2008's top three PMPs
Our favourite cinema-in-your-hand gadgets
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Kit of the Year 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
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 with superb video playback and a decent web browser - Opera - all plonked on top of a stable Linux OS with a faultless GUI. Better than the iPod Touch? We think so by dint of its larger and higher resolution screen and much higher storage capacity. If a 5in screen is too small, go for the 5's big brother, the 7.
Read the full review
Reg Rating 90%
Price £280 (60GB), £320 (120GB), £360 (250GB) Find the best online price
Cowon iAudio A3
Yes, it's getting a little long in the tooth, but the A3 still has the finest screen of any PMP on the market and it will play just about every audio or video codec you have ever heard off - and a fair few you haven't – straight out of the box. There's no fancy touchscreen UI and no internet capability, just a darn fine video player.
Read the full review
Reg Rating 85%
Price £269 (30GB) Find the best online price
Apple iPod Touch
OK, we also included the Touch in our Top Three MP3 players, but that only underlines what a wonderfully competent all-round device it is. Bottom of the list here only because we reckon a 4in screen and a 800 x 480 resolution are really the base requirements for a truly great portable video player and the Touch falls a little short on both fronts. But then its a PMP that will fit in a pocket, and it's by far the prettiest, smallest and lightest of the bunch.
Read the full review
Reg Rating 85%
Price £169 (8GB) £219 (16GB) £289 (32GB) Find the best online price
Best of the Rest
Archos 7
90% Full review
Hauppauge myTV Pocket
75% Full review
Iubi Blue
75% Full review
Kit of the Year 2008
Netbooks
MP3 players
Radios
COMMENTS
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.
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!
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.
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