Rating: 
Summary: Poor replacement for the Jukebox Series
Review: I currnetly own an Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 (basically the same specs - 20GB, USB2, drag and drop, 8-10 hr batt life) but that is where the similarities end. While the Gmini 120 may still be better than 75% of the competition with its affordable price, no need for interface software, USB 2, OS/Firmware updateability and large capacity, it does not measure up to its predecessor (JR 20). I purchased a Gmini 120 for my brother for Xmas and put them side by side in a full comparison.
First thing you notice is the button layout which seems confused (and unlabeled). The large button in the middle is the Menu button...odd. The File and Mode/Delete buttons have been eliminated and moved to who knows where. On my Gmini the Play button is not not very sensitive, you really have to give it a good long push to take. One of the big things noticed is the rechargeable batteries are no longer easily accesible (if accessible at all?). The JR 20 has little doors on each side to fully reveal the batteries (one of its best features). The phones/digital in-out/line in are all combined into one jack on the Gmini. You have to use a special adapter (that does come with the unit - don't lose it! it's totally proprietary) that allows for the line in and Digital in/out but takes away the phones!!!??. The Gmini now has several modular options which are not included like the photo wallet plugin (virtually useless attraction for those just looking for a good MP3 player, which most are) and a remote FM tuner (formerly built in on the old Jukebox FM Recorder 20).
Now we turn the unit on... Yes, navigation has changed for the worse. Now one must push play to select a folder instead of the simple and logical left/right/up/down nav of old. Pushing to right on a folder expands some window whos fuction I've yet to be determine. Pushing right again opens more mysterious panes. OK, we found our way to some music and push play....sounds pretty good... but quiet...let's turn up the volume.... Nope, it's all the way up! Well, maybe the track is just a low volume one. Nope. Even with the best headphones the gain on this unit is terrible. period. Even tweaking the new 5 band graphic EQ does no good. The JR 20 just has Treble and Bass but also has Loudness and Bass Boost - both of which are gone in Gmini. The Loudness is very handy when compensating for those quieter tracks.
To be fair Gmini has included some needed improvements in the area of more flexible playlists, 'resume' memory (nice!), a 'standard' mini-USB input and a qualifyable charge indicator in the form of a happy (or frowny) faced battery, although we've experienced dificulty with this unit holding a full charge for the advertised 8-10 hours.
Bottom Line - If you're looking for a good HD based MP3 player, Archos is still the best (at least for now) but the Gmini is not it. It is not clear whether Archos is still making the Jukebox series as there is no info on them on their website anymore (?!?!) but I would go out of my way to find a Jukebox Recorder series instead of the ill-concieved, aesthetically induced Gmini 120.
Rating: 
Summary: Works great
Review: This thing works great. Apart from choking on a Wnamp made playlist once, it plays mp3s very nicely. I also love the storage space, and the fact that Windows treats it like a hard drive. Drag & Drop beats having to use a media player any day.
Rating:
Summary: Best Value for Price
Review: I selected the Archos on the basis that I could also use the unit as an external Hard Drive. For the price, the Archos GMini 120 gave the largest hard drive capacity when compared to the iPod and the players from Dell and Samsung. I had no problems with the unit being recognized by Win XP, and I upgraded the unit's system software from v1.2 to v1.5 with no difficulty. The controls and menus are functional and logical although the buttons are slightly hard. My player runs 8.5 hours on a full charge, but I get occasional error messages during the last half-hour of use when playing WMA music files (it says there is something wrong with the file). The included ear buds are good, but I prefer my Sony ear buds which give a richer sound. Fit and finish is adequate. The hard drive inside is extremely quiet. I am not interested in the extra cost features so that has not been a problem for me. Overall, this has been a happy experience so far.
