Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
297 of 305 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Archos Gmini 400, October 6, 2004
First a little background info on me. I am 18 and a sophomore in college. I have wanted an mp3 player for a while, but could not justify the cost for just music. I spent weeks reading about all sorts of players, but all of them were mostly the same. Then I saw the gmini, and after reading lots of opinions, I decided to purchase it. I also have a LOT of friends who own iPods, so I have seen and used them.
When people see me holding the Archos Gmini 400 (gmini) they often say "Is that an iPod?" iPods are all the rage lately and people can't seem to get enough of them, but why? For those of you who don't know much about an iPod, here it is in a gist:
MP3/AAC player
Games
Portable Hard Drive
Black and White Screen
Unique Touch Interface
The games are limited to basic black and white games, still fun, but they get old. It plays MP3 and AAC, and is the only player to support songs purchased in itunes. However the portable hard drive feature can get a bit confusing. You CANNOT upload your songs from an iPod. You can only upload DATA off of it. You can upload songs if you store them as data... but then you can't play them from the iPod. So don't expect to use it to transfer songs between computers or even to just save space on your hard drive by deleting your music once it's on the iPod. You can play it off the iPod to your computer, but you won't be able to retrieve the actual song files, so when the iPod dies, you're out of luck.
Now, onto the gmini. It is the same size as an iPod, and it plays MP3's, that is about all they have in common. The gmini has the following features:
MP3/WMA/WAV music playback
MP4 Video Playback (Divx and Xvid)
Games
Photo Viewer
CF Card Reader
AV out for viewing on a TV
Audio in for recording
Mic for recording
Color screen
Portable Hard Drive
The gmini has a much larger feature set, for only a small amount more, but what are the trade offs? The battery lives are similar. The 4G iPod is about 12 hours, while the gmini is 10 for music. The iPod, right now, is very stylish. It's white, it's sleek, and it has no buttons. The gmini, is, well, not. It looks almost like a shrunken gameboy with more chrome. I have to admit however that it is not as ugly as the pictures make it look online, and does feel nice in your hands. The fit and finish of the gmini is just not as good as an iPod. I've handled many iPods and they are all smooth and perfect. The gmini has some spots where it just doesn't look as good. The buttons have space around them, which are likely to attract dust, and it just doesn't seem as modern as an iPod with it's click wheel. What you give up for looks is gained back, and more so, by the features.
Screen/Video Play Back
The screen is amazing. Though it is not the best resolution wise, it has great color, contrast, and brightness. Horizontal viewing is limited (it turns blue if you move too far to the side) but this device is really only meant for one person to use, so this doesn't matter. The movies, if encoded to the right format and a resolution about the size of the screen, play back extremely smooth. If you use a higher resolution for playback on a television then the FPS drop and it becomes choppy at times, but it is still watchable. The video feature is the big draw over the iPod, but there is more. Here is a general summary of everything there is to know about the gmini.
OS
The OS is much like windows 3.1. If you have ever used windows, you will know how to use this OS. You can navigate through folders, or it can organize your songs into categories based on the ID3 tags. If you want to know how to use more advanced features, like copying from a CF card to the hard drive, a quick glance at the manual will solve all your problems.
Photo Viewing
What can I say, other than it is there. It isn't astounding, but it works. The pictures load slowly (at least mine did, at 1600*1200 resolution in jpeg format) and when you zoom in, it seems as though the gmini lowers the quality of the image. However, it works and is useful for showing off shots of last nights get together, etc. Also, having the CF slot is a really useful feature. Did your camera fill up? No problem, dump the pics in the gmini and keep on shooting, I wish I had this at the NYC auto show.
Music Playback
You can create play lists on the fly, open existing play lists, browse by ID3 tags or the file system, and it all works just fine. You can even play all your music files at random, which is what I do most of the time. The only part that is annoying is finding the song you want in a long list of titles. I have terrible memory when it comes to names of bands, so I usually just know the title of the song. When searching through thousands, it gets annoying without an iPod like wheel. You need to sit there holding the dpad down, which takes some time. It does speed up as it goes along, but then you end up passing where you wanted to go, etc. It isn't that big of a deal, but if I could change one thing, I would change it to touch interface instead of buttons. How is the sound itself? Good.
