Archos 500669 Gmini XS 200 MP3 & WMA Jukebox Player/Recorder, 20 GB

Rating:
Summary: Better of the small 20gb hard drive players
Review: Although I wish it had an FM Tuner, and especially a case with a belt clip, this is the better of the small 20gb hard drive players in my opinion. Its price point allows it to compete with iPod, the Lyra, and others. It is the least "fancy" of the Archos firmwares, and I hope an upgrade soon will add WMA with DRM support (purchased downloads), as well as an Automatic ArcLibrary that the other Archos models have. The latter will automatically update your ID3 tag library when you disconnect from the computer. As it is now, you have to manually do this in Setup after adding/deleting/changing songs.

One big positive is it just adds to the computer as a Mass Storage Device - i.e. an extra drive letter/space. You can store any kind of data on it making it a nice portable drive for documents, photos, etc. No special software to install! It feels sturdily built and is easy to navigate and create playlists on the fly.

A couple of minor annoyances that is sort of funny now - one is the packaging. We all know and hate those blister packs, but this one is the HARDEST I've ever encountered. Twenty minutes later, a visit to the tool shed, and a big cut later, I finally had it out. It took a tree limb cutting tool to free it! My best scissors have never been outsmarted by a blister pack until this package! Second, they went with the cheap, old "mainframe" green screen I'm sure to save costs. But the blue LED's showing On and Charging are so bright it would seem they could have easily provided backlighting! Seriously, if you look right at the light, it hurts your eyes! :-)

Overall, I'm very happy with this - especially for the price. I replaced my flash player and use it in the gym and running. So far it is holding up very well (no lockups), but I'm still looking for the perfect case.

One note of caution, the Gmini FM Remote does NOT work with this model. Archos confused the issue by naming this "Gmini" but is not the same as the gmini 120 and 220 models. There is no way at this time to add FM tuner capability to this model.

Rating:
Summary: So wonderful! I love it
Review: First of all, I'd like to say that I am incredibly glad that I bought this. The first, and most obvious thing about it is it's size. Sure, people say it's small, but it's kind of hard to envision just how small it is. To put it in context, it's about the same thickness as a 40gb ipod, and the same width, but is about 2/3 the length. It's just wonderful.
Also, the dual screen mode make moving files and creating playlists wonderfully easy. I used to have an ipod (until it broke and Apple said I would have to pay $255 to repair it, even though I had only bought it a couple of months before...), and while all you had to do to make playlists on it was hold down a button, on this it's even easier. You just click to the right to see the play list and all of your music at the same time, and then go through you music clicking once on each song you want to add. Then, if you don't like a song after all, you can take it out of the playlist easily too. Also, if you want to add an entire album, or artist, or whatever, you just go to that album and hold down the select button for a second, and you've got it! Once you've done this, you can rename the playlist right on the player, and that's easy too!
Another thing I love about this is that, if you are using it as a storage device as well as an mp3 player, you can see what files you have in it right on the player. This makes life very easy for me, as I use it to transport files a lot.


Ok, so that's what I like about this player. Despite all of this, there are a few downsides. The main one for me is the hard drive speed. I don't know if it's an exceptionally slow hard drive, my player, or the OS running the player, but for me at least, a lot of things take ridiculously long. While on most mp3 players you just select a playlist, and the player goes to it, and you can start listening, here it takes a full 2-3 minutes for the playlist to load, and if you're saving changes you made to a playlist, it takes about five minutes. Luckily I'm patient, and I don't really mind waiting, but it's still kind of annoying.
Also, although once you understand it, using the player is incredibly easy, it does take about a day to familiarize yourself with how to do things, as the manual stored in the player isn't incredibly useful.
Finally, I'm testing it right now, but I'm fairly sure the battery only gets about eight hours (the same as the third ; ipods). This is not a problem for me, since I never use my mp3 player for more than about six hours before I can recharge it again, but some people might not like it.


However, overall I love the player, and highly suggest that other people buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Nice try. Shame about the result.
Review: Had high hopes for this smart-looking little device. Loved the fact that it wasn't trying to be an iPod (despite the rather retro-Mac GUI), and that it offered 20GBs in a robust box somewhat smaller than a packet of Silk Cut. Then I found its downside.

