Rating: 
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS!
Review: After exchanging it TWICE, now having had 3 different copies of this player, i STILL can't get it to work. It freezes, won't hold as much memory as it says, turns off when it feels like it, and, as if its not working wasn't enough, the stupid case doesn't even fit! that should have tipped me off.
it is small, and light, and looks really cute, but unless you want a $$$ FM radio, i'd buy something else. the battery life for mp3 playback isnt good either, but that shouldnt really matter because you cant really play mp3s anyway.
Overall, don't bother with this product...
Rating: 
Summary: Very good player and recorder
Review: Before buying the Ondio, I had my eyes on the RipFlash Plus 128MB. I ordered one from Amazon, but had to cancel it because it was back-ordered and I hate to wait for more than a month. I am really happy for that decision. In less than a week, I bought this Ondio and now I couldn't be happier.I have read reviews by others, and many of the complaints are non-an-issue thanks to the firmware upgrade. There have been a major upgrade in firmware 1.32b, and most bugs are eliminated. I expect other bugs be corrected and new features (such as WMA support) be added soon. The firmware upgrade is easy as a flip. Features I like: (1) Line-in recording. This really makes music conversion easy.
(2) Unlike other brands, recording is coded in MP3 directly.
(3) Easy USB connection. No software is needed, as the device is recognized as a removable drive. So you can drag and drop files between your computer and the Ondio.
(4) Sound quality is excellent. Features I am happy to have although wish it better: (1) FM (this is an bonus compared to the RipFlash Plus) has reception for only a few station (only those with VERY strong signal). But the quality is good. The reason may be that it filters out weak signals. Really not a big deal.
(2) Built-in mic recording is just OK. I heard others saying a preamplified microphone is needed to make decent recording.
(3) The carrying pouch does not fit the player very well. I probably won't use it at all. The sound is very loud and the level is ajusted via the earphone instead of the player. This may be the reason that the battery life is only 12 hours from three AAA batteries, compared with 20 hours from 2 AAA. Too much a difference in my oppinion. Overall, I am happy with the purchase. I also paid less for it.
Rating:
Summary: Very good player and recorder
Review: Before buying the Ondio, I had my eyes on the RipFlash Plus 128MB. I ordered one from Amazon, but had to cancel it because it was back-ordered and I hate to wait for more than a month. I am really happy for that decision. In less than a week, I bought this Ondio and now I couldn't be happier. I have read reviews by others, and many of the complaints are non-an-issue thanks to the firmware upgrade. There have been a major upgrade in firmware 1.32b, and most bugs are eliminated. I expect other bugs be corrected and new features (such as WMA support) be added soon. The firmware upgrade is easy as a flip. Features I like: (1) Line-in recording. This really makes music conversion easy.
(2) Unlike other brands, recording is coded in MP3 directly.
(3) Easy USB connection. No software is needed, as the device is recognized as a removable drive. So you can drag and drop files between your computer and the Ondio.
(4) Sound quality is excellent. Features I am happy to have although wish it better: (1) FM (this is an bonus compared to the RipFlash Plus) has reception for only a few station (only those with VERY strong signal). But the quality is good. The reason may be that it filters out weak signals. Really not a big deal.
(2) Built-in mic recording is just OK. I heard others saying a preamplified microphone is needed to make decent recording.
(3) The carrying pouch does not fit the player very well. I probably won't use it at all. The sound is very loud and the level is ajusted via the earphone instead of the player. This may be the reason that the battery life is only 12 hours from three AAA batteries, compared with 20 hours from 2 AAA. Too much a difference in my oppinion. Overall, I am happy with the purchase. I also paid less for it.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY!
Review: Do not buy this product it does not work. I bought one as it seamed to have the most features for the lowest price and cannot wait to pawn it off on someone. You have to buy batteries for this thing every day, it eats through the most expensive brands in an hour, the memory is ample except none of the recording features work unless set to a high quality which limits you to about an hour of radio or an hour and a half of voice record time. The interface with a PC is a nice simple cord however good luck finding a way to upload anything. There are better products for just a little more, don't be cheep.
