Large capacity PMP roundup

After my considerable disappointment at no news of a 160GB iPod Touch from Apple at this year's Macworld I decided to have a look at what the competition is doing in the way of large capacity portable media players.

My criteria

• 40GB or greater disk
• 3" or larger screen (preferably 16:9)

The contenders

Model	Capacity (GB)	Screen (Inches)	Formats	Battery A/V (Hours)	Price
Archos
504	40, 80, 160	4.3"	Video: MPEG-4 Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV	17/5.5	£172.21, £258.99, £394.95
704 WiFi	40, 80	7"	Video: MPEG-4, WMV Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV	25/5.5	£269.99, £368.23
605 WiFi	80, 160	4.3"	Video: MPEG-4, WMV Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV	17/5.5	£214.99, £254.64
705 WiFi	80, 160	7"	Video: MPEG-4, WMV Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV	25/5.5	£269.99, £368.23
Cowon
A3	60	4	Video: DivX, XviD, MPEG 1/2/4, WMV, H.264 Audio: MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, AAC, AC3, BSAC, True Audio, WavPack, G.726, CM	25/5.5	£315.95
Q5	60	5	Video: DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV Audio: MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC	13/7	£409.95
iRiver
PMC-140	40	3.5	Video: WMV Audio: MP3, WMA	12/5
PMP-140	40	3.5	Video: AVI, XviD, MPEG-4, MPEG-1 Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, ASF	10/5

Archos have the most players meeting the criteria with large disk versions up to 160GB however they are let down by poor codec support although you can add support for more by downloading them from their website (at extra cost).

The two Cowon players offer an impressive list of codecs out-of-the-box but they only come in a maximum 60 gigabyte version and are a lot more expensive than in particular the Archos players.

The iRiver players have small disks, small screens and poor codec support but I couldn't find anywhere stocking them anyway so it looks like I couldn't buy one even if I were interested.

Conclusion

The Archos players definitely seem to be the best deal if you're not bothered about having support for a large number of codecs. One big criticism of them however is that, looking at the overview of for example the 605 WiFi on the Archos site, it seems like you're getting loads of features for your money. Reading the small print, however, will tell you that to use some of them you need to buy optional add-ons and they're not cheap. The DVR dock for recording TV is an extra £60, the web browser is £20, the Video podcast plug-in (read iPod compatibility pack featuring H.264 and AAC codecs) is £15! I'm surprised they are allowed to sell the product based on features it doesn't have out of the box and it certainly puts a sting in the tail of the good deal.