When the unit is plugged into the USB and charger together (as advised in the manual), it gets hot. Not just a little bit hot: VERY hot. Frankly, I was worried. True, it cools down during playback, but that didn't do much to allay my fears.

The real problem is with the onboard software. Clearly, Archos has rushed this product to market in time for Christmas. And it shows. Buggy software means that playlist creation (in my experience, at least), is impossible. More correctly, you can compile a playlist (.m3u), but you can't save it. Even when you think you had. Several times. Go to the playlist browser, and ... nada. Search the drive using Windows Explorer. Nope, no playlists to be found.

I consulted the manual, which was not only inaccurate but also confusing and unhelpful. If you try to follow the way it suggests creating playlists, you simply won't be able to. Because the info is totally wrong. No lie. Oh, and if you try editing playlists while a list is playing (which you're supposed to be able to), it crashes the unit. Bad.

One other problem: you can't delete files from the main unit, only through a PC (again, contradicting the manual).

The XS200 sounds good, looks good - but just isn't up to the job. Back to drawing board for Archos, methinks.

Rating:
Summary: a good mp3 player with only a few irritating problems.
Review: I bought this mp3 player a few weeks ago to replace the complete disaster that was my Gateway Jukebox. The Archos Gmini xs 200 is better, and [so far], I haven't had any major problems with it.

One thing I've found to be really irritating is the "shuffle" mode. I always end up hearing the same handful of songs - out of the 2,000+ songs I've got on there already - over and over again, and I keep having to skip over them. Which gets annoying pretty fast.

Gmini beats every other mp3 player that I've tried [rca kazoo, ipod, Gateway Jukebox], because it does what I want it to do: store and play a lot of music, and serve as an external hard drive without having to use programs like MusicMatch, Windows Media Player or iTunes. Set up literally goes like this: plug in, drag files, drop files - Which is great.

Also, of course it's tiny and really cheap compared to similar players.

There is an online user manual that is a lot more complete than the one that came with the product [www.archos.com].

update: i've found a way to work around the bad shuffle mode by playing around with the settings a bit [mode: shuffle current folder, and play the folder "titles"]. BUT I have found a few more problems: sometimes it shuts itself off without warning. And sometimes when you turn it on, "resume" does not actually resume. Also, there is no way to "hold" while it's turned off, so it occasionally gets turned on while in my purse.

Rating:
Summary: super small, music only, no bells or whistles, I love it.
Review: I got one of these as a replacement to an older Creative Zen. This player is less than half the size of my older 20 gig Zen 2.0. You can not beat the size; the player disappears in a pocket. I have not had any of the issues the previous reviewer had with play-lists. You do need to upgrade the firmware, and while there are some quirks in the software, file transfer and management are a snap. The manual for the player is a PDF file loaded onto the hard drive. There is nothing wrong with this player that can't be fixed in future firmware updates, the 2 updates released by Archos so far have already improved the player significantly. You get a 20 gig player in the size of most 4 or 5 gig players, and at a lower price. What more do you need?

Rating:
Summary: I like it so far
Review: Picked one up today- It is a solid, no frills mp3 player. Solid construction, doesn't feel cheap like some older Archos products.

I haven't tried any of the advanced features yet. Much smaller than any other 20GB player I have seen. Only downside is the firmware. I am sure rockbox will solve that in due time though.

Rating:
Summary: best value for the money
Review: This player might not have options like FM tuner or recording ability, but if you want big music storage with a small price all bundled in a cool package, this is the player for you. I love it and some of my friends are now buying it too. The little FM remote thing that is for the Gmini series DOES NOT work on this unit, so if that's something important to you, this isn't the MP3 player for you.
Some of the biggest pros are the battery life which I've been getting 12 hours per charge and the size which is tiny. My wife's 1.5 GB memory card MP3 player is bigger than this unit and cost almost as much. I use the player to store a couple thousand songs and as a backup for my important computer files and digital pics. That way if my computer ever gets fried, I've got an easy backup.
Regarding some of the other reviewers comments, there is a complete manual and it's not the "one sheet of paper" quick start guide described earlier. The manual is a PDF file in the player. Just plug into the computer and read/print it. There was also a complaint about shuffle mode that they seem to get the same songs over and over. I haven't had that experience and always listen in shuffle mode.