Archive for the ‘Archos’ Category

Archos 5 IMT – Great PMP, Great Browser

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

The Archos 5, IMT is an excellent PMP, and has an excellent browser as well. I have used many generations of Archos products, and they are the best portable devices for video. The Archos 5 IMT continues the Archos tradition of combining a great screen in a manageable form factor. I watch videos daily on my various Archos devices.

The 5 IMT has the best mobile browser I have used. It is not just the great screen size / resolution that makes this browser the best; it is also the fine job the browser does displaying both desktop, and mobile sites. Desktop webpages are displayed with all their glory (minus Flash of course), and mobile sites are displayed to fit the screen properly. The Archos’s browser has virtual zoom controls at the bottom of the screen (which I prefer to the over-hyped multi-touch pinch zoom on the iPhone / iPod touch), and more importantly, the text constantly reflows after each zoom to ensure you can read single, or multiple-column pages at a comfortable text size without horizontal scrolling (a problem mobile Safari has with some single column pages).

Since the Archos 5 IMT is Android based, a plethora of powerful apps being available in the near future should be a given.   Combining the current excellent video playback / excellent browser with diverse future 3rd party apps should morph the Archos 5 IMT from a great PMP / Internet device to an outstanding mobile “do almost anything you want” device.