Top Amazon Review

Archos 5 is different than an iPod - much better for my needs. Bought this a few weeks ago - the 120GB version. It's great. It does everything it says it does and more. I've not got a Tuff-Luv case for it as there isn't one that comes with it (poor show). I still thnk the price is too high as much cheaper abroad. However I bought mine (sorry Amazon) from Heathrow Terminal 1 Dixons for £195. However Dixons now raised their price to almost that of Amazon so I'd recomend getting from Amazon now. I've filled 3/4 of the hard drive now with muisic/films and many TV programmes. Not a problem though as easy to connect to laptop or external drives or flash memory and you can file manage from the Archos. I think the adverts and reviews for the system really undersell it. Youtube is great. I've not found anything remotely interesting on web-tv but web-radio has some good music channels and comedy chanells. You can use BBC iplayer. The internet opera software is better than the one I've got in my Nintendo wii - it plays nearly all videos and is very quick. I've got the dvr station and the mini keyboard doobry is actually quite quick to use. I paid for the upgrade to get the different formats of video/music. Most reviews complain about this but it's not a huge amount of money and I'm guessing it's a way for Archos to ensure they get some money directly. I've downloaded hundred of flash games from the internet - all free - loads of sites. Just take care they don't need left/right/up/down but have mouse control and they should work. Sme are actually really good - burst the pimple on the spotty teenager is my favourite of the day. The widgets are actually not that bad - the currency converter autoupdates if you're connected to the internet - the calculator is easy to use - the weather is good (sunny today) - I won't use the others though. It wold be good if Archos do some more if if I find out that others can work too from other systems. I've not paid to get any moviews from the Archos movie club or games form the Archos site as I think they're a bit poor and a bit of a ripoff and there is no need. The TV scheduler is good - I have sky and it has listings (via internet) that are very good to use but wuite a few channels missing on their listing. It is great that the Archos has an infra red beamer and auto channel changes for you if it's pointing at your sky box (we have sky+ downstairs and it doesn't work on that but it's fine on normal sky box upstairs which is where we use it).Very easy to use and the channels they don't have on their listings are not ones I watch so no issue. I'm worried I've seen websites saying there will be a subscription after one year - I've not seen anything in my documentation about this so it could be a rumour... The speakers are not so loud - but I use headphones when I'm out and about and mini speaker dock (or connected to a TV) when I'm at home. I bought the DVR station and that does look a bit cluncky with lots of wires but it does the job well. When they do improve it they should think about how it looks with all those wires and the transformer plug is large and heavy. I recommend upgrading the firmware just as soon as you can - it makes a lot of difference on speed - especially with USB connection. I've upgraded mine twice in the last 2 weeks and wil check now every few weeks - it's very easy to do this. The wifi link works well - it doesn't pick up wifi signals as well as my laptop does though - I was in a hotel last week and the laptop picked up the free hotel wifi but you had to move the Archos close to the door to pick it up. At home though it works well even at the back of the garden so I can use it anywhere I am - it doesn't quite pick it up down the road in the pub though. Transferring DVDs is easy.