Rating: 
Summary: Good - for about 3 weeks
Review: I bought my Gmini a chain retailer for a good price. When I took it to work, one of my co-workers said that he wished I checked with him first. He has an an older ARCHOS and had to return it twice for OS problems. He has the same problems with the third one, but he's just putting up with now. After two weeks of using my Gmini, non-stop, I thought I was in the clear. Then, it happened. The screen became garbled and the player did not respond to any key sequences. I had a hard time even getting it to reboot! After rebooting, same problems. Nothing has helped. It's a terrific player when it works, but the darn screen problem is irritating. It's going back tomorrow and I will buy a unit from another manufacturer.
Rating: 
Summary: had an ipod, wont go back. yay archos!
Review: first, great service by amazon. got the unit exactly when they said i would. i had the original archos jukebox 2 years ago. i went to the ipod because of the craze that it would be the best mp3 player hands down. well, im back to archos. if youre thinking about getting an ipod, understand that A, it seperates music by id3 tags, and B, the battery dies in a year and it is $100 to replace! the gmini 220 seperates songs by folder much like using windows explorer. if you dont want to deal with the hassle of making sure all your mp3 id3 tags are correct so the ipod will read them then get the archos. this unit is really easy to use. it takes a little getting used to, but so do all of these mp3 players. a couples of the features that are really cool and good to have. 1. the CF card reader. not only is it really neat, but you can use that to transfer music to or from the player (in small quantities) if you find yourself without your usb cable. you can also use it to store pictures from a camera or other digital devices. 2. the internal microphone and line in recording. FINALLY! i can make tapes into mp3s and even radio shows i like. all you have to do is use the supplied cables to record from a device, or you can even use the mic which i found to be pretty good quality. the display is very nice. i was worried it would be difficult to operate the device with one hand, but it is pretty easy. ok, so why 4 stars instead of 5? well, the battery doesnt appear to be as long as they said it is. they list 10 hours, but i think it is probably close to 8. this isnt THAT big of a deal, and any other mp3 player most likely will give you the same thing. also, the unit did freeze up a few times. this has happened with all the mp3 players i have had (3). i dont think they will ever make mp3 players perfect, but this one is the best i have used so far. i would recommend it over the ipod.
Rating:
Summary: Swiss Army Knife of Audio
Review: I won't buy an iPod. Why? Because they won't support WMA. Because the interface means you don't move the music files directly, you have to use the software. I just want to move music over and play it. The idea of encryption is silly. There is free music everywhere. It comes down off satellites. Any idiot can record it. The industry needs another model. Thanks to USB2, getting music on this device is easy. I used to move music with USB 1.1, and filling anything took hours. This thing takes minutes. You just treat it like File Explorer. If you organize music by album, move albums, or the whole collection. From here, the player will break down artists, songs, and albums. Of course, 20 gigs is a lot of music, so doing this is cumbersome. The interface has 11 lines of display. You see a lot of information. It still seems a little cumbersome, so I tried to get a mininum number of folder in the parent directory. None of this matters as long as you know what you want to do. This unit is small, high capacity, and efficient. You can move files from a digital camera to this unit. It's easy, but a little slow. If you don't use CF cards, you have to buy an adapter on the 'bay or from Archos. This is great because these dumb memory cards are expensive, and every year they make the old ones obsolete. Buy one with enough capacity, and carry something like this. This unit has a recorder. I expected nothing from this feature, but it actually works very well. I set it up to record MP3 at 192 kbps, the highest. I then plugged the funky two pronged adapter into the unit, and the miniplug output from my XM into that adapter. The music sounded very good. I can't say if it is as good as a PC based recorder, but there was nothing obviously wrong. So you could lug this along and make recordings of cassettes or LP, or record live broadcasts, etc. It's very painless. This may be the strongest feature, but I haven't played with it enough. So, play music, record music, manipulate files, transfer pictures on a long trip. This is not as elegant as iPod, but this is utility taken to a high order of perfection. I hope it holds up. I have one of the original Archos Jukes, and it still works. Apparently they give you the full version of MusicMatch with this unit. I've had the limited version with a computer I bought. The two seem to work well together. The MM goes through and sorts the music and updates a file on the player. Because of the large screen, it is very easy to make playlists on the Gmini. You bring up an album on one side, and the playlist is on the other. I'm not sure how you do more serious navigation. The thing even has a screen keyboard to title recordings and playlists. It's slow but heck, it really works.
I'm stopping at 4 stars because the unit has hung up. You have to reset it, by holding down the power switch. It's not much worse than my Pocket PC, but I'm not sure what it means.
