ARCHOS 5 4.8" 60GB Internet Media Tablet

So much potential; so many flaws

Reviewed By: rollerboy on 3/13/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 day to 1 week

Pros: The archos 5 has a great web browser and an easy and fun to use on-screen keyboard. The screen is nice and big. Touch response worked fine most of the time and I only had it for a day to get used to it. A lot of people seem to like it which is great, just make sure you pay attention equally to the people who enjoy the archos 5 and the people who returned it after 2 days of use.

Cons: I can't blame the device for this but the thing is big. It's the best for the pockets of a man-boy like me, it was at home in my coat's pockets however. What i can blame on the player is the bad build quality of the headphone jack, mine broke and so did many others if you look online, do not ignore these. Another flaw of the player was the sudden crashes again there are many tales of these in forums and such, don't ignore them like i did. The crashes only occurred when accessing web pages. Wile the web browser is nice with the included flash 9, but most sites now require flash 10 or the device just wont show the flash. Sites that did not work included flash.fm and hulu. It is also very annoying as someone said [can't remember where] that the archos 5 is "one huge advertisement". I did not mind the sticker on the USB cable suggesting that i buy an attachment that would make my player charge in 3 hours instead of 8, i found it clever but in the main screen about 80% included ads 4 archos

Other Thoughts: I wanted to get my hands on an archos 5 since before it was released. I was excited when i finally bought one for it's expensive price even getting a small discount. I was then disappointed by how buggy the software was and how poorly thought out the hardware was, it bothers me to think of how much potential this player had. I want to know why so many people have given the archos 5 great reviews, the problems i had with my player don't seem very exclusive, do people over look these flaws like i was willing to do up until my headphone jack broke? for me that was the straw that made the camel want to kick someone in the face. Make sure to buy the archos 5 from a place that has a painless return policy, i hope the reader can overlook the player's flaws and have fun with it. At the price the player sells i was not willing to put up with as much as i did.

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Reviewed By: flak on 9/14/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 week to 1 month

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: looks nice, sturdy construction. Works as advertised, when it works.

Display/Touchscreen looks nice and works well when the device is performing at full speed.

Cons: Locks up frequently. Poor feedback on actions, making you think it's locked up when its really just doing something and taking way longer than it should to do it. Wireless shuts off after only a few minutes of inactivity, and takes time to reconnect, even while hooked to power.

Pretty much have to purchase an additional dock to watch it upright with power (if you can then) due to how the usb cable plugs in. Horrible design in that regard. Surprised they didn't put the headphone jack on the bottom and then advertised a dock to be able to use it properly.


Latest firmware is buggy, no chance of downgrade, and looks bleak for any further firmware releases, now that they have moved on to other releases.

Flash performance seems poor. PDF viewing is tedious, having to reset your zoom and everything on every page you view. Can't handle most of the webpages I went to, either locking up, displaying wrong, or having horrible lag.

Hardware has potential, software sucks.

Other Thoughts: Built in speaker is awful, but that was expected.

Features are locked until you give archos more money, again as advertised. I didn't have a problem with that when I purchased it, but after seeing how horrible this thing is, I never want to give them another cent.

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Good, but beware

Reviewed By: TheInternetAndy on 1/29/2010

Tech Level: average - Ownership: less than 1 day

Pros: The archos 5 has many pros that make it a great buy. I was able to find a 225 GB internet tablet for only 225 dollars, and it sounded too good to be true (see cons). It has a massive screen and runs beautifully (for the most part [see cons])

Cons: The first and foremost problem with the device is the size; it's quite large (but then again it IS considered a tablet).

Additionally, I found one for a very cheap price from another website. After getting the product I had a lot of trouble updating it and I believe it was because the previous owner tried to do it on a mac and did not know how to handle the error that came up, so they returned it. If you are running it on a mac, invisible files are placed on the player that disallow it from running the firmware updates. Because I do not have a mac, I am not currently able to remove these files. I'm sure once I can do so the product will work wonderfully.

Other Thoughts: A great buy, but Mac owners beware.

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Reviewed By: Dino on 10/29/2009

Tech Level: average - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: +The internet is handy and relatively fast as well. You can zoom in by double tapping anywhere on the screen.

+For the price I payed ($200), it has a lot of storage and capability. Even if it didn't have internet access and all the other capabilities like running flash aps, it would still probably be worth it for the 60GB of movies, pictures, and songs it can play.

+Comes with some useful widgets such as a unit converter (I'm a ME major).

+Available free games to download online, though the ones you can purchase look much better. The free ones I've enjoyed most are Sudoku, Mah Jong, and Duck Hunt.

+It looks like you'll be able to download a GPS plug-in in the future.

+Good display for screen size.

Cons: -First one blue screened after 2 days.

-Had to pay shipping to send the first one back and wait a few weeks to get the second one.

-Doesn't play mp4's without a $20 plug-in, and doesn't skip over them either, it pauses your play list until you choose whether to buy the plug-in or continue.

-Doesn't come with a flash player, and I haven't yet figured out how to download a version that will work. I've downloaded .exe files, but the Archos doesn't recognize them, or says they are corrupt. This disables me from watching certain movies and items online such as facebook aps.

-The one speaker on the right side sucks. You're probably better off getting plug in speakers or just using headphones. The headphones that come with the Archos are fine. The average cheapo ones, but they don't have the fabric covers that you lose all the time, which is a plus.

-No stylus. Not a huge drawback, I just use a mechanical pencil without the lead out. (^no pun intended)

Other Thoughts: Runs Linux

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Very Pleased

Reviewed By: wavemancali on 10/27/2009

Tech Level: high - Ownership: 1 month to 1 year

This user purchased this item from Newegg

Pros: Beautiful screen, multiple uses, versatile has the ability to get add on devices for even more functionality. Good battery life charges quickly with both the dvr dock and the extra battery with power connector. Easy to set up wi-fi and e-mail/web access.

Cons: Poor ap support when compared to something like the iPhone or iTouch.

Doesn't charge as fast when just a straight USB 2.0 connection

Other Thoughts: I have been wanting to get one of these device for a long time and when Newegg had it in the daily deals for such a low price I just couldn't pass it up.

I bought the DVR attachment and have watched many movies from the device on my 42' LCD TV. If the movie quality is good the movie looks great on the TV, but for some RIPs that look good on the small screen, it can look a bit pixilated on the large one. Keep this in mind when making videos from DVD's.

Records TV with the DVR add-on, the quality of playback on the recorded shows suffers when replayed on a larger screen on default settings, tweaks are necessary.

Great to have such a large music selection int he car on long drives. Would purchase again.

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