A surprising and pleasant bargain
Written: Jan 20 '03
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Pros: Great price, Big storage capacity, Excellent sound quality
Cons: So-so appearance, horrible instruction manual
The Bottom Line: I'd definitely recommend it. I think of it as a cheaper version of the iPod.
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| meribona's Full Review: Archos Mini JukeBox Recorder (15 GB) MP3 Player |
I was seriously looking at the iPod before stumbling upong the Archos Jukebox Recorder. I took a chance on the Archos unit and am very glad I did.
PROS
PRICE: Definitely a strong point. The list price I found was $199, but the store I bought it at offered a $50 mail-in rebate on that.
SIZE: The Archos is about the size of a pack of 3"x5" index cards. I'm not sure but I think the iPod is a similar size, if not just a little bit smaller. In either case, the Archos is small enough to easily hold or slide into a pocket.
STORAGE:The Archos has a 15 GB hard drive. I forget the exact number, but that translates into several thousand MP3's at least.
USB INTERFACE: The Archos has a USB interface. I also have a Firewire card but I prefer the USB interface since more computers tend to have it.
BATTERY LIFE: The Archos comes with 4 AA batteries as well as an AC adaptor. I've only used the adaptor to charge the batteries (the Archos has built-in charging capability). I don't know if you can run the Archos itself off of the AC adaptor. The batteries last about 8 hours when fully charged.
PORTABLE HARDDRIVE: The Archos also acts as a portable hard drive. For example, to transfer songs, simply hook the Archos up to your computer and it just shows up as another hard drive. I've never done it, but it seems like you could transfer other file types too (movies, pictures, etc).
INTERNET SUPPORT: The Archos appears to be fairly popular so there are lots of websites devoted to it.
RECORDING CAPABILITY: I don't plan on using this feature, but the Archos can record stuff as well if you hook up a microphone to it. From the looks of some of the websites out there, the Archos records things pretty well.
SOUND QUALITY: The sound quality is quite good. I used to have another MP3 player where the songs would skip and come out all scratchy. The Archos plays MP3s perfectly fine.
CONS:
INSTRUCTION MANUAL: A total waste of paper. I simply tossed the manual and went straight to the web to figure out how to use it.
APPEARANCE: The Archos doesn't look bad, but I'm still mixed on the appearance. It's definitely not iPod-handsome. Mine is gray and chrome which I think looks much better than the blue and chrome version. The bumpers on each corner of the Archos are functional but make the Archos look funny.
CONSTRUCTION: The Archos is constructed perfectly fine and feels solid, but the buttons feel cheap.
SOFTWARE: The installed software works fine. My Archos did freeze up when I first bought it, but I formatted it and the freezing problem went away. It's been fine ever since.
CARRYING CASE: The included Neoprene carrying case is nice, but the pouch on the front of it is too small to be of any use. It's probably big enough to fit a SmartMedia flash memory card or something, but nothing that you'd need to make the Archos work (like extra batteries). The USB transfer cable is too big to fit in the pouch comfortably.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
meribona
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Member: Andy Chen
Location: San Jose, CA
Reviews written: 51
Trusted by: 3 members
About Me:
In law school
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