archos makes no mention of it, we were happy to see that DRM-protected WMV videos from Amazon’s Video On-Demand service played on the Archos 5 with no problem. For an extra $20, you can outfit the Archos 5 with a high-definition software plug-in to enable 720p video playback from WMV HD, MPEG4, or MPEG-2 files (including VOB and DivX formats). To play h.264 videos, you’ll need to throw another $20 at the Archos 5 for a Podcast media plug-in, which also enables AAC audio playback.
The Archos 5 is clearly more than a portable video player, but it is no more deserving of the Internet Media Tablet moniker than Apple’s iPod Touch. Like the Safari Web browser used on the iPod Touch or iPhone, the Opera Web browser included on the Archos 5 provides an above-average mobile Internet experience, but there are some blind spots. Because the Flash 9 support on the Archos 5 exists outside of the Opera Web browser as an independent application, many Web sites and services are incompatible. During our tests, we found that simple Flash video sites such as YouTube worked fine, while sites such as Hulu, CNET TV, ABC, and Comedy Central, stalled the browser or played only the preroll advertising associated with the video.
An e-mail application is also included with the Archos 5, however, at the time of this review the e-mail program launches with a disclaimer that it is still in beta development.
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