2008's top three PMPs

First the music players - now we go to the movies. Which big(ish)-screen cinema-in-your-hand gadgets did we most applaud in 2008? Archos 5 Archos 5 internet media tablet It's taken a long time for anyone to successfully combine a good video player and a good internet tablet, but Archos has cracked it. Solid as a rock, and …

[Neil]

Archos 5 solid as a rock?

Mine crashes every time I access the net and at least once a day just watching a movie. MP3 files skip if they have artwork and the DVR cant keep sound in sync. All in all it's a fancy clock at the moment.

Oh, wait, no its not, it can't keep time either.

Surely the Cowon is better than this rubbish?

[Cameron Colley]

Other drive sizes for the A3?

I have an 80GB one myself, and I seem to recall a 60Gb one also.

Neil: I've only just nicely bought my A3, but in the month or so I've had it it's not crashed once.

[Alex]

Don't forget the...

PSP.

I use it on a daily basis to watch films on the bus to work. I put an 8GB card in it which is enough for 5-6 full length films (top tip: use micro sd cards and a converter). Video playback is superb, as is audio and, of course, you can play great games on it too. Battery life is good for over 6hrs of video and if you need more spares are dirt cheap.

The latest firmware lets you connect to the Playstation store to download an ever increasing range of PSP and PS1 games directly.

Yes, it is a bit fussy about video codecs but using something like DVD Fab Platinum produces great content from DVDs.

And in the year and half I've had it it hasn't crashed once.

[Trix]

Forget the A3 - check out the O2

New Cowon product, with a touch screen, and all the usual Cowon goodies, with up to 32GB flash memory on board and the SDHC card reader. http://www.cowonglobal.com/product_wide/COWONO2/product_page_1.php

Sexay!

[Anonymous Coward]

The new Archos units are very buggy

The firmware is basically beta. It was even released with a beta tag!

It is littered with problems.

- Paint wearing off after a couple of weeks.

- The clock seriously loses time. (This problem has been present for 3 generations now!)

- Back to back recording is not possible. (Ditto above)

- The HD plug-in is still not available and no date in sight (but Archos will still let you pay for it! - Trading standards anyone?)

- Frequent crashes of the device, especially during web browser usage.

- No way to charge it in less than 6 hours unless you buy an additional dock and charger.

- Proprietary cables (yes folks, no USB connector).

- The sheer cost of these things! Especially when you have to pay extra for docks and plug-ins to make it fully functional.

The list just goes on! The 5 does not deserve the #1 slot by a long way.

This is a classic case of a review site getting a brief play with a fully loaded unit and getting wowed by the feature list.