The XS202 keeps the small form factor of its predecessor and yet still packs a 20gb hard drive, making owners of iPod Nano's and Zen Micros wonder quite what is inside their 4 and 6gb devices when this little baby offers so much storage. But if truth be known a 20gb hard disk is now not that different to a 6gb one and the big difference is price, so if Archos spend all their money on storage, what gives?

Well Archos don't go in for the extras , no FM tuner, no voice recorder, no dock, no styling!  Well maybe the last point is a bit harsh but the XS202s is hardly a looker, we very much doubt much time was spent in he design studio and there are no sexy design cues, this is more of a shell for a hard drive. If purchased in black the XS202s does look better and as it'll spend most of its time tucked in your pocket it's not a major issue anyway. What you do get is a highly optimised audio device, the menu screen is the same easy to use icon driven one used on the XS200 and we praised it highly before.

This revised version the XS202s is a little slimmer 76 x 59 x 17mm and weighs just under 120 grams so its been on an average new year diet, shed a few pounds then given up!

Archos enable this model to support MP3, WMA, WAV and now the WMA9 DRM enabled files, which means that you can use your Archos with many online legit audio stores. Audio quality is very good with realistic bass reproduction and a clear mid range making the most of your music, especially if you encode MP3 at 192kbits or more, there is little hiss or electronic noise and if you can leave the equalizer alone its an all round good sonic performance. Then hook your XS202s to a decent set of earphones like our favourite Shure E2c's and its hard to see why you'd spend more for an iPod or other £200+ MP3 players.

It's easy to top up the Xs202's hard drive via a fast USB 2.0 connection to your PC or Mac and a number of Windows based applications can sync with the baby player without needing any new installed software, for example both Windows Media 10 and  Musicmatch Jukebox. Then  there is the revised Lithium Ion battery which can be charged off the USB connection and delivers 18 hours of replay from our tests which is both an improvement of 8 hours over the XS200 and a full 4 hours more than the iPod.

A cool new feature is a kind of intro play which we've seen on CD players before, this allows you to scan through the first 15 seconds of each track to help locate the one you are after. Overall however there isn't that much new about the Archos XS202s MP3 player, it has a new sexier black case and a much improved battery life and WMA DRM support but it really is a facelift of the XS200. This might sound like nothing to get excited about but you couldn't be more wrong, the XS200 was a good simple MP3 player much like the smaller XS100 and the XS202s just gives you more bang for your buck.

Priced at £169.99 you are paying a premium for the black case and revised line up but it still represents good value for money.

Published - 24/01/2006

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