The new Archos Gen 5 Series is yet another jewel in the Archos crown of portable entertainment. The quality of Archos products just keeps getting better and better, and the price of this new 05 series is an even greater value. I bought the new 605 to replace my 604 for less than I paid for my 604, and it has WiFi, a higher resolution 4.3 inch touchscreen with 800x480 pixels (720p playback is possible) which makes even the lowest bitrate video look like a DVD.  The 605 body has shrunk slightly over the 04 series and the new kickstand is much improved. The weight of the 605 30gig is a little less than it's predecessor. The finish of the body is cleaner looking in my opinion, and they got rid of that glossy screen coating that caused so much glare in the 604's picture. THANK YOU ARCHOS!                                                                          

Now for the function. First the WiFi. I recommend getting the opera browser plugin for $30 bucks from the Archos website if you want to use the unit in hotspots and surf the internet(s). You can also watch flash video from sites like YouTube. Checking and writing emails with the included stylus is a breeze. Downloading web pages like a MySpace page is pretty fast too. If you just want to use the WiFi for streaming video from your PC you can do without the browser. But for only $30 bucks it can come in handy if your away from your desktop for extended periods. The touchscreen is superb, it really helps with navigating thru the menu's and functions, but if you prefer the button keys you can perform all the functions from those as well. Also there is now a dedicated volume key so you can adjust the volume while browsing thru music or pictures.

Battery life is improved over the 04 series as well. I get about 5 hours of video playback from a full charge, and about 14 hours of music playback with the screen backlight off.  WiFi sucks up battery life with only about an hour and a half before shutdown. Connectivity is much the same as the 04 series, I was able to use my 04 docking station for the new 05 series...which is nice!  If you want to watch your videos on your TV or record you will need the docking station, or you can buy the mini dock that comes with the RCA patch cord to output the signal...which kinda sucks!  The 04 series only needed the $15 RCA patch cord for TV playback.

That would be the only negative thing I have to say about the new 605. T3 Gadget Magazine gave it Five Stars in there November issue PMP test. Retailing at $279 for the 30gig model it is the cheapest of all the units tested. Also available for $179 is a 4gig embedded memory (solid state) model with an SD card slot for memory expansion. And $299 for the 80 gig model, there is also a 160gig that ranges from $350 to $400. The 80 and 160gig models are a little thicker and longer than the 30 and 4gig models to allow for the larger hard drive, But they all have WiFi and touchscreens except for the 405. Which is the smaller 3.5 inch 4:3 full screen model that uses embedded memory and SD cards. The 405 replaces the 404. Now that your head is spinning with numbers here's the bottom line.  I have owned several Archos media players over the years...I can't see buying anything else! They are easy to use, great quality, great features, great mp3 players and you don't need a computer to put your videos on them. They are truly portable DVR's that will record your favorite TV shows or DVD's and play them back without having to jump thru a bunch of codec converting hoops.  YAY!  Enjoy.