what a waste and disappointment!
Written: Feb 07 '03 (Updated Feb 07 '03)
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Pros: cheap, half as much as an IPOD
Cons: crappy construction, crashes my PC, loses data regularly!
The Bottom Line: save your money or take your chances...i'd recommend something more rugged and professional.
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| sean808080's Full Review: Archos Jukebox Recorder 20GB MP3 Player |
so i decide i want to treat myself to a large storage device because my minidisc player, while reliable, is limited.
a friend at work had this unit and so i asked him what he thought as i had read mixed reviews everywhere else (other than here!)
he said well..i love it. although i had to have it replaced under warranty once already. it has a 1 year warranty and you will definitely need it!!
i said to myself..well it is CHEAP and i am a techie so let me try it out. i bought a unit and took it home. that is where the problems began...as soon as i took it out of the box.
the construction is sooooo crappy. the fit and finish are POOR! in fact, there was such a gap at the seams at the top of the unit, i was convinced it was a compartment that one was supposed to open somehow....it looks like a prototype that went into production.
the manual is useless! they call it a quick start manual and all it does is show you how to load drivers. well..i followed the directions and my trusty win2000 box immediately got a blue screen. that is very rare for me. i have a rock solid system that i tune all the time. guess what...i rebooted and tried again...blue screen again! this time it caused some disk corruption on my PC!! not good!!!
i tried booting it up with the device attached...now it works and i can move songs...kinda slow but not a big deal.
then i played it ...sounds good...with my headphone. i didnt even open the headphones that came with the unit as i heard how bad they are....overall the sound was OK.
but the LCD screen is sooo ugly. not a pleasure to look at by any means....and the buttons are cheap and flimsy. it looks like a toy! a 300 toy! and i work for my money..i'd rather have something i really enjoy looking at and using for 300!!
but the worst part of it? well i took it to work and plugged it into my mac. its supposed to be seamless...usb on both ends (pc and mac) guess what? it started up and all the songs disappeared!!! after a few hours of wasted effort to get the songs from home onto the unit they were all gone!!!
so i said...damn..lemme try again. i moved some songs from my mac to the unit...slow but working. then i unplugged it to use it for the commute home (following directions=unmounting the drive before disconnecting) and guess what? no songs!!
the thing is an embarrassment! there is no excuse for archos to release such a dismal product even if it is cheap. my recommendation? if you absolutely have to have it then get the extended warranty and buy it somewhere that wont give you a hard time when returning it because you probably will!
crap! i'm gonna try the creative zen nomad next...more to come!!
:-)
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 275
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Epinions.com ID:
sean808080
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
programmer working in nyc and living in the suburbs of nj
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