Archos 5

Well, I finally got it... or maybe I should say that I've already got it. I hadn't planned on getting it for another 2 weeks, but I got too excited to wait, and bought it yesterday. And now it seems like a good decision, but not for good reasons. I'm going to have to exchange my lovely Archos 5 250 GB for another one... maybe the power going out just as the clerk rung it in was an omen... well it was a foretelling of what was to come anyways.

I brought the Archos home (to my dad's that is), opened it up, and plugged it into the wall. Now if you know the Archos 5, you'll know it doesn't come with a wall charger. I just went to The Source and bought a little USB wall charger for $5, and it did charge it in less than 8 hours (as it would have taken through a computer). While I did the initial set-up, when it asked me to configure the wi-fi, it would give me a pop-up saying to press the button on the wi-fi access point, and then press ok. So my dad hit what he thought was the right button on the router, and I hit okay, and it said WPS configuring. While it was still configuring, it would stop and say "wi-fi error". So I would retry it, and again the same thing, though instead of an error, the whole thing would just turn off and I'd have to re-do the set-up once more. After about the third time this happened, I skipped the wi-fi, and finished the set-up. Then I went on the computer, and manually downloaded the newest firmware update. I tried the internet again, but the same thing would happen, so I gave up, and decided I'd try at home, where we have the simpler WPA security on our wi-fi. I became optimistic when it let me put the password in, but as always, I got a connection error, this time just "connection failed". After trying tons of time, to this very moment, I still cannot access the internet on my INTERNET media tablet.

My dad noticed another big problem with my Archos shortly after I'd plugged it in; the USB cable was broken. The part of it that plugs into the Archos is open. It's very worrisome, and I know that even if a miracle happens, and I get everything to work before I bring it down to exchange it at Future Shop, I'll still need to exchange it because of that stupid cable. You can see what I mean in the pic below. It's not supposed to be like that.

The biggest problem though, is the unstable-ness of the device. I was innocently enough watching a movie on it this evening, while it was plugged into my computer, and all of a sudden it turned off. I hit the power button --> nothing. I tried holding it for 15 seconds to restart it --> nothing. I even tried the master reset on the bottom with a paperclip, and still nothing. Finally, just as I was going to write this blog, i tried charging it on my laptop, and when eventually the laptop saw the device, I tried the power button, and it came on... in troubleshooting mode. So I hit repair files, and it told me to install the new firmware... but wait, hadn't I already done that? NOPE. Let me just say, I'm very embarrassed for a supposed techie, and feel like a very big dolt. I downloaded the previous firmware, 1.0.87, not the newest, 1.1.01. I guess that the 87 caught my eye, and I figured it was the newest... it was the last on the list after all. Then the player installed the firmware, turned on, and viola! all of my files and settings were still there, and it worked! Yet still the internet would not connect, and now, while I was writing this blog, trying to connect to the internet, it did the "fatal turn-off" as I shall call it, and will not turn on. So this time, I'm just gonna leave it plugged in, and let it charge. I'd really like to try the wi-fi at school tomorrow, on an unsecured network, and see how/if that works. I'm also a little reluctant to return it right away (as in in the next 2-3 days, unless this "fatal turn-off" continues) because now that I've bought this Archos 5, the only one's that my local Future Shop has in stock are four of the 60 GB versions.

Now for the good features. I found the touchscreen to be absolutely delicious! It is very intuitive, and they keyboard works beautifully. The picture/video quality is also excellent. I watched some TV shows from my computer on there, and even my mom liked the video quality (she can't stand watching small screens like that normally). The transfer rate over the USB was fast enough, and I'm very happy that you can change the device to act as a hard drive, instead of a Windows Media Device, because I'd much rather drag-and-drop my files from my computer. It just took my a little while to figure out how to change that setting (Settings-->Info-->Storage). I also really like all of the pre-installed backgrounds, and I have no complaints about the sound quality, through my Skull Candy head phones, or even the built-in speaker (which isn't even stereo!), although I must say, I'm not that picky.

I'm optimistic about the Archos 5 still. On forum.archosfans.com, a fair amount of people really enjoy their products and haven't had any problems with them. Others have had great luck with replacements, and a select few have had no luck with multiple replacements. We'll see how it goes, and I'll give an update later on (hopefully at a better time, rather than 1 am on a school night).

--UPDATE--

I've returned my beloved (broken) Archos 5. Instead I paid about double the price and got a 320 GB HD, 4 GB RAM, HP Tablet Laptop, which will be written about in another post.

Ohh, and by the way... and I'm pretty surprised at this, they raised the price of the Archos 5's here in Canada (not sure about the USA... probably)! It's now at least $50 more for the 250 gig.