Customer Reviews

Archos 3 Vision 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Chocolate Brown)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

this review was updated on 12/27/2009.

my archos 3 vision absolutely meets or exceeds my personal requirements for an mp3 player!

times are tough so when my mp3 player was stolen in july 2008, i honestly tried to use my aging windows mobile phone with windows media player as a replacement player for over a year. however, that solution had several limitations and frustrations. there were workarounds, but i grew tired of them.

the stolen player was an archos g-mini which i had owned for several years and i really appreciated it's features so that is the main reason i shopped for a new archos player first. the archos 3 vision player has all of those same features with heaping helping of style, storage and added features.

pros:
- it has style
- priced under $100
- plenty of storage space
- fits comfortably in all pockets
- good quality video on beautiful screen
- random play by folder, artist, album and genre
- better than average playback quality with a good equalizer
- total access to music at all times (without proprietary software)

neutral:
- battery life
- no firmware updates yet

cons:
- screen scratches quickly and easily
- the on screen control dial is almost useless for browsing tracks

the screen is beautiful and will also scratch quickly. my device had a 0.25" scratch within 24 hours of use, but i could only see it when the device was off. luckily, i have lots of screen protectors so cutting one to fit was easy. i could not see the scratch unless the screen was off. with the protector on, the screen looks much less beautiful.

the on-screen dial is certainly not the easiest navigation interface i have ever considered. if you prefer to use random play or pregenerated playlists, the on-screen dial will likely never be a concern for you. however, if you require the ability to browse through every song on your device so you can carefully consider which track is worthy of your listening time at this very moment, this device is not for you.

a couple bugs that i expect to be remedied with firmware updates...
- the button hold function sometimes requires a redundant switch on and off in order to switch off properly.
- the device will not remember my personal background picture; i select a picture, but when i turn the device on again, a different default background is displayed and my personal background picture is still available quickly by cycling through the default selections.

when i posted this review, i had owned the player for 2 months and the video features were basically useless to me. i thought i would occasionally use video playback during long train rides or plane trips, but music is really all i need... i knew i had paid a price for the feature so i felt committed to actually using the video playback and realized 1 very good use when i thought ahead to load it with a few downloaded holiday shows that i knew both of my youngest kids would enjoy. i also purchased a cheap speaker carrying case and the result is that watching shows on daddy's player was a hit during stressful holiday road trips and it is not something they will expect for everyday driving.

however, i still could live without video playback and i have recenly had a chance to play with the archos 2 vision player, which a friend purchased as a gift to himself. it has a screen that is barely big enough for showing id3 tags, but if you do not need and will not use video playback, i highly recommend that player because it has the same basic player features for about 40% less price. that player also has a simpler control scheme for browsing tracks.

This is a cool looking gadget but that is all below are the thing to watch out for:
1) Very poor product documentation
2) Very poor technical support
3) No play list function
4) Very week FM radio receiver
5) Very very very poor FM transmitter
6) Touch screen is not responsive often requiring second, third, fourth...touches before the function is accessed
7) Menu navigation needs a rethink as once you have loaded it with more artist or albums than can fit the screen, scrolling to an artist or album is very difficult
8) Very very very very crappy headphones; you need to buy a pair of decent headphones to fully appreciate the music experience
9) No carry case as yet

The Pluses:
1) Excellent sound quality (playback)
2) Excellent video quality (playback)
3) Cool looks
4) High quality look and feel

I bought this Archos 3 Vision player online for around $70. I was lured in by the chocolate brown color, the wide range of file support, and the FM transmitter. Impressed by previous Archos offerings, I decided to try this new player out.

When I first saw the item, I was extremely surprised by how small it was. My old MP3 player (a Philips SA6145 MP3 Player (Black)) has a 3.5" screen and is quite large. I regretted buying this Archos 3 immediately after seeing its small size, which is (no joke) barely bigger than a credit card. The only reason I left my perfect Philips was for a touch screen interface that the Philips didn't have. I very much regret doing that now, as I realize that my Philips was really a great player.

And the touch screen, you may ask? It's truly horrible. It always requires at least two presses to respond correctly; pitiful for any touch screen player. And there's no way to scroll by dragging. No, you have to use a "scroll wheel" (a little circle that lights up when the touch the area of the lower, right-hand part of the screen) and turn it in a circular motion to move the page. I really missed real buttons then.