Rating: 
Summary: It's the best of the bunch
Review: Great value in an MP3 player and probably the best of the bunch in this price range. I'm sure they'll all continue to drop in price eventually, but right now for convenience and value, it's #1
Rating: 
Summary: OK player, poor radio, marginal recorder
Review: I bought this as a recording device, both for radio and by way of the accessory microphone. The MP3 encoding is inadequate, particularly at low volume levels. Lots of digital artifacts in the sound. Radio reception is poor, even for strong local stations. You won't want to record the radio if there's constant noise when you move around and change reception. Still, it is just about the smallest and lightest recorder I think you can find right now, which means it is more likely to get carried around than devices that weigh more. The microphone accessory (with a preamp) is pretty good, works when plugged into the line input of a laptop for very good quality recording. (Note: microphone accessory is a separate purchase). Another reviewer found that the controls were difficult to use because of the poor fitting case; I second that.
Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as everyone else thinks...
Review: I have to say that I received this as a birthday gift from my husband, and I really like it. We had firmware issues at first but after he did an update it has been great. I don't think that it eats batteries anymore than any other MP3 player does. There are several quirks that used to annoy me, but I've learned to live with them. It's size is nice for working out with, but I do however wish that the ear plug cord was longer for the left ear. Other than that I have no big beef with it. I'd recommend it to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as everyone else thinks...
Review: I have to say that I received this as a birthday gift from my husband, and I really like it. We had firmware issues at first but after he did an update it has been great. I don't think that it eats batteries anymore than any other MP3 player does. There are several quirks that used to annoy me, but I've learned to live with them. It's size is nice for working out with, but I do however wish that the ear plug cord was longer for the left ear. Other than that I have no big beef with it. I'd recommend it to a friend.
Rating:
Summary: Archos Ondio - MP3 - OK
Review: I just got the player brand new off eBay while in the US. I already had a PDC 128MB MMC card and a Kodak 64MB card both loaded with music -- the PDC brand works fine but the Kodak initially stated it wasn't formatted correctly, but after formatting in my Kodak camera, the Ondio recognised it -- it took data, but couldn't play the music (very strange) -- so be carefull on card selection. Also, does not take SD cards.
After updating the firmware to 1.31f, scrolling through tracks is OK now - used to stick with original code.
Two things I want - one is to set default volume -- seems to be stuck on 17 and nowhere to change it - can change all base, treble, loudness, etc but not default volume --- every time you switch on -- back to 17....out of 20, too loud for a default anyway.
Second thing, resume playback from power off -- doesn't happen - turn it off and when you turn back on, comes up with menu - always, then you select Browse, and start playback from scratch again -- bit of a pain, I say. The dictaphone capability does seem good quality, and I tested in a few meetings this week and good feature is you can download the voice recordings to your PC so you could archive your meeting dialogue -- if allowed I guess.
Overall, I'm happy -- it's a neat gadget, that I got for [$$]in US where in the UK it's currently around £145 - go figure!
Yes, could do with recharge capability, backlight, better radio, etc, but for the money and if you use the features it has, worth the bucks.
Tech support -- gotta laugh -- I asked about the default volume thing - they said use the new firmware. I told them I was, so they referred me to the French office as my email showed me as UK based.... bit of a cop out. If there's no way to change default volume, they only gotta say so. Overall - Recommended. Resume playback and default volume change would have made this a 5 star for me (cost outweighs the other deficiencies)
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but . . .
Review: It's small, light, has good internal memory, and handles MP3s well. Sound quality is good, but is much improved by replacing with the headphones--pretty much any cheap set is a step up from the ones included. FM radio reception is terrible, although it can be marginally improved by tuning into one stop below the actual station. Included pouch is handy, but poor fit blocks some controls. Overall, apart from the poor radio reception which has been a nuisance, I've been happy with this player. But if you can wait for the second edition, do.
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