I’ll start by explaining my experience and then go on to give you some product information. My girlfriend bought me the Archos 404 for Christmas this year (Dec 2006) and I was really pleased, I thought it was a great product with excellent features. However my joy was not to last, within a month of having it the internal battery expanded warping the casing and ultimately made it totally unusable, I was devastated. I had registered the product on the Archos web page (www.archos.com) so I followed their advice and sent them an email to inform them of the fault and requested that they provide me with the relevant information to get it fixed. I never got a reply. My girlfriend had bought the Archos from amazon.co.uk so she contacted them to see if there was anything they could do. Even though we had had the product for about two months by this time they were happy to let us return it and provided a very swift replacement. I’m really happy with the performance of the replacement I love it, BUT (you knew there had to be one) it does make a strange rattling noise when you move it about. The rattle concerns me because it sounds like something is loose inside and I’m always afraid that this one might break down as well.

The first thing I have got to say is the Archos 404 looks stylish and feels good quality. The sound quality is good and the picture is excellent. It features an audio player, a voice recorder, a digital photo viewer, digital video player, PDF viewer and can also be used as an external hard drive. It has a 30GB storage capacity and a 3.5” colour TFT screen. It supports WAV, WMA, AAC, MP3 and AC-3 audio formats. It’s sold as supporting most modern video formats but you do need to buy additional plug-ins to be able to view some of them. I have however found that the manufacturer does supply an excellent MPG 4 translator free of charge on their web page which can convert nearly all video formats into MPG4 which the 404 is happy to show. The accessories included are stereo headphones, USB cable, and carrying pouch.

I’ve found the 404 really easy to use as it’s based on a system that feels very similar to windows. You have a desktop style main screen with icons that will direct you to the various applications and folders. The experience of learning to navigate my way through the device was quick and pleasant. I do think that the 404 is rather let down by the accessories that it’s supplied with. I found the headphones looked and felt a bit cheap and had an old fashioned in line thumb wheel style volume control, but I do have to say that I thought the sound quality was ok. The carrying pouch doesn’t allow you access to any of the buttons and if you want to put the USB connection ports at the closed end of the pouch to avoid getting dirt in them, you will also need to unplug the headphones every time you want to take the device out of the pouch. There are however much better cases on the market at reasonable prices. I know that some people think the 3.5” screen is a bit small for watching movies and other video on but to be honest I find it’s quite a nice size and I think the larger Archos models would be a bit cumbersome to carry around and I want my portable media player to be portable. The 404 fits nicely in my pocket and doesn’t weigh much at all. In addition to having the device I’ve also bought the optional DVR station which I think is brilliant. With the station you can use the 404 to record television and even program it for different times and stations, it makes for an excellent add on and allows you to charge the Archos much quicker than using a usb connection.

At the moment amazon.co.uk are selling the Archos 404 for £151.76 which I think is a reasonable price for a portable media player with these capabilities.

In conclusion I think the 404 is a brilliant bit of kit, it’s user friendly stylish and packed full of features and on the back of that I would recommend it to anyone looking for a portable media device with good video playback. However I do suggest an air of caution because of reliability issues and would suggest if you do want one to buy from a reputable shop where you can return it if you experience problems.