Rating: 
Summary: Audible and voice recording - could be better for me
Review: I've had the DMP-X20 for about 3 weeks. It's a nice piece of equipment but as far as I can tell it's not the holy grail of players. I should preface my review by saying my primary interest in the Gateway was not for the MP3 player, but for the Audible player. I was also interested in the voice recording feature. While the DMP-X20 provides both options, they're a bit clunky. Previously I was using a pocket PC (Dell Axim) as my player, which worked pretty well but didn't have the capacity I wanted. The DMP-X20 only supports Audible format 4. This format is 4 times the file size of format 2 (the format I had been using), which means more disk space is required and longer download times of books over the internet. I found this very disappointing. The other drag is that I cannot drag-and-drag Audible files to the player as I could with my pocket PC (at least by any means I can understand). This disappointed me as well because Audible's user interface program isn't what I would call user friendly. There is a limitation in the number of bookmarks you can use, and I'm not sure why. The voice recording works pretty well, once you get it going. However, it takes so long to switch to the recording mode. This makes it impractical if you plan to use it to make quick voice recordings. It also doesn't have a convenient way to stop and start recordings with the intention of separating a meeting into different tracks. Not as fluid as other digital voice recorders I've used. The upside to the voice recording is that the mic does record fairly well. One thing that seems a little weird is that I haven't been able to delete my voice recordings. I've followed the instructions but the menu they say should appear doesn't. Either I'm doing something wrong or their firmware upgrade has a glitch. Customer support was not very helpful when I contacted them via their web site. I just received back from them a canned answer that didn't answer my question. But hey, they're primary business is computers, not MP3 players ... though my experience would deter me from buying a PC from them. There also doesn't seem to be a feature that "wakes it up" the player. If you let it sit and it shuts itself off, you have to turn the power switch off and back on again for it to come on ... just tedious, you know? The protective case - nice concept but it frays along the edges. Sloppy craftsmanship. The radio - works about as good as any FM radio without an antenna. If you don't need the antenna where you live, you'll love it. NONE of my criticisms add up to this being a bad player, it's just not the holy grail. On the upside - it feels pretty solid, though I haven't dropped it yet. A tad heavy but nice dimensions. The scroll wheel is awesome! As compared to my pocket PC, the controls are much more user friendly, especially when driving.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Player-Ipod Competitor
Review: Just thought I'd write this review to clear some things up. I've read many reviews on numerous different sites that say the songs and albums get completely scrambled, which is absolutely true. When this happened with my player I was on the verge of returning my player. I finally decided to call Gateway tech support and see if they could clear it up. The person to whom I was speaking had not the slightest clue what I was talking about. When I told him my problem (scrambled artist names/albums), he told me I could either rename every single song, or reformat the hard drive, erasing everything. Neither of which sounded very pleasant. I then decided to (and here's how to fix the problem) put every song onto the computer (drag and drop) and then reformat the disk. Although this took approximately 2 1/2-3 hours, it worked, all the artist names/albums appeared as they should have.
Now, for some positives about the player:
Ease of Use Excellent - It is easy to use right out of the box
Durability Excellent - Well made and will last a long time
Portability Excellent - Tiny, and always functional
Sound Quality Excellent - Professional level sound
Battery Life Excellent - Lasts all day
Rating: 
Summary: Gateway = no support
Review: Mine died after seven months, and Gateway's response to my question of how to get it repaired was to "take it to a local electronics shop." They've obviously realized these things are junk, and have disavowed themselves of any responsibility to people who bought them. I'll never buy another Gateway product again, period. ZERO stars.
Rating:
Summary: IPOD IS OF NO COMPARISON!!
Review: my friend got one of the ipods and i got the dx-20 and he is even jealous. not only was mine about 50 dollars cheaper the screen is so much bigger. the screen is more clear and it hold's the same amount of info and also shows up as a harddrivce on my computer! sound quality is also better when i output it to my surround sound system. anyway the dx-20 is just as small and has a much better screen and even looks better! go gateway!
Rating: 
Summary: Promsing First Generation Device
Review: My wife is an Ipod fan, and we frequently dispute who has the better device for portable music. I like the Gateway jukebox for the following reasons: 1) It uses WMA files rather than MP3, AAC, or some other format. I've already ripped hundreds of my CDs into WMA format and don't want a portable device that requires me to change. 2) It accepts WMA files of 192 bps rather than the lower bit rates more commonly used. This allows for better sound quality. 3) It uses Windows Media Player, which I find to be the most intuitive software available for managing digital music. 4) It includes an FM tuner -- something no Ipod currently offers. 5) It has a sleek chrome-and-black look rather than the Ipod colors, which I find excessively feminine for my taste. On balance, I am very satisfied with this device, but potential buyers should be aware of the following issues: 1) The software can be buggy. I have encountered problems with scrambled song titles and artist names. Make sure to download and latest firmware update and to re-synchronize the jukebox with Windows Media Player on a regular basis. Doing so tends to eliminate the scrambled data problem. 2) A serious oversight in the design process is the need to designate each album as a playlist in order to hear the album tracks in the intended order rather than alphabetical order. Once I figured this procedure out, it has been relatively easy to hear music as the artist / producter intended, but the process is counterintuitive for the beginner. 3) The FM radio needs improvement. It sputters for about 30 seconds before tuning the station. Also, for best reception, one needs to use the remote control as an antenna. This is awkward since the remote control cable makes the total cord length long enough to trip over. I find remote controls useless for portable devices and do not like having to use it to tune weak stations.
