Superb image browser, average media player.
Things I like about Arcos 605 WIFI 160 GB: nice interface and GUI (looks really slick), web browsing ability via WIFI (though you have to pay extra to enable it), superb picture browser (shows thumbnails and you can use your finger to zoom into a picture and pand around), fairly fast in loading media files, easy scrolling of long lists, well designed MP3 player (shows album art in hi-res, has on-screen touch-sensitive buttons for previous/next song with song descriptions etc). The price is good for what you get, USB 2.0 connection to your computer is fast, USB host speed is good too and 160 GB is currently probably the largest offering of its kind.
Things I didn't like: though it has a 800x480 hi-res screen, the contrast and clarity is not as good as Cowon A2/A3 and the screen exhibits a shimmering effect when moved around (probably due to its touch-screen coating). Sound quality is fairly poor (you can hear a constant background hiss), volume is fairly low even at maximum sound levels and there aren't many options beyond the standard equalizer to enhance the sound (wheres the Cowon A2/A3 has crystal clear sound with great sound enhancement options). Also battery life is so-so. When fully charged, you can get 4 hours and 50 minutes of video out of it, but when powering down the device, you have to choose between suspend mode, which drains the battery even when you don't use the device, or complete shutdown, which makes for a very slow startup. Most users will use suspend mode but then they'll never get the advertised playback time. In fact after a week of not using the device, I was unable to even power it up, although it had been fully charged before - that's how badly the suspend mode drains the battery. Further complicating the matters is the fact that it takes about 10 hours to completely recharge the battery - and that is slow compared to the 3-4 hours of most competitors. You can speed up charging time by getting a separate dock, but I tried one (the battery dock) and it is one of the clumsiest and least elegant accessories I've ever used.
Also button placement is not the smartest - its sensitive buttons are right where you'd want to place your thumb to hold the device, so you'll be pressing those buttons even if you don't mean to. And there's no auto-resume. You can still manually resume the latest file you were watching/listening, but Cowon A2/A3 can auto-resume right after startup (if you set it up in options) plus it maintains a long list of various files that you can resume, not just a single latest one like the Archos.
All in all I'd say it is currently the best image browsing device of its kind (the pictures look amazing on the screen and the ease of touch-sensitive zooming and panning has to be seen to be believed), unique in its WIFI and web browsing abilities (also supports flash and Youtube) and the 160 GB offers a monstrous amount of space compared to the competition. But if you want the absolute best video and audio quality, and don't want to buy various accessories to use all the features that should be standard in the main unit (like faster charging, longer battery life and ability to connect to and record from TV), there are better options out there (mainly the Cowon A3 comes to mind once again).Read full review
