Archos Archos 105

Archos calls the player's menu interface "intuitive," but I beg to differ. For instance, moving backwards sometimes involves pressing a dedicated back arrow button; at other times, you need to press a different button to do the same thing. That's confusing. In addition, all of the buttons on my test player seemed a bit resistant or sticky to the touch.

The 105 doesn't produce fantastic sound, either. When I cranked the player's audio up to level 80 (it maxes out at 99), it sounded good enough to use at the gym; but at lower volumes (under 50), the sound had a bit of a hum that a true audiophile would find disturbing. The 105 scored poorly in PC World's signal-to-noise ratio tests (where a higher number means a cleaner signal), managing a 59--11 points below its closest competitor, the iRiver E100, and 25 points below the SanDisk Sansa View.

The 105 does many things, but none of them really well. I'd recommend this player only for someone who doesn't want to spend a lot of money for a device to multitask with music, videos, and photos. The Archos 105 would be a good first player for a careless teenager, for instance, since you wouldn't have a heart attack if it went missing. But a picky adult should look elsewhere or accept its limitations as the price for its price.