- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 31 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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1 out of 9 people found this review helpful
3.0 stars
"archos blows it once again"
Pros: The 250 gigs of storage and the MSC support automatically makes it better than any player that doesn't support MSC.
Cons: I agree with all the cons mentioned in CNET's review. Archos ruins potentially awesome products with easily avoidable flaws that even the lamest companies would laugh at. Bad customer service.
Summary: First off, let me tell you that I don't own one. But I have done enough research to know almost as much as an owner. I've asked all the questions I can think of on message boards, read through the manual, watched every video out there, read all the reviews, etc. I also have an AV380, and it looks like the UI, at least for audio and video playback, is still essentially the same, underneath all the flashy enhancements (they have since added the ability to browse by ID3 tag attributes, which I'd never want to do but I'm sure some people prefer). I'm actually glad they haven't changed this aspect, because I love the simplicity of the way the archos UI works for playing media. There are a few things I'd add or improve, but as it is, I think it destroys most of the competition in this respect. I couldn't imagine being forced to browse by ID3 tags, especially the way that it seems to be implemented on the ipod and zune... I only have limited experience using friends ipods and zunes, but as far as I can tell, when you browse to an album, you get a freaking list of alphabetized song titles, sans track numbers. So you can't even tell the order of the songs on the album. It's insane to me that something so flawed can be so popular, but I guess if you don't know any better...
Too bad the only mp3 player on the market that I could see purchasing was ruined by archos' inability to make competent decisions. I can't imagine using a PMP with less than 120 GB of storage, or having to install some flashy wannabe windows explorer bloatware (*cough*itunes*cough*) that would bog down my computer, inhibit my ability to transfer my media files between my PMP and as many devices as I want, and not allow me to manage my files myself.
With those two retardedly simple requirements (lots of storage and MSC), the only products available are made by archos. However, archos makes incredibly idiotic design decisions (like putting the 3.5 mm jack in the middle of the side) that could easily be avoided if they actually tried using it and gave some thought to these flaws and how easily they could be fixed. Sure, they could say "it's not a big deal that the jack is in the middle", and they'd be semi-correct. But is it a big deal to move it to a corner? Basically, every negative point that CNET pointed out I completely agree with. I also think anyone with 5% of a brain would notice these flaws after using the thing for 5 minutes. Apparently archos thinks its customers are its test team, although they fail to listen to their test team because I see many of the same problems being complained about with each generation of players that they release. That, or they notice the problems on their own but don't care enough to fix them.
Archos also has worthless customer service. Don't bother attempting to make any sort of contact with them. I've experienced this first hand with my AV380 and in trying to gain information about the archos 5. You'd think they'd at least want to help a potential customer.
If this thing was easily pocketable I'd probably be able to overlook all of it's ridiculous shortcomings, but it's not. Maybe Cowon will release a replacement for the X5 with a higher capacity HD.
Updated on Aug 6, 2009Maybe people replying aren't capable of reading the other replies, so I'll add it here:
I ended up buying and owning the A5 for a few weeks, because, as should be plainly obvious from my review, I wasn't completely against it, since it was the only PMP that met a few of my requirements (large storage, MSC). However, the poor, IMO, software interface, in addition to the negative things I mentioned in my review, or referenced from the CNET review (wow, the headphone jack didn't magically change locations when I bought it... weird) caused me to return it. Please don't get butthurt because I critiqued it before I owned it. If someone who didn't own an ipod said they didn't like that you're required to use itunes to transfer songs to it (I know you can get around that, but let's assume you can't), would you whine about them making that point? Maybe you would.... apparently there are some nut jobs out there.
- 13 replies to this review
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Jesus christ, how f**king dumb can you people get?? What part of "I owned the f**king thing" don't you understand" There aren't any unusually large words in that sentence, are there?
It's funny, because even before I owned it, everything I said in my review was accurate, so the idea that one needs to own a product to make a judgement about a known characteristic of that product just flew out the window. I'm sure that's far too complicated for most of the people who've replied to understand, however. -
This review is perhaps the height of retarded imagination from someone who happens to find others retarded. Well ask a madman if he thinks he is mad and he will say no. If you give a topic to some people and ask them to write they would go on and on and on but that is still understandable but this guy can go on and on and on without even a topic. He doesn't even own the thing and has concluded everything. Great
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I did own it. Reading is hard, I know.
