Archos 705 WiFi (80GB)

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.