Games
The games are based off of the mophun game engine, which is mostly used for cell phones. You can get a lot of 80's like games which are a fun distraction, but do get boring if overly played. I hear there is a 3D rally game coming out this Fall though (2004). The only downside is you cannot play music and play a game at the same time. Overall a nice extra feature to have.
Portable Hard Drive
Connecting the gmini to a PC could not be any easier. Here it is, step by step:
Plug in the USB cable
BAM, you're done. You get a new drive letter under "My Computer" (in windows, and it's similar for mac) and then you just drag and drop your files onto the gmini. The gmini archives all the new files when you disconnect the usb cable, so there is no need to use proprietary software. No drivers, no hassle. You can even upload all your data, music, video, whatever, off of it at any time to any computer. When you decide to put some video onto it, the video converters actually come on the hard drive, and you can install them right from the gmini. Having the gmini is like having a 20gb jump drive. You'll never use a floppy again. For that matter, you won't even use a CD.
General Downsides:
The included headphones are not too great, but when have included headphones been any good?
Style is not the greatest thing ever, though it is made of Aluminum which is pretty neat.
The screen is extremely prone to scratches, and there is no included case, or one you can buy, at the time of this review (10.7.04)
No replaceable battery (neither does the iPod)
Buttons instead of a scroll wheel, or similar touch interface.
Overall, I think it depends on what you want. Do you want a device simply to listen to music, and show off to friends? An iPod will work for that. Or, do you want something that is actually useful? Music, movies, games, CF reader, Real Portable Hard drive, for slightly more than an iPod. Everyone has an iPod, why not try something new? In my opinion, this is the best "player" on the market right now. It crosses the lines between MP3 player, and Portable Media Center.
.Recommended.
|
|
|
67 of 70 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bought it, used it, It ROCKS!, November 14, 2004
First off don't listen to reviewers who just looked at the package in the store and never bought it, that makes me mad they have no basis to review a product. I've had the Gmini for a while now and this thing rocks! It's not just an Mp3 player, but it stores and allows you to view photos and videos, has decent games, and at 20GB it's big enough to handle a ton if data. You might read about people who knock it for its size, but I purchased an ipod case made by Case Logic and it fits perfectly..It's virtually the same size as an ipod.
Another cool feature is the movies, if you can "acquire" movies on your computer then you can convert them to a format that the Gmini uses and then watch movies on this little awesome machine. Tell me how cool this is, recently on a cross country flight I watched the movie The Italian Job which I downloaded, converted, and copied to the Gmini. I had plenty of battery to watch the movie and listen to music the rest of the way. The guy next to me was watching and then at the end of the flight he was asking all about the Gmini and how he could get one.
The Mp3 player is also very cool. You can create playlists on the fly, as well as break you music collection down by artist, album, genre, year it was released, song name. Playlists are very cool because they take up very little space on the hard drive, but they allow you to do so much. For example I have 3 different playlists for when I workout...One for running which is upbeat and has songs that I really get into which take my mind off of running ;)... another is for lifting which contains much more aggressive music that gets me all fired up!...and the third one is my cool down music that I play as I'm walking or stretching. Very cool.
I purchased 2 great accessories for the Gmini. The first was a 3 in 1 case made by Case Logic, model # MPC7. This thing can be used as a belt pack, as an arm band, or detach all the straps and the case has a hand strap. It's very nice and convenient. The other cool accessory is made by Irock and it is a device that plugs into the cigarette lighter of your car and into the headphone jack of the Gmini and basically broadcasts your Mp3's over a radio station that you tune your car's stereo to. It's very cool cause now your Gmini is locked and loaded for long road trips! Just watch out if you accidentally play that aggressive workout playlist while you drive you might develop a case of ROAD RAGE!!!