After loading some files onto the Archos, I was very happy with the 8 GB of storage space on this Archos compared to only 4 on my Philips. I loaded some AVI, FLV, and WMV files on the player and was extremely impressed with the quality of the Archos' screen. But after only 3 seconds of a high-quality AVI file, the player froze completely. The touch screen didn't respond at all, neither did pressing the home button (one of the only real buttons on the player located on the face of the player underneath the screen). I had to turn off the player and back on again, only to have it do the same thing. I converted this AVI file to WMV using my Philips' converter software, and the files played fine on my player, although the quality was, disappointingly, not as good. I then loaded several MP3 files onto the Archos and was saddened to see that, although the quality was good, half the album art and tagging info didn't show up on the player. This was never a problem with my Philips.

In addition, using the touch screen for music control was abysmal. The volume slide would not change, and several presses was what it took to change the volume to where I wanted it to go. Now, the truly main reason why I wanted a touch screen was to be able to press the seek bar and instantly go to any part of the movie I wanted, and the Archos did this fine. 1 good thing, finally.

The accessories included are the USB cord for charging and file transfer, the included earphones, and the user manual. The USB cord was fine, but the included headphones were the definition of terrible. Sound quality was extremely poor, and running was impossible, after about 15 seconds of running, an earbud would pop out of my ear. Terrible. The user manual was simply a fold out map in three languages of the stuff you can read on the Amazon webpage. However, there was an offer for 75 free songs from Archos, but it was really a scam to get my to sign up with my credit card on an obligation-based program.

My overall views on this product spell out one word: disappointment. I was extremely impressed with the Archos 5 and the Archos 604, but this player was a sore disappointment. Archos really lost out on a great opportunity of making a smaller player in their line. Instead of making a quality product, they threw together a player and polished it. Everything was abysmal about this player, and not even the color satisfied me. It turned out to be more of a purple than brown in natural light. But in more serious terms, the horrible touch screen, the freezing while playing back files, the poor earphones, and the uncertainty of album art and info transferring to the player makes me award this player with a 1 star. Stay far, far, away.

Units came with little to no instructions. Technical support was nil. FM output did not work.
I returned this product and bought the Latte Espresso for about the price. It has way more
features, more memory, better instructions, FM output works great and is very well built.

***THIS REVIEW IS FOR BOTH ARCHOS 3 VISION RED AND CHOCOLATE BROWN***
First of all, this player is awesome, my expectations for this player were exceeded. I personally love it. I have more than 4 months using it.

FEATURES
*3 Inch LCD Touchscreen.
*Plays music and video.
*Photos.
*Categorizes music by Album, Artist, or Genre.
*FM Radio.
*FM Transmitter.
*Voice recorder.
*Calendar.
*Stopwatch.
*Displays time at all times (except while playing video).
*Has ability to remember where you left off in video and music.
*Customizable Background.
*Turn off button at the main menu (Music, Photo, Files... screen)
*You can browse your files with the FILES function.
*Equalizer (Manual and Preset)
*Change the Backlight, Backlight time, and Brightness.
*"RESTORE TO DEFAULT" option (Restores to the Factory settings)
*"CALIBRATION" function (Screen Calibration for touch accuracy)
*HD display, with bright true colors.
*Reset button on the back (USE A LEAD PENCIL TO USE THE RESET BUTTON)
*HOLD function on Power button.
*POWER button on Main menu.
*Automatic Shutdown function.
*Earphones included.
*Repeat function.
*Favorite function.
*Plug-and-Play.

WHATS IN THE BOX
*ARCHOS 3 Vision.
*Earphones.
*Mini USB Cable.
*Quick Start guide.
*Manual included.

VIDEO
Supports MPEG 1/2/4, WMV, FLV, AVI, RM, and RMVB video formats. Video quality is great, AVI formats are the best for this player, sound quality is excellent. AVI format videos have almost HD quality depending how the video was acquired or recorded. WMV formats lag.

AUDIO
Supports MP3, WMA, and WAV audio formats. The audio is great, you might have to use the Manual Equalizer to achieve the best sound quality depending on the earbuds or ear phones you use. Equalizer is located on the lower left button (Next to Previous button). Has several default equalizer settings, like NORMAL, MS EQUALIZER, ROCK, POP, CLASSIC, BASS, JAZZ, and MANUAL EQUALIZER SETTINGS. If you decide to use the Manual Equalizer, make sure you select "Manual Equalizer" on the Equalizer Settings Menu (Where you select Rock, Pop, Bass etc.) To change the manual equalizer setting, select "MANUAL EQUALIZER" and drag the sliders from left to right or vise versa. If you decide to go go with the "MS EQUALIZER", choose it in the Equalizer Settings Menu, and go back to the Settings screen and choose MS EQUALIZER and choose from BASS, 3D or AUTOMATIC VOLUME.
You can also add music to Favorites just by "Press-and-Hold" on the track or album.