Rating:
Summary: good player, but with limitations
Review: I have had the crippleplayer for several days now and concur with most of whats been said although I have not had the malfunctions that others have reported. The most dissapointing thing about the player is the so called customizable (crippled) features. Add on features are one thing, but the fact that the player comes with the compact flash reader hardware and microphone built in yet INOPERABLE is extremely pathetic, aggravating, and would make me reluctant to: 1. purchase another Archos product, 2. purchase any add on which I do not REALLY want (forget about the fm radio and the MADplayer is not even a consideration), 3. reccomend the player to others. Great marketing job there! I would have preferred to pay slightly more and had at the very least a fully usable unit, as advertised on the box. Additionally, I note the following:
1. The manual is very poor and says nothing about the battery life, replacement, charge time, etc.
2. The user interface is good, although a bit on the simple side.
3. The sound quality is very good.
4. Download times on and off a computer are very fast.
5. The bundled software is also crippled (upgrade to super duper now!)
6. the player feels very solid in the hand and will sit upright on its own (good design).
Rating: 
Summary: Don't Buy The Archos GMINI 120!!!
Review: Take my advice; don't buy the Archos Gmini 120. I'm vary savvy with electronics and I can tell you that I will never buy another product from Archos in the future. The Gmini 120 looks cool the GUI interface is a good idea but they simply don't work. I went through three Archos Gmini's in the span of one week. I kept getting another one figuring that I the one I got must have been a lemon, but they were all lemons from a lemon company. Each one had a different problem. The first one I had could not be recognized by either of my two home computers when it was connected via the USB cable. The second worked when connected through the USB and I was able to download my music to it, but it only work for all of three days. It was running good till the backlit screen slowly started to disintegrate to the point where you could not see anything at all and rendered the device totally useless. And the third one worked for less than a day. Out of the box I experienced difficulty navigating with the buttons. After I had downloaded all my music (again) the buttons would lock, causing it to keep scrolling and was unable to use it. When you have problem with your Archos Gmini 120 (and you will) it's difficult to get support. The Archos trouble shooting web site is not vary helpful, and if you want to call to talk with someone about the problems your having you will have to pay for the phone call because they don't have a 1-800 #. Hands down the worst electronic product I have ever purchased. Maybe you will have better luck. I'm spending the extra money on a better-established company and going with the i-pod.
Rating: 
Summary: Great product, but read before you buy
Review: You know, some of the criticism here is warranted. But a lot isn't. I honestly don't know how you can blame Archos if you don't bother to actually read up on the product?No, it does not come with a photo wallet or flash card reader. That is on the order of $50 extra (quite reasonable in my opinion). And I don't know how anyone could say the Gmini is anything but a huge upgrade from the Studio20. My goodness, for USB 2.0 alone it's worth it. My experience: I have had mine for about three months now. I use it every day, and I have yet to experience a single problem with it. The good --
1) The navigation functions/layout are 10000 percent better than the Studio models. The larger screen, navigation buttons all make it much, much easier to find the files/music/whatever you are looking for. You can very easily navigate around your machine, rename, move and delete files without having to be connected to a computer.
2) Battery life is good to great compared to similar units. I get 6-7 hours minimum, which is pretty darn good. That's what my pal gets from his iPod, so I'm pretty happy with that. Archos implies an "up to" 10 hour battery life, which I think is pretty inflated.
3) The Music Match software works quite well with the unit, though if you don't have USB 2.0, you will end up dragging and dropping files the old fashioned way. For some reason, it takes Music Match four or five times longer to move files to the Archos when you use the built-in function to do that.
4) The fact that you can mount it on any system without installing a driver is huge. I can bring it to work, and mount it on my local machine without having to get the IT staff to add drivers to my 'puter. I use it to move large files from home to work and back, and in that capacity it works just great.
5) Unlike just about anything else on the market, the archos is expandable. I have not purchased any of the add-ons, but it is nice to be able to add functionality like that on an as-needed basis.
6) Cost. The Gmini is still less than $250, which is just a little more than the Studio 20. Dirt cheap comparatively. My friend spent $300-plus on a used iPod, which doesn't have as much space or any of the features my Gmini does. The Bad -
1) Unlike other Archos models, the Gmini has built-in music library software that (in theory) allows you to select and play songs, artists or albums without creating playlists. Unfortunately, it relies on Music Match to build the library database. So, if you don't use Music Match to move you MP3 collection to your Archos, you basically cannot use the library function.
