Android features
It is important to be aware that the Archos 5 is not a Google Android device. It is not even capable of running Google Android applications. No Email, calendar or contacts syncing. No maps and VERY IMPORTANT: No Android Marketplace. The Archos 5 Internet Tablet is not a personal organiser (PDA) out of the box.
Archos AppsLib marketplace
Archos have not been able to get Google approval for the core Google features that do not form part of the core open-source Android operating system [In this Firmware 1.4]. Instead, Archos have implemented an application market for free applications called ‘Appslib.’ From day 1, this application has been slow, buggy and not very exciting to use. The selection of applications is growing but remains a fraction of what is available in the marketplace. A recent upgrade to Appslib has improved the stability and speed and new applications are starting to appear at a faster rate but without any monetisation program driving developers, we don’t expect to see top-quality applications appearing here. Recent examples of applications include the ‘U.S. Anthem’, Bubblewrap and ‘Farm Sounds.’ although there are some gems to be found in the library. Swift, Aldiko, FBreader, Acast and others. Current app listings show about 750 applications with about 200 approved by Archos.
Note: There have been some efforts to hack Google marketplace onto the Archos. This has been shown working and we’ve tested it successfully ourselves but it introduced higher CPU load, memory usage and instability. Search Google for ‘Archos Android Market’ for more information.
Archos Media features
Unfortunately we just haven’t got the resource here to fully test the media features but we’re going to outline as much as we can. Audio and video playback is an extensive topic covering many thousands, probably tens of thousands of combinations of audio codec, video codec, container, bitrate, codec features and resolutions.
The media application follows the design of previous Archos Media devices with a folder-based menu system offering access via favorites, title, etc. Search is available along with playlists and access to A/V features such as equalizations, FFWD/REW, pause, aspect ratio, FM transmitter, shuffle, etc. Album art is available and videos are thumbnailed with moving video.
Media Libraries
There are two media library methods used on the Archos 5. The first is the ARCLibrary process used for all the Archos media center features. The second is the Android media library process used for the Android media player and software. Both can be set to occur on bootup, insertion of SD card and removal of USB. In general the process are reliable and efficient although the ARCLibrary update can take some time on insertion of a large, loaded SD card.
Video
We’ve thrown a number of formats at the Archos and it has done extremely well. Out of the box you’ll find some limits in the format support which need to be enabled using a registration process (free) and an optional pay plugin. At 15 Euros we recommend the plugin which enables certain HD and multi-channel audio formats.
One of the features is the ability to play video and audio from uPnP sources or Windows shares. A 7.5mbps WMV HD file played well from our Windows 7 box over Wifi and easily beat what we have been able to get out of many netbooks and UMPCs in the past. [at UMPCPortal] Coral Reef adventure, a WMVHD demo from the WMV showcase played flawlessly over the WiFi and looked stunning on the high-quality screen. MPEG2 taken direct from a DVB transmission worked, a 4mbps Divx, H264 in AVI and MKV containers and much more. Archos have been keen to highlight that they’ve worked hard on support for the MKV container so multiple audio tracks and subtitles are working in most cases.
In general, resolutions up to 720p are supported. 1080p is not supported.
The other thing that doesnt work out of the box is TV-out. Considering that many smartphones are offering TV-out via the 3.5mm headphone jack, it seems a little unnecessary and even awkward to have to buy a $30 clip-on docking station just to enable this feature.
See below for TV and screen output via a docking station.
Online Video
Archos have thought about online video and provide support for the direct playback of YouTube (Vimeo and other sites are also supported) videos even though the browser doesn’t support flash. When YouTube videos are detected and selected, the device starts streaming the HD version of the video. Unfortunately the feature is slightly flawed at the moment as it can’t play the 1080p videos that are stating to appear as HD versions. There are bugs, sync and other issues too. [Example, in a test I’ve done as i write this, two videos failed to play, one played with huge video errors and the 4th attempt played OK but has caused a system hang at the end. I need to do a full 10-second power-button reboot to recover.] When it works, it’s an amazing way to browse through YouTube in high quality, when it doesnt work, it’s annoying and time-wasting. Web-based video links, if supported, are downloaded or streamed to the device. Again, a good feature.
