Archos 5 Media Player Ships With Android

Archos has had a tough time gaining ground in North America. Frankly, so has every other portable media player manufacturer not named Apple, but Archos' problem is that they typically market their wares solely in France, the company's home nation. Now, however, it seems that the firm is finally ready to make a big push here in America, and it's kicking things off with the Archos 5 PMP.

It's one of the world's first PMPs to ship with Google's Android operating system, which was reserved for cell phones/smartphones up until now. Some may feel that a phone OS has no business on a media player, but in many ways, there are a lot of similarities between the two. Both can surf the web, both can play back media and both support touch operation. The Archos 5 itself has a 4.8" touch panel (800 x 400) and a few buttons around the edges for familiar functions.


 There's also a bottom-mounted 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Archos 5 is the first Android device that fully supports HD video playback. As far as apps are concerned, there is also a built-in application for Twitter updates, IM, streaming music and viewing Office files. There's also TeleAtlas for navigation, and varying amounts of integrated storage based on the model you choose. The 8GB flash model (which has a microSD expansion slot) is available now on Amazon for $250, while the 160GB HDD version is on sale at $430.