2) This may be an issue just with my person unit, but the "up" navigation button is not as responsive as the others. It's not a huge issue, but I thought it might be worth mentioning in case others have problems. The bottom line is this: The Gmini is a more-than-adequate alternative to an iPod, especially if you want it to do more than play music. For my personal needs, it's great to be able to cart around my photos, data, files, music, etc. on a pocket-sized machine I can whip out and mount on any computer I come across. I couldn't be happier.
Rating:
Summary: Cheap construction, bad buttons, weak battery life.
Review: I second all of the negative comments already submitted and I'd like to add that the build quality on this thing is very poor. The seams where the front and back of the plastic (cheap plastic) body of the Gmini 'connected' were several millimeters apart in places and not really lined up properly. The buttons were awful as well. The 'X' button seemed like it was permanently stuck in the down position, though it did work. It was actually the only button that responded immediately when pressed once. I often had to press the other ones twice, never quite sure if they had not been pressed properly the first time or if I were waiting for the operating system lag to catch up. And the battery life. That was very disappointing. I think it only lasted 5-6 hours between charges. I returned mine to Circuit City for a full refund. My suggestion to you is to avoid the hassle and buy something else. The Creative Zen line is great. And if you need a CF card 'photo wallet' like I do, it would probably be best to wait for a better one to come along.
Rating:
Summary: Studio20 in sheeps clothing / False Advertising
Review: I purchased this when my Studio 20 broke thinking it would be a wonderful upgrade, with many new features ***AS ADVERTISED***. How fooled was I, only to learn I bought another Studio 20. While it potentially has nice addons and I wouldn't mind purchasing the hard for compact flash or the fm adapter, but the Recorder, come on guys, you already provide all the hardware. Really poor marketing and now you lost a repeat customer for it. I'm probably going to take mine back. What's up with the earphones, the Right is longer then the left, what was the logic other then choking you and making you look stupid wearing it. Also, Archos your code is horrible, please work with Rockbox.
Rating:
Summary: Gemini 120=Crippleware
Review: I am a digital photography enthusiast who purchased this product so as not have to buy more than 1 1Gb CompactFlash card and who didn't want to always have to lug a notebook PC along on every extended photo-shooting expedition. It baffles me that nobody has yet created a killer product which meets the needs of the growing population of digital photography enthusiasts but that is another story. The Gemini 120 gets a generous 1 stars from me because: 1) While in theory it can do what I describe above
2) The marketing geniuses at Archos completely infuriate their customers by crippling this product and forcing people who have already forked over $250 to buy "plugins" to enable functionality that is, in theory, built in. Someone else mentioned the disabled CompactFlash slot. Nowhere in the product description do Archos mention (on the box or elsehwere) that customers have to *purchase* the plugin which will enable the CF slot. While they do make clear that the plugin has to be downloaded, someone could be forgiven for thinking this download is free because the CF slot is already incorporated in the unit. In the unlikely case that you are thinking of buying this thing and taking it overseas BEFORE you buy the plugin (through gritted teeth), you might also want to know that the Archos site blocks people resident in other countries from downloading the software even when they are paying for it (at least, I can vouch that this is true for Japan). Incidentally, if you have bought an Archos product and experience problems, don't bother calling tech support - hell will freeze over before you get off hold. Message to Archos: if you have any ambitions of a shelf life > 1 year, please do not infuriate the very people who will make you grow: your customers. Jason
Rating:
Summary: Good product, not without its quirks
Review: Does everything as advertised and does it well -- no errors transferring CF cards, good battery life, decent MP3 player. Other people have critisized the web site and marketing niche, but this has nothing to do with the product itself. The fact is that at the time of writing this is the only MP3 player/ CF card reader in its price range. If you need only one of these, look elsewhere. If you can wait 6 months for better and cheaper products, do so. If not get the Gmini and you won't regret it. I'm taking mine to India in a week!
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