It also doesn’t have a search facility, so you have to manually browse the library, which takes for-f’n-ever.

My 605 has also been back to Archos for repair, as it crashed and went white screen, i tried countless times to re-install the firmware, to no avail. Archos eventually deduced that the HDD was damaged, the repair only took 6 weeks.[Note, you will also need an original receipt, or Archos will charge you for repair]

The Internet can be like waiting for a dial up connection, especially when using hotmail, facebook or youtube (youtube: i can’t even be bothered with, i can find an internet phone box quicker, or get a p33 outta the store, figure out networking and still watch a youtube video before the 605 has even thought about loading that flash screen)

The battery lasts around 5hours when playing music, i’ve a battery dock, so i get a good 9hours play with both the dock and internal battery.

Creating a playlist is extremly complicated, Archos really need to take a look at this aspect. There is no ‘now playing list’ so you have to use a playlist to cue music (very annoying). You can however cue 1 track, which is pointless.

You don’t have multiple file select, so when deleting stuff you either delete a folder or individual tracks. This lack of multiple file select causes nightmares when making playlists.

There is no ‘now playing list’ – Most infuriating, you can only see the previous song and the next song.

Archos have not released a full size keyborad, although the screen is crystal clear, trying to type more than 3 words a minute is impossible, as the latency between pressing the key and the device updating the screen with the character is immense.

On the plus side, it looks great, the touchscreen is very responsive and clear. Movie playback is crystal clear (rip pending), and it’s intuitive to use.

The photo album is an absolute dream, the speed at which this operates is incredible, you can rotate a 3mb pic in 0.3 sec. The only drawback to the album is deleting photos, you can’t delete the photo you are looking at, you have to go back one menu level, then delete it. Also, if you are listening to music and want to delete something, the music is stopped.

The DVR station is awesome, i’ve used many a HDDR unit, and this is simply the best. Unfortunately i didn’t buy the Archos for it’s recording capabilities, i bought it as an MP3 player.

So my advice to anyone wanting to purchase a PMP is go and play with the different brands, see which one suits you.

If your serious about music, don’t waste your time with Archos, get an iPod (if your worried about itunes don’t be, just download media monkey, it’s about the only player that can handle 250k songs seamlessly, and interfaces perfectly with iPod). If you can’t live without mega (lol – my music collection is 2.8tb) storage and wireless Internet then the Archos + all it’s shortfalls is the beast for you.

i hope that acrhos release the souce code soon, ad i’ve huge re-work plans for the 605.

Hope this helps some people.

Bobadigilatis

conclusion = nice but not very useful

No, you will not be able to use Exchange. You can’t install additional software on the device to support this either. It has a web browser, so you can use web mail clients, but that’s it.

As far as the iPod Touch is concerned, it’s email support is very specific – IMAP over SSL only – so by default, you still wouldn’t be able to use Exchange, unless your mail server has IMAP support installed/enabled. Most mail access via the internet is still POP3 for both corporate and personal accounts. Once again – web mail might be your most likely option.

I can’t seem to find this answer on the Archos site.

The 605 has an impressive screen resolution, and an (relatively) efficient web browsing feature.
On the 604 the web browsing feature is mostly a gadget, and the screen quality is quite basic.

The 605 offers you the ability to stream the files located on your PC to play them directly on your Archos (or on your TV thanks to a dock or the DVR Station)

The dock isn’t very smart at all. It can act as a pass through so that the Archos doesn’t need to be plugged in as your using it.

Other than that, it’s one source recording at a time and the Archos needs to be in the dock to record something. If you’re watching the Archos, you can’t record on to it.

The TV guide is for now free and comes with a one year subscription. I’m not sure what happens after that first year as there’s currently no charge.

In short, can it replace my Replay DVR?

Also, is there any cost to receive the TV programming guide?

I’m curious at knowing where you got that piece of information, but I’m 99.9% sure you misunderstood something rather than really hearing that, like (e.g.) the fact that the newly released Free Widgets Plugin does not require the Web Browser plugin to work, contrary to what was originally said.

But if you have a really reliable source, we’d be glad to get more info about that.

See you soon on Archosloung.net!