Archos 705 WiFi user reviews (80GB)

Pros best of the best, easy to use.

Cons software you'll want you'll have to pay for.

Summary I had a I touch and ended up getting a refund because I don’t think I should have to “crack” software on a item I paid for to make it useful. Ive never looked back other than in pity of I-touch owners, still even “cracked” I-touch pails in comparison to this players ability and price.

One thing I would like to clear up is the battery life, I got maybe 2 hrs of use out of my I-touch max and that’s because I played video’s and/or used other apps than just the music player, the battery life was horrible so with that in mind the battery life on this is really not bad at all, if it beats out the competition in batt life, memory, functionality, and ease of use what’s left? OH yeah price and it beats I-tough hands down in the bang for your buck category.

You will have to pay for the software but at least its useful and if it means you don’t have to use i-tunes you should jump for joy as that program is one big headache of a music/video player.

It really is superior in every way but it is larger as well, not that the little bit of extra size is bad when you have the best resolution for the size in a hand held out there, but if its just too big dont worry they make a Archos 605 WiFi as well and its just as superior to other hand helds media players as the 705. I got this for the van so our kids could watch movies on the go and we can still use it for music e mail and whatever the next best thing we found that could do all that in a car costs 2000.00 yeah no joke 2000.00 and it dose do more (barely) right now but with the right software it wont so this was the obvious choice for a media player that we can take down the road.

This player will DL all your media and you wont even have to convert it if you’re not concerned about space, I never keep a ton of full length movies on it but I could, and with skype and all the different IM apps out there like I said sky’s the limit!

Pros Large screen, good touch-screen controls, seems to do it all

Cons Battery life is marginal for a two-hour movie, Opera needs some work on ease-of-use

Summary I really love the Apple iPod Touch, but the screen is too small for my eyesite. The Archos 705 and it's predecessor the 704 offer a large screen for those who really want to watch a movie without eye strain.

The 705 acts just like an external hard drive as far as Windows Explorer is concerned. You can drag-and-drop from your PC to the Archos.

You can also use Windows Media Player to keep your PC and the 705 in perfect sync.

In addition to photos, music and video, I also backup my company files onto the Archos. No, I can't run my applications here, but my backups are safe.

I purchased the 705 to allow me to surf the web while watching my TV. Standard web pages are very readable but response is slow. I wish it used an "N" wireless connection instead of a "G" connection.

The pop-up typewriter allows the user to use a finger to point out the letters in a URL search or in an E-mail. The response is too cumbersome to write a novel, or even a one-page E-mail.

Battery life has been about 20% than I expected from the Archos specifications. It has a five-element battery life indicator, but the last two elements display for only minutes on the screen and then it's time to power off.

I purchased the Opera browser which works OK. A "back" button (previous screen) needs to be put into the top browser bar, instead of having to click on menu>navigation>back.

I do carry the Archos 705 back and forth to work every day in the supplied case, and I'm 95% pleased with it.

Pros Good screen, good web browser and apps.

Cons Begs for other apps and a PIM

Summary I had the 704 and it was decent, but according to Archos own customer service, the machine was limited in its capabilites and would not be supported as the new 705 PVP came out. I was lucky enough to return my 704 for a new 705. The 705 is better in that you can use widgets with it and flash programs. The flash program and widgets allows you to play some games and some useful applications, such as a calendar, caluclator and other widgets. Still it could use a really decent PIM. There are some people in the Archos community who are trying to create a hack for this and some have been successful in getting Qtopia to run on their 605 and 705's. Archos naturally frowns on this, and is not being helpful. As for the size, there are many people out there who do not like squinting at the small, matchbox screens of the iPod, and other supposely PVP's. The 7 inch screen on the 705 is perfect for travelling and playing games. The screen's resolution could be better, but not by much. The only thing I would really like to have with this is a larger keypad. while the one that comes with it as a remote is way ahead of anything else, I have big fingers and would like to see some larger keys, or be able to use one of those foldable keyboards.
In all, the 705 is a great machine that does what it is suppose to and more. The browser and other plug-ins are worth the extra cash, because they add extra funtionality to the PVP.

Pros AFTER THE PATHETIC CUSTOMER SERVICE, I CAN'T SAY THERE ARE ANY PROS

Cons HORRIBLE VOLUME LEVEL, LOUSY CUSTOMER SERVICE

Summary What a piece of garbage. First of all, the volume is so bad that all the way turned up you can just hear it, not loud or even capable of being loud, second, the thing locks up so much, you'll spend more time removing the battery and resetting it than you will enjoy it, and third, the customer service is horrible,they are a bunch of rude people who think, people like being talked down to. my player stopped working within one year and after sending it back for repairs, they told me to buy another battery for $72 dollars are they would give me a 15% discount on a new one. why would I want to buy a new one in only one year. I am not normally so upset over any purchase but please take it from me, you'll be very sorry if you purchase this mp3 player.