Notices

I have used three devices with the same 3430 chipset: Archos 5 (last year’s model), Droid and the N900. I took more time to compare the Archos 5, since already did a Droid comparison for media.

Audio performance:

Archos 5: Very weak quality of soundstage and volume level. Worst AUDIO device I have ever owned. Sound is too low even on 13ohm buds, but the poor audio definition kills it anyway.

Droid: If the audio was recorded in the 80db range, the volume is too low and the soundstage seems average at best. MP3gain is handy for Droid.

N900: Listening to Kings of Leon as typing this. Volume is “perfect” for this type of device. On 13 or 16ohm buds, the max volume is too loud, but handy to have for higher impedance buds. Soundstage is very good.

Flash performance:

Archos 5: Only Flash 8, but for some reason, the games and videos that do play are smoother and look better (videos) than on the N900. Not understanding this since same chipset, unless drivers for the chipset are more optimized on the Archos 5.

Droid: Youtube seems to play better than the N900 and Jetflicks plays great. Nothing to compare except Youtube, but HQ plays smoother on Droid and the G1 too. Again- a driver issue for the N900?

N900: Kind of all over the place (but mainly good). Some Flash games play good, but others play not as good as the Archos 5. Video though is weaker than the Archos 5. Exception being that the N900 plays a lot more content of course. I would expect though since the N900 uses 9.4 and the same chipset, it would blow the Archos 5 away, but is the opposite.

Video:

Archos 5: Plays almost every video I have tried except for a few higher res WMV files and have not noticed any dropped frames. Best VIDEO device I have ever owned.

Droid: Plays a lot of MP4’s and looks good.

N900: MP4’s look better on the N900 than the Droid, but for some reason, some videos that play on Droid do not work on the N900. Also, a lot of videos appear to lose frames and do not play as smooth as the Archos 5. The N900 is a lot pickier than the Archos 5 on what will play. Probably a combination of the codecs and drivers on the N900.

N900 still is the best “phone” for video I have tried or owned, but I would expect similar performance like the Archos 5. Kind of disappointed- especially the apparent dropped frames. “Kind of” since I expect an update to the codecs and HOPE we see driver improvements. Dropped frames compared to the Archos 5 would suggest a lack of optimization for the chipset.

The reason the Archos 5 tablet runs flash so well is because it's using Flashlite 3, not full flash like the n900. That makes me wonder how well the n900 would run with flashlite instead of full flash. Only difference between the two is that flashlite isnt as featured as full flash.