PHOTOS
Supports JPG, BMP, and GIF image files. High quality photos can be viewed, You can zoom in and rotate the pictures. You can set one of your pictures as the HOME SCREEN.

FM TRANSMITTER
If you decide to use the FM Transmitter, make sure you KEEP the earbuds CONNECTED to the player, since it utilizes them as the Transmitter Antenna. Also make sure to MAX the volume so the sound quality on the radio will be better. Many people mistaken the FM transmitter and say that it has poor signal strength. So keep the earbuds connected to the player. You can choose the station you want to broadcast to on the settings screen of the main menu. You can turn the FM TRANSMITTER on or off by selecting the button with a box and a signal coming out of it.

FM RADIO
The Signal Strength is great, it has the RECORD function on it, so if you hear a song you like, you can record it, although it uses the built-in microphone, the recording quality will be crappy. It also has the REGION function, It has US, EUROPE, JAPAN, ASIA, and CAMPUS RADIO, if you go out of the country or at a football game. It also has a SAVE STATION function so if you want to favorite your stations. Just select the station, hit settings, and SAVE STATION. then you can browse them by hitting the PRESET button.

DISPLAY
The display is great, you can change the background picture with the button that looks like 3 papers one in front of the other at the main menu. You can also choose your own background picture. Just just select your desired picture, hit setting on the picture and select "SET HOME SCREEN" and you are done. You can also choose the region of the picture, by zooming in, and rotating the picture. On the PLAYER SCREEN you can choose to display the lyrics of the song you are listening to, display the cover art or album art, display a spectrum analyzer of the music being played or simply just the Artist, Album and Track name.

NOTES
*Volume control: Use fingernail to lower or increase volume.
*Virtual on-screen dial: Use tip of your finger to prevent scratching the screen
*Buy a Screen Protector to prevent from potential scratches.

BUGS
* Hold function sometimes requires a redundant switch on and off in order to switch off properly.
* Device won't keep custom background but can be restored by switching through the backgrounds.

OTHER
*Plug-and-Play.
*Doesn't need program to sync in files, just "Drag 'n Drop" into player's specified folders.

PROS
*Under $100.
*Lightweight and Portable, fits in your shirt pocket.
*Displays Battery and Time.

CONS
*Time is in Military style (NOT A PROBLEM FOR ME)
*Browsing could be improved to just slide your finger for future Firmware.
*No Firmware available for download.

This is an exceptional portable, lightweight player, with lots of functions.

PROS:
-Nice look
-Great sound quality
-Clear Video and Photo
-FM player and FM TRANSMITTER-GREAT!
-Responsive Touch screen

CONS:
-On Screen Volume Control-hard to control
-Hold switch becomes unresponsive at times
-no short cut for "now playing"


OVERALL GREAT MP3/MP4 PLAYER!!!!!

Tactile wheel jumps up and down..very annoying. Not impressed at all, thought it would be much better. Sending it back.

I got this for $60, I bought it for use in the gym. It works fine as far as i'm concerned. The scroll wheel is useless and the touch screen is quirky, but once you get used to it it is definately worth the money.

This item looks cool. That's about the best thing about it. The sound quality is ok. The touch screen does not work great. I notice this especially when trying to turn the volume up and down, kinda important. I really have to set the volume to what I want and be ok w/ that for a while cause it's so hard to change. Plus the battery power is awful. My daughters both have no brand players and they have two or three times the battery life the Archos has. It seems to drain power even when it is not on. Another problem is my computer doesn't always recognize it, I went to the website to troubleshoot they had nothing in the FAQ's so I emailed them it was over a week ago w/ no response. Even though it said it would be 48 hours.

I always wanted an Archos but this wasn't it. I got it for my little girl because it had a touch screen. The touch is unresponsive. Lags greatly. I wish I never bought it. I should have bought an ipod touch. Now I will still have to buy one and out 90 bucks. Live an learn. It was really hard to get video on this device and I am pretty tech savy. It was REALLY hard. It is very nice looking though. The screen is very pretty. But too much work and not enough reward. Still considering buying Archos 5. Guess I am a glutton for punishment. I wish it worked better.