I've just bought an AV340 - and it's awsesome! I did look at an iPod purely for an mp3 player, and the article is right, there is no comparison on build quality and size...but the iPod is just an mp3 player and this is so very much more. The review seemed fair, but they obviously didn't play with it for long, because they would soon have relaised that the joystick *does* work as a button and it *does* alter volume in both mp3s and movies. I can honestly recommend the Archos, it works very well. If someone could create open source firmaware for this thing, it would turn into the ultimate gadget of the decade (games player, web browser, pda etc?). Regards, W.