There are other ways to view online videos. The first is via the Dailymotion application, it’s also possible to get hold of the Android YouTube application and install that but there’s also an Archos streaming TV and Audio application (WebTV, WebRadio) that uses Vtuner. It’s basically a huge directory of online radio, podcasts and TV and is enjoyable to play with. Quality varies from poor to amazing and depends on the provider and locality. A stream from one of the local TV stations wasn’t working well despite the low, 300kbps bitrate. A 600kbps stream from Deluxe Music, however, was working well. NRJDance, a 700kbps stream out of France kept us distracted for way too long! Finally you have the Archos Video and Music sections of their media club. It’s nothing more than a few web-based gateways. One of them is the Archos film center where you can download pay films. There’s not much to choose from (in Germany) but it’s worth keeping an eye on. Euronews and DWTV (German news service) is available. You’re going to get different offerings here based on where you are in the world.
Speaker/Mic/Headphones
The mono speaker is good quality and loud enough to use the device as a stand-alone radio/podcast/audio/video playback device without headphones. The mic is also surprisingly good. The included sound recorder application returned good results although don’t expect this to replace a pro, handheld sound recorder.
Audio
Audio support is, like the video support, extensive. Here’s a list of supported formats from the Archos website.
• Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 Kbits/s CBR & VBR,
• WMA, Protected WMA, WAV (PCM/ADPCM), AAC(except protected content),
• AAC+ stereo audio files
• Ogg Vorbis up to 320kbs @44hz
• Flac up to 1000kbs @44hz.
With optional software plug-ins (downloadable from your tablet or on www.archos.com):
• AC3 stereo audio and 5.1 sound files (via SPDIF output of DVR Station )
Flac support gives you the ability to use a loss-less codec but I’m sure that most people are going to be happy with MP3, WMA and AAC+ support.
Audio output was tested on a reasonable quality 125W, 4-speaker HiFi system and the results over the analogue stereo cable were clean and high quality. The SPDIF output from the TV docking station has not been tested but with Flac support, this seems like a nice way to feed pure digital content into a digital amplifier.
Great review as always, Chippy. I’ve had my Archos 5 IT for a little over 3 weeks, and I’m really liking it a lot for web browsing (very fast), ebook reading, and video/music playing. It will also do in a pinch for email and other uses. The re-flowing text on webpages makes it really easy to read and navigate.
I agree with almost all of what you have to say about the device and, like you, I hope Archos focuses future updates on stability. The Android market would be nice (I haven’t done the hack yet), but it’s a pretty capable device as is when everything works as it should.
Note: I’m still running on firmware 1.3.07, because I’d heard 1.4.?? wasn’t as stable and that there were more problems with YouTube. Have you found that to be the case?
Thanks for all your good work and for the detailed review.
I’m waiting for 8GB version, hopefully around 200 EUR.
It should be a great home information device for internet access, reading and some video.
Of course I can do all that more or less on my HTC Advantage already, but it’s slow (especially web browsing), video is not particularly good and built in HD makes it not as rugged.
If my Nokia n800 ever died I would totally get the archos 5. Right now I am in the market for a 7″ device and I can’t seem to make up my mind.
:(
I can agree with Chippy that the Archos 5 is becoming a more usable device as Firmwares are released. Nice to hear that Archos will be releasing a update to Android 1.6 and hopefully include the Android Market App. I have the hacked Android Market on mine now and also Google Maps. Maybe with Android 1.6 we can get Google Navigation hacked like on the Motorola Droid. I have installed the Dolphin Browser that James at Jkontherun mention and works very great with the Archos. It has a lot of more features. The Volume becomes a page up or down using the Dolphin Browser. See the video I did of it here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJ6mCbT7ek
HG,
I also installed the Dolphin browser after seeing your video on jkontherun. I thought the stock browser was pretty decent, but Dolphin is better. The volume as page up/down is a great feature, the tabs are easier to work with, and the gestures can come in handy as well. I wish I could get some themes installed but the market is the only way to get those it seems.
