24/48 hours after receiving my Archos 5 Android (A review by Mark Perrin)

Review Date 8/10/2009  Firmware 1.2.03

24 Hours after receiving My Archos Android.
Hiya, some of you may remember about 9 months ago i purchased an archos 7, I eventually ended up selling it to a forum member as i was disappointed with its performance, both as a media player and as an internet tablet and found it inferior imo to my iphone for everyday use. So here i am back again with a new toy, i was once bitten by Archos and it took me a week to decide if i should potentially let this happen again but on an impulse decision and as i am curious to play with android i thought id place my order. I ordered from Archos.com and the unit took 2 days to be delivered by TNT, so far so good.

When the unit arrived it was well packed and shrink wrapped in a plastic cling wrap. However when i powered the unit on for the first time and activated it, there were no 3rd party applications installed incl the Appslib. This was a real disappointment as i was looking forward to setting up my instant messengering etc on the device. I set up my mobile me email very easily using the bundled email app and this seems to work very well and also looks nice too. I downloaded the Appslib from the Appslib website directly to my computer and installed it on the device. The content of the Appslib seems good at first glance however ive not found much worthwhile to download, maybe i was expecting more as an iphone user but i know its early days so ill give that a chance. I hope archos add the Android marketplace as i dont see anywhere to purchase paid apps for the device at this time. I have downloaded Last FM for the device and the experience is far superior to the Ipod touch/Iphone mainly due to the larger screen. The keyboard could and should be improved to make typing faster, its not as easy to type on as an iphone keyboard but this should be an easy fix for archos if they are inclined to improve it. I think they should as the device does not have a physical keyboard so the overall experience of the unit will be influenced by the keyboard responsiveness. It works, just doesn't have the natural feel when typing that the iphone does. neither are perfect but apple made the best of not having a keyboard imo. Theres no mention on the Archos website but it does have an inbuilt accelerometer, this works really well and is more responsive overall than the iphone. In portrait view the archos really shines, the extra screen size is far more noticeable than i was expecting and would be great for viewing webpages and as an e reader etc. This is better than the iphone.

The device connected onto my 802.11n network very quickly and browsing the net seems very good, however it would be nice to be able to zoom on parts of the page with a double tap like on the iphone, i miss that functionality. The magnifying glass feature seems a bit useless too imho however the normal zoom in and out functions work ok. The screen isn't as responsive as an iphone and takes a little getting used to as its resistive but after a while its certainly bearable. I do feel that people who have previewed this unit maybe got a little over enthusiastic about the touch screen responsivness, its not perfect by any stretch but like i said, its more than useable. The size of the screen is absolutely right, its not too big but not too small and the image quality is excellent. I have noticed many bugs in the software of the device but i understand this is early days, one thats so far annoying me is that pictures are not sorted by date correctly every time and it would be nice if the thumbnails were cached to speed up access and improve the overall experience. Im waiting for my music to sync right now so i will report on that later, i have some ultimate ears buds so i will let you know how good the sound quality is from an audiophile point of view.

I have found out that there are some limitations to MKV format videos, mine dont seem to be supported and i was prompted to install the HD plugin from the device so i did it without question, however it still did not work and has given me an error message. Hopefully this will be worked on by archos but i wont hold my breath. Still waiting to try out the GPS and have noticed that Archos do not list the GPS holder yet on their site, thats a bit annoying as its a great impulse purchase and i would like to test this out.

The manuals in the box are not great and are simply a get you started guide. Not tested the headphones but they look naff.

So far what do i think. Well im not selling it just yet, im having fun playing with the device and it certainly shows some promise. If they fix the bugs and sort out the MKV videos ill be made up, although, i paid for that feature to work so i do feel a little short changed. Is it better than my iphone. NO WAY, but ill tell you what, its not far off and with some effort on their part they could have a fantastic little unit. Im really excited by this device and anyone wondering if they should give one a try my advice is this, if you need something you can rely on, buy an iphone or ipod touch, if you already have them and have the money, buy it, its fab. If its one or the other still buy the apple, but ill be changing my mind if the bugs are ironed out.

Longterm, Apple support their devices for 3 years approx. with software updates etc, however Archos rarely over 12 months, i hope this time its different.

Id also like to add that Archos do not officially support running this device on OSX however i have found a paid program that will enable OSX to run it as a Disk drive, here is the link. http://www.paragon-software.com/home/extfs-mac/ there is also another method that has just been added that is apparently free to use.

Update 12:30, ive just tried out the supplied archos headphones with my iphone as my music is still being put onto my Archos and i have to say they are devastatingly bad. They have a peculiar fit on the ear and felt like they would just fall straight out if i tried using them whilst exercising. As for the sound quality, they are complete dross. awful, no bass, tinny and just not worth bothering with. Id bin them straight away and spend about £50 on a good pair. The ultimate ears i will be testing the archos with later cost £200 so hopefully we will find out if the Archos produces good results.

Update 13:45 Man it takes a long time to transfer 25GB of music via USB. will have taken 8 hours by the time it finishes.

Update 7:00PM 09/10/09 Tried the Archos through my ultimate ears buds last night and to be honest, i think the sound quality is about average (not quite as good as a Cowon), i dont think that i will be complaining about the music side of this player, however after playing with the music player for a few mins the device crashed a number of times, this is getting frustrating.

The crashes im experiencing fall in line with the ones ive seen on UMPC portals review, the screen sometimes just goes off but refuses to come back on without a full reset, also quite often just becomes totally unresponsive and a spinning circle comes on the screen indicating its thinking. Im also getting frequent SD card errors, SD card removed (when it wasn't) often requiring reformatting of the SD card in the player. So far, not too good. I have also noticed some browser crashes. I have had some problems with the device just loosing info temporarily, e.g. i selected internet radio and the device said nothing found, same with web Tv however after a reset the data was found and worked ok, very sporadic. This unit is definitely less stable than my iphone, that can go for many days without problems. I have also noticed that the browser scores 93/100 on the acid3 test, thats actually very good although could be better considering its Webkit based. Browsing is very fast and most pages display correctly, however Autotrader.co.uk does not work correctly. I will update this review periodically to give any potential purchasers a good idea what this unit is like.

Update 11/09/09 Internet browsing whilst the unit is capable of displaying sites very well, the overall experience does fall short of the iphone, i do think Archos and google should work on improving the interface and general browsing experience, it just seems easier and smoother to navigate and browse on my phone. Again, this should get better in time.