Archos PMA400

If this was any more evolved it'd have DNA.

Looking for a device that'll do just about everything except walk the dog? Archos has taken its top-of-the-range AV400 media player, put it on a course of performance-enhancing drugs, and the result is this hybrid of a PDA, portable media player and games machine.

The PMA400 has pretty much all the same media features as the older Archos AV400. It can record and play back MPEG-4 video, bang out MP3s, and display your digital photos on the 3.5-inch colour screen. However, the hard drive has now been upped to 30GB, giving around 120 hours' worth of video recording time, and protected WMA files downloaded from the likes of Napster can now be played. It also absorbs the Gmini 400's ability to play games developed for the Mophun platform.

The biggest differences come with the introduction of the PDA features. The screen on the PMA400 is touch-sensitive, and applications include contacts and calendar programs, as well as a text editor and a PDF viewer. But perhaps the unit's best feature is the built-in wireless support. This is the slower 802.11b version, but it's still great for surfing the Web using the impressive Opera browser or picking up email. You can download MP3s directly from a website and store them in your music library on the device - without going near a PC.

The PMA400's not perfect, though. It won't play most DivX and XviD files that you find on the Net without converting them first, and the interface is still a little rough in places. Nevertheless, this is a desirable, if pricey, product.