Customer Reviews:
 Would not buy it again! November 6, 2008
The unit comes incomplete - in order to use the webbrowser or to watch podcasts or mpeg-based video you need to buy plugins. In order to charge it reasonably fast, you need to buy a separate power-supply for it. They say you can record tv with it? Yes, but you need to buy a seperate module. Can you placeshift tv with it? Yes, but you need to buy a plugin for that.
The webbrowser is painfully slow and often incompatible. Browsing the web on such a small screen is nothing you will want to do oftenly.
The unit crashes and reboots every now and then when surfing the net or when watching video.
The wlan-antenna in it seems to work poorly - it has problems picking up networks in the same room.
The unit is - for its size - really heavy - you don't want to hold it in your hand while watching video on it.
Ok, this is a disappointment. But: I now use an eee-pc as a personal video player and to check my emails away from home and to surf the net and to use skype with a camera on it. On the eee, i didn't have to spend a single extra $ on plugins, software or hardware - the eee-battery lasts much longer, the eee-screen is big enough to actually enjoy a video, and the eee is still very portable.
 These devices should cost a lot more money..... October 30, 2008
I have been dying to leave a review on these products so here goes....
First of all, I'm not going to list what I feel as far as pro's and con's because I have mixed feelings about the unit altogether, thus the 3 star rating. I gave it the 3 stars because, even though I feel it is a very nice unit, Archos should have it listed for a lot more money and therefor include everything it is able to do already on the unit without having to pay more to download the software later! I think this is sad for Archos to do. I previously owned the AV500 (100gb) which also was a nice unit until the battery swelled and killed the operation of the hard drive. After reading some of the comments, after it is too late, I found out this is common with these types of batteries as I have noticed, is not the case on the 605 WiFi. I have since replaced the exact model of hard drive and battery on my Archos AV500 but to no avail because it refuses to recognize the new hard drive. Does anyone have any info on how to do this? Anyway...
Speaking of the battery, I have never known any battery on any unit I have ever owned be it a laptop or media player to last longer than 2-3 hours max. I have never played a unit longer than to watch one movie or listen to about an hour or so of music and to me, the battery meter on those units still showed at least half left. So, to you people that complain about the battery power, please don't expect miracles until you own more units to compare it with. Anything with a full color LCD display of 4 inches or larger is going to be a battery power hog and you better get used to it. Also, don't expect these batteries to recharge in just an hour or so. They always need at least 6-8 hours to get full long lasting power out of them. Then, if you know these batteries like I do, you should use the units until you have next to no power remaining before you recharge them....always! If you don't, your battery will fail after time! If you also leave any unit, weather it be a cordless phone or anything with rechargeable batteries installed, if you leave it for a long time on the charger without ever removing it to use, or only using it for a short time and then replacing back on the charger, the BATTERY WILL FAIL!!!
It took me a long time to decide which unit to buy between the 605 and 705. From the reviews I read, the reviews for the 605 were more positive but then, there were more of them to judge. The 705 description seemed to read it came with more "stuff" in the box instead of having to purchase it later as with the 605. I guess I could say that I was lucky the power charger adapter for my 500 died shortly after I got it because along with buying a new hard drive and battery for it, I also puchased the docking adapter kit for the 605, 705..etc, because I needed the new adapter which worked fine for the 500 and now I have an extra adapter plus the mini dock to go with the 605. I now strongly wished I would've just purchased the Archos TV for under $100 because really all I am using these units for is to record TV, which you cannot do with the Creative models as of yet, although they too put out some very nice "toys". And as far as the people that complain about the speaker volume, puhhhhleeaaase! What are you really expecting out of such a small speaker? You people talk about being on a plane or in the car or traveling (however you do it) and not being able to hear the speaker over the loudness of the vehicle you are traveling in. Well do you really want the speaker to be loud enough to annoy anyone else sitting around you? Did you think about that? On the 605 unit I purchased, I think the speaker is fine for listening alone in a quiet room. I mean, that is why they provide headphones so you are able to listen to the unit personally without annoying anyone else around you and with plenty of volume to spare. For any teen using the unit, I would think you would want to be able to watch movies on the unit without disturbing any of your family members, including your parents who may be listening to find out if you are asleep or not. The speaker on my AV500 quit working shortly after I bought it but for me, I just played it on the TV anyway like those old fashioned VCR's. I rarely took it out of the house.
