Archos 5

So, you’re in the bazaar for a carriageable media amateur – why shouldn’t you shop for an iPod Touch? Well, this ‘Internet Media Tablet’ is one reason. Sure, the Touch is dinkier, but the Archos 5’s 120GB of accumulator (there’s additionally a 250Gb adaptation available) makes the Touch’s 32GB max allowance attending a little, well, embarrassing.

Okay, but why not shop for a 120GB-equipped iPod Classic, extenuative over £100 into the bargain? Ah, yes, you apperceive your gadgets. Well, the Classic may win out on complete quality, but the Archos 5 houses a beauteous 4.8in screen, murdering the Classic’s 2.5in effort. That’s got to be account a few quid.

Video in a flash

Now add the 5’s all-encompassing blueprint list, which includes the adeptness to comedy Flash video and – crucially – BBC iPlayer. So, you don’t get iTunes, but you do get appetizing TV such as Mock the Week, and radio including The Flight of the Conchords. Cheers Auntie.

Where this Windows Media Player-happy assemblage fails to exhausted its Apple rivals, though, is in the portability stakes: barometer about 2cm abysmal and belief 300g, this is a ‘full fat’ player, and – for safe carrying – needs added than your shirt pocket.

But, admitting it’s chunky, the Archos 5 is beautifully congenital and feels reassuringly solid. It additionally looks slick, and the bland touch-screen UI, featuring simple menus, is impressively responsive.

Stream apparatus

Powered-up and wirelessly absorbed into your network, this carriageable is a joy. You can beck music and videos from your agenda libraries, while email admission is, acknowledgment to pre-set shortcuts, actual speedy.

Internet browsing additionally actively rocks. The 800x480 resolution awning looks sharp, and you can ‘drag’ your feel about beyond pages. Response times are fast and the Opera browsing arrangement offers automatic shortcuts. Example? To add a ‘Favourite’ page, artlessly authority your feel bottomward and you’re done.

So far, so candied tablet. Here, though, is the absinthian pill. While this apparatus does lots, if you appetite it to do lots more, it costs you extra.

Pricey extras

The DVR Station, which lets you almanac programmes anon from your TV on to the Archos 5, costs £80. This accurate arrangement saves lots of PC-based ‘conversion’ kafuffle, but it does beggarly allotment for an added eighty quid.

Another add-on, the GPS arrangement complete with car holder, costs a added £80. And, if you appetite to about-face your 5 into a (truly) carriageable telly, acquiesce addition block of (yet to be confirmed) banknote for the October-due ‘TV Snap-On’.

That closing affection enables time-shifting, so while watching telly on the bus, you can calmly abeyance a programme while a assemblage of accouchement tries to prise the amateur from your agitation mitts.

You can additionally bet the accessible High Def (720p capable) constituent won’t be free, while the declared max of 12hrs music epitomize seems abnormally wheezy.

It’s difficult to resent this machine, though: video achievement is so acceptable and, as continued as you advancement the debris earbuds, audio epitomize is bass-laden and well-detailed. Up adjoin Apple’s miniature pedigrees, this is a bit of a chunky mongrel, but Archos’s agenda dog still offers lots of fun.