The photo function is very handy for me as well because I have a 4 month old daughter and love to show off pictures of her all of the time. One of her pictures is also set as the wallpaper of the Gmini! The CF reader is a nice function to have as well. I have a Canon A75 which uses a CF card and I've just messed around a little bit with this but you can take all of the pictures from the CF card and transfer them to the Gmini and then continue taking pictures. Very handy if you shoot tons of pictures, or are like me a little paranoid to take a ton because you are worried that your card will be full when the perfect picture moment comes along.
Anyway, I am rambling. Forget the ipod photo, or other ipods the Gmini is well worth your money and has features that leave the ipod in the dust (mainly the movies). If you don't have any desire to watch movies or play entertaining games then the ipod and Gmini are very similar and it probably comes down to personal preference. Archos has created a real winner here; I don't believe you will be disappointed.
|
|
|
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Jack of all Trades, Master of None, November 26, 2004
Archis Gmini 400 is a great device with many capabilities. Gmini 400 is one of the best choices if you compare its features to competitors. Certainly, it is not as beautiful and intuitive as an Ipod, but it does so much more. Its music features are not as extensive as Iriver mp3 players, but it is so much smaller and has video capabilities. Its video mode is not as advanced as many other devices designed as entertainment centers (such as those that can record live TV), but Gmini 400 is much cheaper and it still has a beautiful color screen. The fact that Gmini 400 is the second best choice in many categories makes it a very strong overall choice. It is a Jack-of-all-trades, and being a master of none is not necessarily a weakness if you are looking for a broad set of features.
I bought Gemini 400 a week ago from Amazon, and put it to a good test since then, because I was not sure if I wanted to keep it or send it back. Gmini is a small device that looks like a game boy. The box comes with connection cables, headphones, charger and a multi-jack adaptor. No carrying case is included, and the last time I checked, Archos did not have one for sale. It looks well-built overall, although, to my dismay, the browsing button was a fit flimsy. The charger is unbelievable light and it works for input voltages from 100 V to 240 V, perfect for international travelers. Archos also included handsomely made plugs to be used in Europe and Britain. A full charge takes about 3 hours. One of the great things is that you don't have to wait until the batteries are completely drained before you can charge your device. I did not test how long the batteries last (the company claims 10 hours with music only and 5 hours with video, and the latest firmware update claims significant improvement over battery life), but if you fiddle too much with the screen (and, believe me, you should if you want to learn how to use it), they will obviously drain quickly. I think it is easily possible to get 8 or 9 hours if you only listen to music on your Gmini 400, but this may not be enough for some users who demand more battery life, especially considering that there are alternative products with longer battery life.
Gmini has an ingenious system of file manipulation: Similar to the previous versions of Windows explorer, two windows appear when you want to copy or move files, when you add songs to a playlist, or when you copy photos to the device. Therefore, you can use it as a back-up hard drive, but 20 GB hard drive space (about 18 when formatted) may not be sufficient for people with a lot fo music files and movies to store on the device. I think Archos should have offered a 40 GB version as well.
Gmini 400 becomes ready to use a few seconds after you turn it on, even when the hard drive is full of music and other files. I heard horror stories with other mp3 players that took 20 minutes to switch on, and this is a big deal for me. Operating system in the device looks stable (Gmini 400 crashed only once since I bought it). When I received it, I immediately updated the firmware to the latest version (1.2), which is extremely easy to do. I suggest you do the same before putting any files on Gmini. This is not the easiest mp3 player to use, but learning to use it is not rocket science either. Reading the included manual carefully (there is a more detailed manual on the hard drive of Gmini) is not a bad investment considering how much it increases your enjoyment.
