Mixx
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
delicious
reddit
MySpace
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn
|
Music Audio quality is very impressive with very clear tones and a bass line that won’t quit. Clarity was impeccable with plenty of audio settings provided to help you adjust the sound to your preference. Included are EQ presets, a Bass Boost level controller as well as a five band graphic EQ that can be customized. You can also rate tracks and set Bookmarks while playback is on. It has no FM radio which is not good as far as I’m concerned, however you can get a Web radio Plug in which is paid of course. You can choose to create playlists or simply navigate through the Folder option. It supports MP3, WMA (including DRM-protected files), and WAV files. Video Videos look good, ‘nuff said. Although there are plenty of codecs on board, there are a few that are not supported. You’ll have to convert these files via Windows Media Player and then sync it to the player. It takes quite long though. Another drawback. Video options include fitting the video to the screen for optimized viewing and adjusting the Brightness, Contrast and Gamma as well while the video is playing in the back ground. That’s the best part. Unfortunately, unlike other players, it doesn’t have a resume play feature. You’ll have to manually set a bookmark for all videos if you want to resume the file. Even if you do, you can’t simply click on the file and expect it to start from where it stopped, you’ll have to go to the Menu options, Bookmarks and then hit the resume option. Video format support includes MPEG-4, AVI, and WMV at up to 30 frames per second. I was also able to play .FLV files but not 3GP. Listening to the audio via the built-in speaker is something I do not recommend. It’s scratchy at best and peak volume really tends to garble the sound further. It’s not good enough to prop up and sit back and enjoy a movie or music for that matter. Even if you’re in a sound proof room with not a hint of outside disturbance, it’s not loud enough. What Archos should have considered is dropping the speaker and making the Browser a built-in feature. Misc. Images look really good considering the resolution of the display. You can opt to use any image as a background as well. In the menu options features like Zooming in and out are available as well for rotating the picture if necessary. It doesn’t support .TXT files as you’d need to buy a Plug-In for the same. It doesn’t seem to have any support for MS document files although it has a PDF reader but larger the page the longer it’ll take to load. I tried loading some of the Flash games that I have for testing and although they showed up in the player, they started up but didn’t do anything else. Some played quite well though. The rest of the player was pretty much a bust as I was unable to test anything else considering they were all network based and the test device had nothing pre-loaded. You’ll have to decide what’s important and select those Plug-Ins etc. for download. This will of course add to the over all pricing of the 605. Battery Life The company claims 16 hours of non stop music playback but the 605 did not deliver on this front with just about 11 hours and change. For video playback the player ran non stop for about 4 hours and 25 minutes, so I didn’t get to conclude my second movie, which left me quite annoyed. The 605 also tends to heat up when charging and even while continuously playing files. Not that you could keep it in your pocket, but this makes it even harder. The only charger provided with the kit is for USB with no DC option. The Bottom Line At the end of the day the 605 Wi-Fi is just another PMP for videos and music unfortunately. Without the accessories, add-ons and Plug-Ins, it’s nothing more. With a price tag of Rs. 18,900 for 30GB, Rs. 22,900 for 80GB and Rs. 26,900 for the 160GB model, it’s not too bad price-wise. The redeemable qualities it has are a really good music player and copy paste video functionality. But with the extras costing quite a pretty Paise, devices like the Cowon A3 are much better options. If the functionality after purchasing all the available add-ons is as good as the Archos 7, the 605 would be a great device. But it’s not worth that much money even if it is packed with so much space. |
Tags: PMP , Touchscreen
Would you buy it?
RELATED STORIES
Apple’s iPod Touch has been the king of the PMP market, eversince it launched and there are no two ways ...
HTC Desire S price slashed to Rs.15,990
Buying guide to mirrorless compact cameras
Nokia dazzles Warsaw with another fancy Lumia 800 launch
Kindle-wielding Amazon dips toes into physical world
TabPlus Rio Review
Mobile Grudge Match – Galaxy Y vs A75 vs Mi-350n
_011517074205_160x90.jpg "Epson Stylus Photo R3000")
