Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 GB Handheld Entertainment Center

I like these things:

* It's got a lot of space for music--20GB will hold at least 300 hours of music. An incredibly awesome way to carry around our music collection. My wife, kids and I can organize all our tunes in separate folders. We have created many playlists that allow us more flexibility than ever.
* Great price.
* No problems with attaching and recognizing the unit with Windows ME or XP. Can't speak for any other OS.
* We are also using this unit to transfer our digital pictures while on vacation using the smartmedia adapter. We take tons of pictures and this allows us to dump them and clear the card.
* You can, in fact, transfer ALL file types TO and FROM the jukebox. According to a family member who owns the Creative Nomad, the Nomad will not allow you to transfer mp3 files back to a PC, apparently to prevent piracy. I've got to say, I'm a big believer in taking my music anywhere--now I can bring my tunes and drop them off at my work PC easily.
* The lcd, although small, is very readable and clearly shows 8 lines of info: {Line 1, set of info icons at top; 2 current folder; 3-7 current songs/subfolders; 8 current setting of the 3 function keys.} There are a half dozen or so pleasant color schemes from which to choose.
* Regular firmware updates have been offered by Archos' website. A quick look through the version history shows some great improvements. Firmware is very easy to upgrade--drop one file in the root directory and then go to the setup menu. A lot of the problems noted in the negative reviews here have been resolved by recent firmware versions. I look forward to more updates!
* No, it's not as small and sleek as the Ipod, but it will fit in your pocket and the value is enormous.
* Sound quality is about what I expected--pretty good.
* You can create playlists on the fly--something even the ...Ipod can't do. I was surprised to find that this is a useful feature.
* You can queue up a song while the current one is playing. This is very handy.
* This uses the same USB plug as our Olympus camera. This is great because we have two computers and we don't have to drag the cable back and forth between the two.
* Speaking of cables, get the USB2.0 or firewire cable. Well worth the price in the speed upgrade. We were lucky enough to get a bundle deal that included the USB2.0 cable.

Things that annoy me:

* A small rubber cozy covers the modular port. As nature goes, I expect to lose this in the next 6 months. Smaller still are the tiny little bracket covers flanking the lcd (for the camera attachment). These things are really stupid. If you don't get the camera, don't ever mess with them.
* Unsaved playlist clears if the unit is powered off; auto-power-off occurs by default after a minute to save battery space. Save playlist right after you make it or change the power settings.
* Does not recognize winamp m3u playlists. In particular, winamp uses forward slashes and relative folder referencing. In general, as far as I can tell, playlists have to be made in Musicmatch, while connected to the unit as it will properly reference the correct paths to each tune.
* Battery life appears shorter than expected, but this is no surprise with the power-demanding lcd.
* The microphone embedded in the unit is pretty pathetic. It picks up the sound of pushing the buttons and not ambient voices.

It's very simple. All in all, the positives outweigh the negatives. I'm very satisfied.

However, there are some negatives:
* Peculiar construction and packaging is not as polished as Zen or iPod - lots of tabs, poorly finished holes, and flaps.
* Playback skips or stops when exercising vigorously and the Archos is belt-mounted
* Camera module is not "fast" enough to capture moderate- or low-light scenes
* Internal microphone picks up internal hard-drive noise
* Audio-In does not adequately pre-amplify some external microphones
* Battery life is not fabulous, though OK with LCD off.
* Some gaps in supplied software, particularly for DVD capture and conversion to displayable format on internal LCD
* Occasional "hangs" when using USB 1.1 cable; far fewer experienced when using available USB2 / Firewire cable.
* Sound suffers when connected to a component system, etc., using supplied audio/video cable

It works well with Windows 98 and Linux without having to download some annoying troublesome musical file software, and speaks to the computer like an external hard drive.

I have been putting hours and hours of mp3 music on mine and have barely made a dent in the 20GB hard drive.

One word of advice that echoes other reviews; forget the little pamphlet flyer guide that came with it. It is so sparse, it's useless in several languages.

Another thing, some reviewers have said you have to go through some convoluted menu button-pushing process just to adjust the volume. Not so! During play mode, the up and down keys below the screen perform this function, and the left and right keys navigate to the next higher or lower file.

I looked at iPod and several other devices. My friend travels a lot, and takes most of his entire music collection with him with his Archos. I give it a thumbs-up.