Touchscreen Performance
Tapping and swiping was almost effortless, as the Archos 5 responded quickly to our commands. We were impressed with the on-screen keyboard: individual keys were big enough for both the pad of our finger as well as the tip, allowing us to type as fast as we could on an iPhone with very few mistakes or repetitions.
Storage Options
Our configuration came with 32GB of internal flash memory; models with 8GB to 32GB of flash memory or mechanical hard drives from 160GB to 500GB are also available (and slightly thicker). The microSD slot can handle SDHC Cards. Depending on your needs and the size of your multimedia library, you can potentially carry all of your music, photos, and video in the palm of your hand. Pricing for the Archos 5 is as follows: 8GB ($249); 16GB ($299); 32GB ($379); 160GB ($399); 500GB ($499).
Web Browsing
We like that the Archos 5’s Web browser automatically scales Web sites to fit on the screen. You can turn this off and use pinch and zoom gestures to find your optimal magnification if you encounter too many smushed pages.
Navigating with the browser took some getting used to; the Back button at the top of the screen is the only ever-present icon available. To access Stop, Reload, and the address bar (via the magnifying glass icon, which we first mistook for Search) we had to click the Settings button in the upper right of the screen. Once we got used to this, however, browsing was easy and seamless.
While the Archos 5 itself supports Flash Lite and Flash Videos, the Android browser does not, so while we could play Flash-based games on the device, we couldn’t stream movies from sites such as Hulu or YouTube.
It took less than 10 seconds to load Laptopmag.com and ESPN.com. Both CNN.com and NYTimes.com recognized the Archos as a mobile device and served up the appropriate version of their sites in about 5 seconds. When we switched the browser mode to Desktop Agent (under Settings) so it would read Web pages as a regular browser, both sites loaded in 11 seconds.
Apps and Android Market
The Archos 5 is preloaded with N-Drive GPS software and several Android apps, including Craigsphone, Deezer, Quickpedia, ThinkFree Mobile Office Suite, and twidroid. Users can add more apps through the AppsLib icon, which connects to the Android Market. The entire apps library is searchable, but not all of them will work with the tablet. AppsLib gives you the ability to filter listings and search results by Archos 5 compatibility. There are about 800 compatible apps available under the Free tab in AppsLib, arranged by category (paid apps aren’t available yet). Users can read comments on apps before installing them, and return to give their own rating from within AppsLib.
Installing new apps is as simple as it is on Android-based phones. Hit the Download icon, verify that the app can access certain services and data, and the Archos takes care of the rest. Click the Update tab to install the latest versions of your current apps.
We’re comforted that Archos claims to be adding about 20 apps daily, but the overall number is still small compared to the 10,000+ apps available on Android phones.
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