Rating:
Summary: No problems with this device! Feels and looks expensive.
Review: No problems with this unit so far. I downloaded 350 songs and itplays them as listed with great sound. I did replace the headphones and am glad I did. No complaints and can't wait to add about 1000 more songs. Buy this unit and forget the IPOD,
Rating:
Summary: Great for Audible - otherwise unsupported & fatally flawed
Review: Player does wonderfully with my over 85 aubible files but contrary to manual will NOT accept playlists from WMP (even version 9) and instead it scrambles lists back to alphabetic and frequently confuses songs from different artists. Gateway's Support is staggeringly poor and basically they lie and cheat. After tens of emails since April and initial denials that there was any problem, every time I have asked them to take the machine back, they have said "just wait sir" the new software we are working on will solve this problem (note that the Feb 19 upgrade did nothing to help and their other solutions of reformatting (several times) and reloading all your files will just waste your time and try your patience). Finally today, they have admitted that gateway has no way of making a WMP playlist work but having confirmed this, now they say they WILL DO NOTHING FOR ME because the Warranty has expired!!!!! In other words their tactic was to spin out the customer exchange till they had an excuse to refuse to help. If you want good audible performance and do not care if your albums play out of order, this is a viable buy - otherwise do not consider it, Gateway have no intention of supporting it further and their tech support team know nothing about the item.
Rating:
Summary: bad product, bad service
Review: The jukebox was working okay [Though it was buggy from the start] until it died after about 3 months, so I had it sent in for repairs, which they said would take up to 10 days. That was about 4 months ago, so I called to see what the deal was and found out recently that it was "lost in service." So I was told a new one would be sent to me, and it would take up to 1 week. That was over 2 weeks ago. I called to get a refund, but apparently that is impossible [Gateway's return policy is 15 days], and I've pretty much just been told to wait for the phantom replacement jukebox, but no one knows how long it will take for it to be sent [by the way, this is just something that annoyed me: Gateway hires some of the slowest and underqualified technical support people ever. One woman didn't even know what an mp3 player was]. I've begun to assume my $350 is lost for good and am starting to look at ipod and sony's new walkman. Never buying Gateway again.
Rating:
Summary: Updated....Crashes when loading songs (url based mp3's)!!
Review: UPDATE....If you have any URL bases songs that Windows Media Player sees as MP3's it will crash. after hours of coming through my "all music" list I found the songs that were crashing WMPLAYER 9 and deleted them...I then had clean runs...Windows Media Player 9 is still pretty lame and unstable. No syncing of changes in title or genre etc. I bought the DMP-X20 after reading all the reviews and looking at the ipod, nomad etc. Windows Media Player 9.0 chrashes like crazy when I load songs on it, and scrables all the songs and info on the unit. Telephone support was week, I knew more than he did, but online support told me to update the firmware (flash memory ) on the unit. I did it and no luck...same error loading after about 3gigs of songs. I am now downloading the most recent version of Windows Media Player to see if that helps, but the errors say it is with the Plug In, which would be gateway. I have a new dell running xp pro and I even turned off all the drivers from the msconfig command to avaiod conflicts. In the end I think it is crappy windows media player to blame, but I can't tell. The unit is cool, and if I copy 100 songs over at a time it does not crash,(...) Also WMplayer is kind of dumb in alway wanting to load all the songs all the time, without syncing changes to artist, genre etc. Also the rubber stopper for the power and USB cable are really week and don't stay closed. The Chinese fab must be using playdough instead of a good rubber tab like IBM uses(...)
Rating:
Summary: Great, BUT so many weaknesses
Review: Yes, in spite of many defects and design issues, I gave this product 4 stars because I use it all the time, and don't know what i would do without it!; buy an i-pod? Great for Audible.Com books - the best audible player I have had. Great storage. Basically, easy to use. Very good sound. And very reasonable price. BUT: buggy software; very sensitive to mist,and knocks and bumps; FM reception is poor and I wish I could record FM, it would be a great addition; control for 'hold' is poorly placed and I often shut-off player when I want hold on/off, unless I am very very careful; carrying case is poor quality and already ripped, and i can't find replacement becasue:; tech support at Gateway is almost non-existent - i am not even sure if they are carrying this anymore as it soesn't show in their product list. . . . . Frustrating, but I don't leave home without it - so i gave it 4 stars because nothing is better.
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