The Archos 605 has a 4.3 inch TFT touchscreen (800x480) and it fits in a shirt pocket (9.2 oz). It is a 4G portable media player with WiFi. The price is only US$229, and for an extra US$30 you can get an Opera browser plug-in. It is said to feature a PDF viewer. Big deal you say? Yes, but you can view eBooks in HTML format, and by simply editing in some HTML tags, you can make your text files wrappable and flowable too. Archos eReader anyone?

The Archos 605 will look like an external USB drive to your Mac or PC so you can load anything you like on it. The battery (non-removable) is rated for 5 hours, which should get you across the US if you are flying. For a transoceanic flight, just buy two or three of them. :) For music, the Archos 605 is rated at 16 hours, so reading should not present a battery problem, though the display would be on constantly, so we would expect something less than that. For an extra US$49 you can buy an external battery pack.

The feature set is quite good. You can add on a docking station that converts the Archos 605 into a media center for your TV (US$99) that lets you record videos. Archos is big on offering plug-ins that add capabilities such as internet radio. Content can be rented over the internet. The browser experience is said to be adequate. Archos sells the 605 with optional enhanced storage(30G, 80G, 160G).

Reviews are here (http://reviews.cnet.com/portable-video-players-pvps/archos-605-wifi-4gb/4505-6499_7-32574819.html) and here (http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/14/archos-605-and-405-details-hands-on/). Archos is here (http://www.archos.com/products/gen_5/archos_605wifi/index.html?country=global&lang=en).

I've got an Archos 605, Mogui. It's great for video and photographs (which is what it was designed for), but the screen is only the same size as, say, a Pocket PC, and the latter is both smaller and lighter. Not a good choice as a book reader IMHO, but great for video - you can record directly onto it from any video source, and it'll play all the standard video file formats.

I suppose it might be interesting, though, to read your eBook on your 40" plasma TV, which the Archos will certainly allow you to do :).

I recently got a Archos 605 Wifi (30G). I must say, that for reading PDF files, this thing is fantastic. They look just as good as my PC and way clearer that my Sony Reader. I still use my Sony Reade for 'everything else'. But I've moved over several PDF files to the Archos. It's screen is roughly half a page worth (feels a little like holding the reader sidesways to read a PDF) with clear color display. Battery is typical for such a device (2 hours or so).

Of course, I'm still waiting for my ideal inexpensive eReader that can do decent PDF.

Battery is typical for such a device (2 hours or so).

I get a much better battery life that that - a good 4-5h of video usage, and reading a book much surely be much less power intensive than streaming video, I'd have thought? The battery life is something like 20h if you use it for listening to MP3 files, for example.

Mine is the non WiFi model. Are you actively using the WiFi connection on yours? If so, that's perhaps what accounts for the shorter battery life?

I get a much better battery life that that - a good 4-5h of video usage, and reading a book much surely be much less power intensive than streaming video, I'd have thought? The battery life is something like 20h if you use it for listening to MP3 files, for example.

Mine is the non WiFi model. Are you actively using the WiFi connection on yours? If so, that's perhaps what accounts for the shorter battery life?

Yeah, I was making a generality and Wifi does kill the battery. You are right though, running internal content does last a lot longer. ;-) I love my Archos and Sony Readers. But just learning to use each for a specific purpose (Archos gets my PDFs).

I recently got a Archos 605 Wifi (30G). I must say, that for reading PDF files, this thing is fantastic. They look just as good as my PC and way clearer that my Sony Reader.

That you are happy with pdf reading by Archos is a surprise. In my Archos 704 wifi the reading of pdfs is so slow that I convert all my pdf files to images that are rendered quite fast. Occasionally I beef up the images with pdflrf program to remove white margins, fatten the fonts, change from portrait to horizontal, etc. You will probably need it more than I do with my 7" screen but for small fonts I need it as well.

If Archos made pdf rendering fast in its 5th generation players, I will be the first one to get rid of my 704 to buy 705.

As I said in an earlier post, I wouldn't personally choose to use my Archos as a bookreader. The rendering speed of PDFs is reasonable (perhaps a couple of seconds for each page of the manual, for example), but it's not nearly as nice an experience as reading on a proper bookreader such as the Sony Reader or iLiad.

I just purchased a 605 less than a week ago (holiday gift certificate and sale of old junk on ebay funded the purchase).

I am trying it out as an ebook reader, since i should be able to read ebooks on every single device i own... right!?!

I get a much better reading experience if I edit an ebook's layout so the page size if 6" by 4" and I set a large enough font.

Page rendering is a lil faster and you see the whole page on screen.
I did this using Word and doPDF to create the PDF doc from a few rtfs and htm ebooks.

It's work though.... Seems like ebook reading is almost as much about converting as it is about reading.

Plus, I've been using my Sony Reader for a few months not and my eyes are no longer used to reading from a small LCD they way they were back in my Axim x5v days.

Can you read HTML ebooks on it? Do you think it saves your spot in your book when you shut it off? I've actually been thinking of getting one of the 605 30gb wifi versions. Not just as an ebook reader, but for watching movies on trips, listening to music and hopefully read books.

I haven't tried HTML. I would check out http://forum.archosfans.com
You probably have to do the same conversion I did, that is printing to a PDF of the proper size and using the builtin pdf reader.

i know im pretty late, but ill just post my take on the archos 605 as an ebook reading for future reference (google searches :D)

Bad news:
Reading a PDF file is WAYYYY TOO SLOW. Do Not Believe What Everyone On This Thread Said. It is horrible. No one should have to go through that.

Good news:
Browsing through the pictures IS REALLLLLLLY FAST. PICTURES LOOK REALLY GOOD. For reading books if you convert them to pictures you can read them VERY well. This is also partly because the archos 605 has a stand. So you can make it stand vertically and then press the buttons with either of your hands to turn the page.

Sorry i dunno about reading stuff like comics. Never tried it. But for someone who wants to watch videos without conversion in suberb quality, and also read books sometimes, the archos 605 will suffice.

Heres a relevant thread on archosfans about how to turn your text files in images:
http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=13392&hilit=findings+ebook