I am not an "audiophile", but Gmini 400 sounds very good. The included headphones, as you can guess, are completely useless. Transferring music is very quick with a USB 2.0 connection. My files (11 GB) took less than half hour to transfer. You can adjust bass, treble, and deep bass on your device but no equalizers are included. One of the best features of Gmini is that Windows XP recognizes it as an external hard drive (you will need to install drivers for other operating systems). Then, you can copy your music files (and other files of course) onto Gmini 400 without using any software (but, if you wish, it is also possible to use Windows Media Player 9 to syncronize files). At this point, you have two choices: either browse through your music using your own folder structure (if you organized your music well) or let Gmini 400 detect your ID tags and organize the music based on Artist, Album, Title, Genre, and Year. Recognizing ID tags (you need to do this every time you add new music) takes about 15 seconds for my 11 GB of music. I had one minor problem. Gmini did not recognize Blues as a genre, and replaced "Blues" in ID tags with "0". Everything else worked fine. When you skip to another song without waiting to the end, Gmini searches its hard drive for a short while, but if you are listening to an album or a playlist, it does not include any extra silence between tracks. This should work great for classical music listeners. Finally, you can easily create playlists in the fly.
The video capabilities of Gmini 400 are limited. You cannot record from TV or any other external source. You have to transfer video files to Gmini using your computer. It is certainly possible to watch an entire movie, but the screen is a bit too small for my tastes. However, you can connect Gmini to your TV and watch your movie on TV screen. Gmini is able to play only specific types of movie files. Requirements (30 or less fps, less than a certain resolution, etc) seem extensive at first. However, Archos included a utility in the hard drive of Gmini. After you install this utility, converting your movies to the format Gmini likes is very easy. You do not have to know anything about this procedure, since almost everything is automated in the process.
The photo mode works nicely. You can transfer your photos directly from your digital camera into Gmini. You do not even need a cable for that (as opposed to other mp3 players). You simply plug your compact flash card into Gmini and it recognizes it automatically. This is also much better than Ipod photo because you do not have to use your computer to place these files on the device. If you go on a trip with the intent to take a lot of pictures, but you do not want to carry your notebook computer, Gmini offers a perfect solution.
Gmini also lets you play games, although I am not interested in this very much. I feel like extensive gaming on this device can ruin the buttons in the long run. Five games were included on my Gmini, and three of them were demos. You can buy games directly from Archos if you pay an additional $6 for each.
You can record voice using Gmini but it does not encode your files into mp3. Also, the sound of the hard drive is clearly audible during the beginning of the recording. You can also record from analog sources using the line in connection. You can even edit these songs on Gmini, but this is nothing fancy. You can simply cut out sections from the beginning and the end of the file. If you would like to listen to and record from the radio, you will have to buy an optional accessory: the remote control. The Amazon website sells Gmini and the remote as a bundle. I think the remote is worth the extra money you pay for it not only because adds radio capabilities, but also it reduced battery consumption of the main unit. You do not have to turn on the screen on the main unit every time you want to search or skip a song. Also, the remote has a microphone to record voice. If you do not want to hear the hard drive on your voice recording, you will need the remote. When you record a song from the radio using the remote control, you have the option of "retro-recording", which lets you capture 30 seconds of the broadcast before you actually pressed the record button-a very useful feature, I believe. You can also edit recordings from the radio right on your Gmini. One problem with the remote is that the record button is placed too conveniently. It is easy to accidentally press the button.
I did not have an encounter with the Archos support yet, but it seems they are at least updating the firmware for Gmini 400 quite frequently (in relative terms, of course). In any case, make sure you buy one from a reputable place with a good return policy (like Amazon, which also has the best price as I am writing this). After thinking about it a lot, I decided to keep my Gmini 400. If you only want an mp3 player with plenty of extra musical features (equalizers, etc.), Gmini 400 may not be the best choice. If you want a very simple device that does nothing but plays mp3s, Gmini is not a great choice, either. However, if you like a little bit of everything, Gmini looks like a great choice. When you add the color screen, the photo and movie features, and the small size of this device, Gmini 400 becomes a strong contender. Good luck finding the right player for you.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
