Archos 5 (250GB)

Pros: I purchased this products based upon its specs and long list of features, especially the wi-fi capabilities. Unfortunatly I wasn't able to keep the thing powered on long enough to really check out all those nice features.

Cons: The battery on my units wouldn't stay charged, even when plugged into USB. A 20 minute hold for tech support got me a very unwilling tech who alledgedly issued an RMA but I never got the promised e-mail. Very poor service!

Summary: A google search reveals that this product is notorious for having battery troubles like I had. Too bad because for the short time it was running, it appears to have some nice features though I also noticed that after a short time the whole thing became very hot, and I could sometimes feel the hard drive in motion when holding it. The user interface is good except for all those icons for features that aren't present, which Archos is trying to sell as "add ons". Many of these are just disabled software features. For the price, they also should include certain basic items like a stylus, AC charger and maybe even a protective sleeve as well as enabling those small software features. Relying on having a computer nearby to charge it is kind of ridiculous especially since my intention was to take this on vacation and use it for web browsing and e-mail instead of lugging around my laptop.

If not for the battery problem and the poor customer service, I would have been happy to keep this in would probably get some good use from it but my first, and second, impressions of the product and the company say I'm better off with something from another manufacture, even if it lacks some of these features.

I strongly recommend avoiding this product and the company that doesn't stand behind it. I'm back to shopping for another PMP. At this point leaning toward a Cowon O2PMP.