Archos AV320

Watch movies, listen to music and look at pictures on the move with this fun piece of kit.

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Price: £549

Manufacturer: Archos

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Verdict

Pros:

Screen size; simplicity.

Cons:
Pricey; viewing angle.

Verdict:
Quite heavy and initially confusing to use, the Archos isn't perfect, but is a lot of fun.

Mark Walsh, Personal Computer World 18 Sep 2003

Those of us who have tried to watch a film on a notebook during a long train journey know that it's a rather bulky way of doing things. However, with no other option available, we stubbornly carried on. Archos' AV320 may be the answer to this problem though, as it's barely larger than an old-school Ipod, but carries a 3.8in screen for video and picture playback, as well as being a perfectly competent music player.

The first thing you notice about the AV320 when you pick it up is that it's rather heavy: it's definitely not something you'd carry around in your pocket. However, it does come with a 20GB hard disk (a 40GB version, the AV340, is available too), and you can feel the hard disk making a satisfying whirr on startup - a handy indication of what's happening.Archos claims you could fit up to 50 movies on this disk. That's pretty generous; either that or they're very short films. However, there's no reason you could not store 20 reasonably good quality flicks on it.

The device is robust, and the rubberised edges will hopefully protect it from accidental damage. It's also a lot better looking than most of Archos' previous attempts at multimedia playback. Connections include S/PDIF and USB2, as well as analogue video in and out.

Pre-existing tracks, clips and pics are uploaded using the USB2 connection. However, the file formats for all three are rather restricted. Only jpeg and bitmap files are supported: while these are the most obvious two formats to go for, we would have liked to have seen a tiff option.

Mpeg4 and avi movie files are supported too, though it's unlikely you'd want to store too much avi here because files are so big. Finally, the AV320 works with MP3 (up to 320Kbits/sec and with variable bit rate support) and wma files. You can, however, also store unrecognisable files on the player, as it can act as an external hard disk, albeit an expensive one.

The AV320 comes with Archos' DVR100, which is a deceptively useful adaptor that lets you record direct from your telly or DVD player onto the player. Other add-ons that are not included are memory card readers and and a small digital camera, the AVCam 300, that produces VGA images.

In use, it's pretty simple, using an interface that has a Palm-esque quality, though obviously there is no touchscreen facility as that would lead to screen damage far too quickly. The layout of controls is very simple, but as none of the controls are labelled, operation is a bit hit and miss for a while before you get the hang of what does what. The most confusing part was that the power button was also the select button, so if you held it down for too long, the device turned off. The small joystick on the right-hand side is a bit small; we found it hard to press inwards to get it to perform the desired function, so it took longer than we'd like, mainly when creating playlists.

One vital aspect is screen quality, but luckily, this is pretty good here. However, we weren't totally impressed by the viewing angle, which deteriorated if you were in any position other than directly in front of it, and it was rather poor in sunlight.

Our main fear about the AV320 was its battery life. However, we were quite impressed as it lasted for just under three hours of solid video playback. But it's a shame there wasn't an extra power pack included so you could watch those last few minutes of The Lord of the Rings. However, you do get far longer if you are just playing back MP3s with the screen switched off.

While this is an expensive device, it's worth the price, even with its few niggles. However, this is just the first in a long line of similar devices, so it may be worth holding off making a decision to buy one until a few more appear.

Contact: Archos
www.archos.com

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