Archos AV500

Now this is what you always promised yourself! Simply hook the AV500 up to your TV, it automatically detects a signal and with one button press it’s recording. Connection is taken care of via a dock which features a remote control receiver, so when you want to watch the movies back, it acts like a DVD player. Recording quality stood head and shoulders above rivals here, only beaten by its bigger brother, the AV700. On the move, the four-inch screen is clear and bright, and there’s space for 130 hours of programmes on the 30GB memory. Battery life is good as well; in video mode we managed nearly six hours. It handles all common computer-stored music files and can download pictures from your camera via USB cable. The MP3 player was superb, too, with crisp sound and excellent track reproduction. Our only complaint would be the slightly complicated menus, which can become confusing when searching for a specific file. Still, it takes our Best Buy award.