The only other drawback I find about any of the these Archos units is they are heavy and unless you have a shirt or jacket with larger pockets, you can't really fit them into your clothing because of their size and weight, especially the 7 inch screen units. I almost bought one of the new Media Tablet units but I wondered if a person was also going to have to pay more for the web browsing and other peices of software that the units are supposed to be able to do. Why doesn't Archos just go ahead and charge the same amount of money for the units that it is going to cost a peron to download the other peices of software anyway. Also, I noticed most of the other brands of media players include an FM radio. I feel it would be nice if Archos would build that hardware into the electronics as well without charging more money for it. I do think Archos could provide the software for free and keep the costs low, if they would do that.
All in all, I feel the 605 Wifi is a good unit. I also didn't like the way it returns to the main screen after exiting out of a menu setting. I would like to be able to stay in the settings menu and have my own choice when I want to return to the main screen. To those that spoke of the quirky touch screen, I totally don't agree at all. I feel the screen responded just fine, even with the screen protector still in place. I noticed on some of the choices you have to click once to activate the icon and then again to activate the item. So what is wrong with that? I had no problem with how the touch screen reacts at all. Like I stated before, it is connected to the DVR Station anyway and I mostly use the included remote to make choices. Which brings up another point, as with the AV500, Archos included the docking station in the box with the unit as the 605 does not! WHY NOT SELL THE UNIT AS ONE COMPLETE PACKAGE WHERE EVERYTHING CONNECTS AND ALL SOFTWARE IS FULL VERSIONS AND THEN DECIDE WHAT IT ALL IS WORTH?? It's not good practices to advertise a nice unit with all the emenities and expect people to like your product when you surprise them later with how much more money they will have to fork out to fully enjoy the unit!! Thats about all I have to say for now.
 Total crap October 25, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Paid extra to use e-mail options while I travel. The machine doesn't stay up to date with current software so in 3 months it no longer works to get e-mail. I asked if they were going to fix this problem and they told me no. Customer service is not open when they say they will be. The machine has lost all memory several times and I can't even get it to download anymore to fix the problem. With all the extra's I spent over $[...]. on a piece of garbage that is no good for anything after several months. Anything would be better than this!
Bad UI, low sound - not worth it October 21, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I just bought this and going to return it.
The software in buggy - the USB mode (with the DVR dock) does not work.
The user interface is also quite crappy. No way to add all songs of a particular genre into a playlist - not way to search for a song (based on id3 tag).
video quality on the player is very good. however, when hooked up to a large TV, it sometimes seems that the frame rate is messed up and the picture is shaky.
Worst Customer Service in the World! October 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
My archos experience is actually the absolute worst that I have come across in 20 years of buying high tech products.
A timeline of my "Archos Experience":
1.Oct 2007: I purchase the 605 wi-fi, the dvr station and the add-on web browser and cinema plug-in. All-in cost of approximately $550.
2.Nov/Dec 2007: I am the envy of Apple crazed friends with my 605 wi-fi and I am extremely happy with the product;
3.Mid Dec 2007: The 605 will not turn on;
4.Jan 2008: I exchange emails with technical support (Ticket#: 20364895) to identify problem late January after settling into a new project overseas (Spain). Ultimately, the technician suggests contacting Archos locally to get an RMA for Europe repair;
5.Feb 2008: RMA obtained and product sent to Archos RMA # EAD-04-0801313199 in early February;
6.April 2008: 605 received back although not in working condition. After discussion with technical support, I reloaded the firmware and it recorded some programs and seemed to be in good working order. Two days later it failed to turn on and generally was in a frozen state (though different than earlier in the year);
7.July 2008: Busy with work - I just set it aside out of frustration with the option of a local RMA repair again. Contacted Archos in July and received a new RMA992305558 for USA repair;
8.September 2008: Repaired Archos now received and I pick it up and bring back to Spain only to find again that while it will turn on -there is a hard drive issue that will not allow it to record!!
There you have it. 12 months of ownership and 2 months of use. To make matters worse - the battery is now such that the most it will charge up is to 3 bars - just over half. Even if it did work - that would render it useless.
How can a company expect to possibly achieve ANYTHING if they return "repaired" products that DO NOT WORK!
I would love to try their newest product - but out of principle - I will never buy another Archos product in my lifetime and I will do everything possible to dissuade anyone else that I know from doing so.
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