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This is a horrible review.
First of all, its based on what other people think. How can you review a product you dont own? I dont care if you helped build the thing; until you have used it you have no right to comment.
Second, dont present falsities as fact without actually testing it. My battery life liste to audio ha easily surpassed 22 hours, Archos gave it a lower rating than the product actually gets. I know this because I have witnessed it first hand playing music at my house all day and all through a party at night, woke up the next morning to it still playing.
Third, it does easily fit in my pocket actually. If you have tight pants or small pockets then sure it make be hard, but its a 5 inch screen (4.8 to be exact), so what do you want them to do? Should Archos have made the worlds first fold-able LCD screen and hard rive?
And lastly, your other arguments are nit-picky. The headphone jack works perfectly where it is, who cares if its in the corner or not. -
Oops, I meant apostrophe. It's called an apostrophe. Boy am I embarrassed.
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OMG!! OMG!! LOL!! LOL!! alexn1803, you're (<-- it's called a hypen -- use it, dipsh*t) a retard. No one cares about your comment. I just wanted to let you know that.
Oh, and you're shrooming if you think you'll get 22 hours of music playback.
People who are under the mistaken impression that a product is perfect, when obvious flaws exist -- even if the product is still great -- are morons. NEXT. -
I forgot to mention something that I LOVE about the archos that I wouldn't be able to comment on without having one in my hands (which is why I didn't comment on it in my review). The built in speaker is awesome. Based on reviews of the 605, I didn't have high expectations, but either they've improved it on this generation, or those people were expecting too much. It gets plenty loud for the size. I've been sitting it in my bathroom while showering, and I can hear it fine over the water. It's a great thing to have in a pinch, when you want some background music when you're with other people or just don't want to use headphones.
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Oh, and just FYI, I have one sitting here right next to me as I type. Got it about a week ago. Going to return it, because unfortunately I like the overall user experience much less than I thought I would. But here's the shocker for you peeps who apparently can't comprehend forming opinions about facts that one knows about something that they don't have in their possession -- I still agree with my review. But of course that's true, and of course that's difficult for retards to understand.
paper != metal?? OMG! You're right!! Now I realize that using something to model something else is an absolute waste of time and produces no actual information at all! I mean, 5 paper inches is WAAAAY different than 5 metal inches! Although, what's crazy is that now that I have the archos it is the same size as that piece of paper, and it seems to be the exact size that I imagined it would be based on observing similar sized objects. Weird. -
matt laguna -- no need to get your panties in a bunch guy. It's called critiquing, not bashing. If you were more intelligent you would have been able to comprehend from my review that there are things I like about the archos. It's the only PMP out right now that I know of that I'd even consider buying, because nothing else has more than 120 gigs and supports MSC. But unlike the majority (or so it seems) of internet users, I'm unbiased and not going to ignore things that obviously suck, IMO, about the device when I review it.
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A piece of paper != a piece of metal.
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pointless you bash a product that you obviously know verry little about.
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How do I know it's not pocketable? Hmmm... not sure how to tactfully answer such a retarded question. Oops, too late. MEASUREMENTS. The freakin dimensions are given all over the place. Go to archos.com and look. Take a piece of paper, draw a box with the same measurements... maybe that'll give you an idea.
I know all about ID3 tags...
It's pretty easy to give a review on something you don't own. Take the things you know about the product, List the ones you like and give reasons. List the ones you don't like and give reasons. Simple. Do I have to own the archos 5 to know that like 80% of the screen is wasted with blank space in the music player? Nope. -
How do you know it's not pocketable if you've never tried to put one in your pocket and you don't own one? Try buying or at least using it before you review it. If you read only bad reviews about it then don't buy it, but you can't really review something solely based on other people's reviews.
Also, ID3 tags contain a frame which allows you to set a track number and position on an album so they do show up in order. You just have to make sure this frame is filled correctly for the songs to show up in that order. I've never owned an archos product, but I know my old iPods kept the songs in order of the track number values.
Archos 5 (60GB):
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