gmich, have you installed the hack to have the Android Market on your Archos 5? Yes I agree the Dolphin Browser is great and the more you use it you can find better ways of using it and have a great browsing experience on the A5. From what I have read, Archos should be releasing Android 1.6 around the 17th of this month. This is going to be great, but we will have to wait and see if will allow the full Android Market or will have to hack again. :)
Innovativepeople Interworld Commnet gives mobile application development, iphone application development, android application development services in India Android applications
You say screenshots aren’t possible with Android. Not so: there are least two ways to do this. The first involves installing the SDK and then taking snapshots via the emulator, and the second involves rooting the device (in which case there are on-device apps to take screenshots).
The SDK method is not working due to 32bit screen buffer (so I read.)
Hacking and rooting the device is not something I’d recommend for getting screenshots!
Great review Chippy. I know my sons will be very excited on Xmas day, as both of them will be opening one of these. :)
so i got a question. i know the archos 5 has bluetooth. but can you take out a sim card out of a android based phone (like a mytouch 3g phone). and put it in the archos 5 for internet connection without using a wifi?
Really good review.
I’ve owned the Archos 5 IMT for 6 months now and have had very few problems with it; unexpected reboots while using the Opera browser being the most annoying. For all intent and purposes, it’s a computer and they all require a reboot at some point. :-) I haven’t experienced any of the other problems other users have in the past, so I thought I would look to upgrade to take advantage of the new Android OS.
I managed to persuade my other half to purchase the 32GB for Christmas. Collected it yesterday. Just one problem, I’m not allowed near it until the 25th…
Hi I read that by the end of the year there will be a full 2,0 android so you can get all apps that you can with droid. Anyone know for sure?
i heard that too, but no worries you can get android market, gmail, google maps and all that by reinjecting them, not even worthy of being called a hack, it is so simple and yeah, i think it’s because all files are .apk or something… that would be cool though :)
Firmware Version 1.7.33 is now available (January 20th, 2010).
http://update.archos.com/7/archos5/changes_firmware_archos5.html
I’m finding that the Archos 5 crashes a lot, at least 10-20 times a day. Most of these crashes are just a restart of the Android GUI, and not a machine reboot. At first I just the thing was buggy. But after installing SysTray Monitor, I could see that system responsiveness would slow to a crawl as free memory fell below 20MB, and then Android would crash around 16 MB free. My impression is that the A5A has insufficient RAM to operate effectively. Consequently it requires continual vigilance, and the use of a tool like TasKiller, to manually kill off apps before all the free RAM bleeds away and another crash ensues.
Note that I have to do none of this with my HTC Magic 32A, which has 288 MB RAM. The Archos A5A however, has only 128 MB RAM. WTF were they thinking? This unit is nearly useless as a general computing device because of the need to be continually monitoring your free RAM.
Correction, the non-Android version of the A5 has only 128MB RAM. The A5 with Android has 256MB, but apparently only about 103 MB of this is available to the user for running apps. Lots of chit-chat on the ArchosFans forum about the need to be actively managing the free RAM.
you say in your Conclusions that the use of a bluetooth keyboard was untested. Well, I’ve tested it, and it works great! So far I’ve tested with a foldable iGo Stowaway (Blue Fn keys work, Green ones don’t), and a full-size older-model white Apple bluetooth keyboard (almost all keys work, though Arrow keys are swapped around).
Haha, Thanks for your sharing,it’s very useful :)
Love to have that for my birthday – Thanks for sharing
Nice product. Cant wait to buy one for me on my birthday.
First!
Is this the latest gadget? hmmm.. really very nice! But its hard to have one!
A fantastic looking product but I too will be waiting for 8gb device.
WOW Looking good ! Will definitely make it’s way onto a few christmas card lists I am sure !
when i bought a car radio, i picked the car radio that is built by philips because they are well built ,`-
when i bought a car radio, i picked the car radio that is built by philips because they are well built ,`-