Archos 5

Shortcomings limit media player's true potential



THE NEW ARCHOS 5 is the most stylish of the company's media devices. It looks great, comes loaded with features, and performs well. But several flaws hold it back from being the outstanding player it could be.

The device is controlled mainly via its touch screen, a fantastic 4.8-inch, 800x480 display that's bright and clear. The Archos 5 can play back photos, video, music, and PDF files, and it can surf the Web via its Opera browser. It also supports Flash 9, widgets, and an e-mail application. When it comes to media playback, the Archos 5 supports a variety of file formats in addition to often-used ones like MP3 and WMV, and with its built-in Wi-Fi connection, the Archos 5 can stream music and video from Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) servers on your network, as well as music from Internet radio stations.

Both the screen and body design, however, are prone to fingerprints, and unfortunately, the Archos 5 features an entirely new proprietary connector—if you're upgrading from an older Archos player, your accessories will be rendered useless. Be prepared to shell out more money if you want to take advantage of new add-ons. Also, despite the player's many great features, we were disappointed that we couldn't charge it using a standard USB cable. If you are on the go and forget your proprietary cable at home, you're out of luck.


We realize that the Archos 5 needs special connectors for its hardware add-ons, but a standard mini-USB port for charging and PC- and Mac-compatible data transfer would help a lot. —Rich Grech

Computer Shopper March 2009

Read More ..

NEC NP61

Full-auto projector takes sweat out of presentations



DON'T WANT TO FUSS setting up a presentation projector? NEC's fully automatic NP61 is for you. Just plug it in, connect a laptop, and it's ready to go. No fiddling with input buttons, focus controls, keystone correction—nothing.

At $1,299, the compact NP61 isn't cheap, but it's appropriately priced for a 3.5-pound portable model with a native XGA (1,024x768) resolution. An instant-off feature lets you turn it off and pack it up immediately without a lamp-cooling period. Should you need to make an adjustment, its controls are on the top of the unit.

NEC claims the NP61 can be placed as close as 4.8 feet from a wall or as far as 44 feet away to produce an image of 33 inches to 300 inches (diagonal). Its Digital Light Processing (DLP) engine is rated at 3,000 lumens with a contrast ratio of 1,600-to-1.

That's bright enough to use even in a well-lit room. In our tests, we placed the NP61 112 inches from the screen to create an 80-inch image. Image quality was excellent. In a medium-lit room, the image was very bright.



Photo and video images were a touch darker than they appeared on our laptop screen, but they still looked impressive. Our only real disappointment is that the monaural speaker delivered, at best, low volume. Also, the constant whir of the projector's fan is noticeable, and it may even grow annoying to the person adjacent to it. Setting the projector to economy mode drops the noise level to about 5dB while delivering an image that's still plenty bright. —Jamie Bsales

Computer Shopper March 2009

Read More ..