Rating: 
Summary: first time i disliked something enough to write a review
Review: I really liked the concept of having a portable hard drive AND an MP3 player. I was worried about carrying around a hard drive, due to fragility. It did indeed start acting up about a week after I bought it. However, instead of the hard drive being the source of the problem, the display was getting very garbled and sometimes even completely reversed. I tried tech support before returning it, just to get an idea of how good their support is in case I wanted to exchange it for another Gmini, but I haven't heard back from them in over a week. The store was out of them, and didn't have any on order. I gladly took my money back.
Rating:
Summary: So far it is worth the money
Review: I have had this mp3 player for about two weeks now, and I really don't have too many complaints. It basically does what it says it does. The display is a nice size and everything is very readable. Other reviews said that they downloaded a different OS, but I have found no problems with the preloaded OS. I have already loaded on around 20 cds and I haven't even come close to using up all of the space. The volume sounds excellent any way I have tried to listen to it. I have used headphones, a tape adapter for my car, and plugging in my computer speakers at work. All work very nicely. On the topic of volume, one of the biggets problems(but it is only a minor problem really) are the headphones that are packaged with it. Usually the lengths of wire leading to the earbuds are equal in length. For some stupid reason, someone decided to manufacture them at different lengths. It is more of an annoyance than anything. To me, they are just uncomfortable. The other problem is that I don't get the battery life that they promise. I get around seven hours, maybe a little more. Workable, but another three hours would be nice. And just to compare to an ipod......
My boss got one for christmas and had some complaints. The ipod didnt come with a usb cord, only a firewire (Gmini120 comes with usb). The sound quality when hooked up to anything other than the headphones sounds terrible (Gmini120 sounds sounds good for me anywhere). The ipod is so skinny the only way to place it on the table is to lay it flat on its back (the Gmini120 can sit up with its face facing you). The ipods controls are very touchy, sure it comes with a lock button so you cant accidently push something, but thats just an annoyance(with the Gmini120 you just have to press a little harder). All in all, I would recommend this product to others.
Rating:
Summary: Great after you figure it out!
Review: I checked out the Ipod and the Zen but decided on the Gmini 120. Price and the fact you do not need any other software to transfer files from your computer. You just plug in the USB 2.0 cable and XP will recognize it...great if you like to transfer stuff to another computer...but you have to use their proprietary USB cable. I am very satisfied with the sound although I did upgrade the ear buds. The only gripe I have is that the manual that came with it had errors and the layout of what was what as far as the buttons on the Gmini were wrong. It took me a while to finally figure out the proper sequence of pushing buttons to get to the functions I needed...it was frustrating and I thought it was not that intuitive. I finally downloaded the manual from there website. After figuring it out I am very pleased with it's performance...just took a while to figure it out.
Rating:
Summary: Great As Soon As You Get Used to It
Review: When I first got this two things surprised me, one was the thickness, and the other was the weight. Of course these can be explained by the large HD, but other players have done far better. I was also confused at first by the arrow buttons, not to mention that the instruction manual's pictorial guide to the button layout is all wrong! But I personally think this player is quite nice, a tad big, and a bit awkward, but as soon as you get used to the configuration, it can turn out to be quite powerful. My friends have complained about the max volume on this, but I personally think it's more than enough....unless you plan on blowing your eardrums or trying to listen to it while standing next to a jet taking off!
Rating:
Summary: Great Photo Wallet!!
Review: I got this to store my photos. Dedicated photo wallets while slightly cheaper don't perform nearly as well. I would recommend this to anyone who doesn't want to invest in lots of digital memory. With the built in compact flash slot who could ask for more.. except maybe a replacable hard drive, oh well..
Rating: 
Summary: Think of it as storage....
Review: People get too tied up on the fact that it plays Mp3 and Wav files... you need to look at the bigger picture here. I own the Gmini for one reason, I'm a photographer and I need a place to save my digital pictures. You can't beat the Gmini in a price comparison as far as memory space to dollars. A 512mb memory stick will cost as much as the Gmini alone. If you are technically proficient, you can open up the Gmini and upgrade to a larger hard drive...it uses a 2.5X9mm standard laptop hard drive. You can store all you work files, GPS files, etc. and it's small and light. The added bonus is the fact that it plays music for those long trips to outer mongolia, or even more dangerous, Los Angeles... I think the button layout works.... once you upload the new operating system it works really smooth. The buttons have a feature so you can lock them, no more turning on in your pack. The battery last pretty long considering you have a hard drive spinning in this thing. If you really want you can replace it with a higher rated battery and get more life out of it. So I give this product 5 stars for ease of use, price, and there is nothing like it on the market that has all the features of the Gmini. And that's that!
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.
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