Archos Vision 24b 4 GB Video MP3 Player with 2.4-Inch Screen and FM Radio (Black)

• 4GB MP3 Player; 2.4" TFT screen, 320 x 240
• Photos; Videos, FM Radio; Audio & Voice Recorder
• 14 Hrs Battery Life; 4 Hrs of Video; Extremely Thin (.35") and Light
• Supports MP3, WAV, APE, FLAC

I've been using this player sporadically for the last few months or so. Set-up was easy, and I had no issues loading music onto it. I've always been careful with it (it's never been dropped or gotten wet, or anything like that), but about a week ago it would just stop in the middle of a song. I'd turn it off and turn it back on and sometimes that would work, sometimes not. More often than not I'd get frustrated with it and leave it. Now it doesn't work at all anymore...fully charged, resetting it...nothing. This is disappointing since it was a pretty decent MP3 player. Unfortunately I cannot recommend a product that dies after light use for only a few months.

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I bought this product for my son. When we received it, it worked fine. He began loading songs on it and using it right away. In less than two weeks, it stopped working and now collects dust on my son's dresser. I'm not sure if it died because of poor quality or rough handling by my son, but it seems like it should have held up better...

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Purchased this with the hopes of being able to use it for some video to show others, but I can't get anything to play on it other than what it came with. Works fine as an .MP3 player and the radio works well if you have it in the right spot. The photo's look great so that's definitely a plus and I've never used the recorder. Other than that, for the price, its a decent player, but nothing to write home about.

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If you are looking for a button-based music player that is larger than most other music players and you are comfortable with having just 4GB of storage without a memory card slot, then keep on reading...

This review is a series of notes I took while using this device over a few weeks.

Unboxing

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This arrives in shrink-wrap which is irritating. Does nobody at the manufacturing facility realize that people will have to open the package after they buy it? Or is it a "not my problem" mentality? :) This is not just Archos, the Sandisk Clip+ has irritating shrink-wrap as well.

Inside the shrink-wrap, there is the device itself sitting between two layers of the see-through material. Also inside the box is a color Archos-branded cardboard box that contains the headphones, USB cable and instructions. The headphones and the USB cable each come in a resealable bag. The instructions come in four languages (English, Spanish, French, German). Each side of the folded instructions is one language. The box also includes warranty information in English and French, and a promotion for free emusic. I did not use the headphones that came with it.

There is no software included. The instructions recommend using Windows Explorer or Windows Media Player to load music and videos on the device.

It has two slots, one for headphones and one for USB. It does not take memory cards! It does not have built-in speakers. It does not have a touchscreen.

Charging

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Connecting the device to a computer shows the Archos as a drive in Windows Explorer. Out of the box, it includes a few sample songs, sample pictures and a sample video and a sample text file. It shows 3.38GB free out of 3.57GB.

Windows 7 can't figure out what the battery charge level is. Or at least I can't figure out how to find it :) Also, Windows 7 sees it as "ROCK MP3", not Archos.

The battery life on the device is three bars. Most of the time I had the volume at half or below, and battery life seemed reasonable.

Using It!

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It plays mp3, wma (drm-free), wav, ogg, flac. It does not play Apple's .m4a (drm-free) files. I did not try APE files. You can play with lyrics scrolling on the screen as long as you have the lyrics files. A quick tip if you are going to play lyrics: you have to turn off the time-out feature, because the screen blanks out it is rather pointless to show lyrics if you are not going to see them :)

I transferred most of the stuff I put on this with Windows Explorer and Windows Media Player.

It does play WMA protected files from Overdrive, as long as you transfer them using Windows Media Player (it does not work with Windows Explorer). I tried this with four different WMA music files. Please keep in mind that Overdrive albums are delivered as one file, so when you play them on the Archos you don't see individual songs. Just one long file.

I do not have an active music subscription service so I don't know if it can play Rhapsody and such.

Audible not supported, Amazon Unbox video not supported (I tried both and they didn't work)

Music quality was pretty much as expected considering the price-range. But I am not an audiophile so I am not picky.

You can record live FM radio, but there is no timer-recording feature, so you have to manually start recording when your program starts. I do not listen to FM radio, so I can't help much there.

I did not find an online user manual. the included starter guide is available online at the Archos website as a PDF, but it is not a complete/detailed user guide. Having said that, if you are used to devices with buttons, this is fairly easy to figure it out.

When researching around on the internets, be sure to check the exact model number, this is the 24b, there is a 24c as well.

If you are into podcasts and audiobooks, bad news, there is no bookmarking. However there is a workaround if you turn the device off while listening to the podcast, and then when you restart it you press resume, it remembers the position. If you play any other track in-between, it will forget its position! If you are a serial and disciplined podcast/audiobook listener this could work out.

The menu and user interface is fairly straight-forward once you get the hang of it. Not perfect, but definitely serviceable if you are used to button-based gadgets.

The key button is the "m" menu button. It is context-sensitive, so it performs different functions depending on where you are in the menus.

To turn it on or off, you have to press and hold the middle button. Compared to the other devices I am using, the Archos needs about 1-2 seconds of longer press-and-hold. This may be good in preventing accidental turn on/off.

When looking at the list of songs/artists/albums, press and hold the left or right arrow to scroll faster than click-by-click.

One of my pet peeves is for rolling menus and the menu rolls to the top when you reach the bottom and vice versa. This is a plus when navigating. It does not have a letter-by-letter or letter grouping navigation.

You can multi-task while playing music; eg look at pictures, check the calendar, browse files, adjust settings. However, when you adjust settings, pressing the + and buttons increases/decreases the volume as well.

I did not use the video feature as the small screen and low resolution is not really suited for video watching. But that's just me, some people may be fine with 320x240 videos.

Size-wise this is about 1-inch shorter and 1/2-inch less wide than the 4th generation iPod Touch. The Archos is about 1-inch taller than the Sandisk Fuze (with the click-wheel) and about the same width. However the Fuze is decidedly heavier.

Comparing to other mp3 players

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Of the mp3 players I have used, the Sandisk Clip+ and Fuze (click wheel) are currently the better value for money. Compared to them, the main strengths of this Archos are its bigger physical size, bigger usable screen space, and its bigger buttons.

Music lover that I am, I'm the last of my tribe to get an MP3 device. I was (am) almost entirely ignorant of such devices, and had a few frustrating attempts to copy music into the Archos that made me want to pitch it out the nearest window. After finally figuring out how to prevent the device from automatically downloading all of my music files and put in only the ones I desired, I must admit to being rather blown away by the handy-dandiness the Archos provides and, as several others have mentioned, the versatility this lightweight little machine offers. I have not yet used the video features other than to download photographs which come out looking great far better looking than on my phone. I'm looking forward to getting to know this much better!