Archos Portable AV Gmini 400

[Miyagi Son]

Why would you buy an ipod that can only play music? When you can own an Archos Portable AV Gmini 400 which is small and light. The battery last's me ALL day. I do not have to use itunes, or any special programs with tons of ads. The archos comes up as a portable mass storage device, i can simply add music by going to my computer and it shows up as E:. That makes it so easy to transfer files, because it is a HD i can upload and download to it unlike the ipod. Me and my friends can share music/video/photo/data in a snap with usb 2.0. It would be great for a business man on the go because he could have all of his entertainment plus his business work stored on the Gmini's massive 20gb HD. Comes with great software to convert asf to avi and can play drm and protected video files. Why pay 10$ a gb for an iPod and only get a music player and have to use itunes which sucks and has tons of ads. The Gmini plays them all wma, mp3, mp4, avi you name it. The user interface it a little hard at first, but after a few days it is simple to use. My review 3 1/2 out of 4.

PICS AT BOTTOM OF PAGE

Specs:

"Capacity:

20GB 1.8" Hard Disk - Store up to 300 hours of music, 200,000 photos or 80 hours of MPEG-4 videos*.

Interfaces:

USB 2.0 high-speed, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac . Built-in CompactFlash? Type I slot to accept CompactFlash? memory cards or optional 4-in-1 CF adapter.

Music playback:

Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kb/s CBR & VBR, WMA (Including copy protected files with Microsoft PD DRM), WAV (PCM & ADPCM).

Music recording:

Stereo sound in WAV (PCM & ADPCM) format.

Game engine:

Mophun? game engine - Playback on TV.

Photo viewer:

JPEG (except progressives) or BMP - Download JPEG images through CompactFlash? slot.

Video playback:

MPEG-4 SP with MP3 or ADPCM stereo sound, up to 640x400 @ 30 f/s, AVI file format. Reads XviD and DivX?** 4.0 & 5.0. Play Music Video in MPEG-4.

Display:

2.2" LCD 220x176 pixels, 262 000 colours and TV output.

AV connections:

Stereo analog Line In (via adapter included). Composite Video/ Earphone / Analog Line Out jack, SCART for European version. Built-in microphone.

Battery life:

Up to 10 hours for music or 5 hours for video on built-in LCD.

Scalability:

Download firmware updates from www.archos.com

Power source:

Internal: Rechargeable Li-Ion Batteries. External: AC charger/adaptor.

Dimensions:

Approx. 10.6 x 6 x 1.7 cm (4.2" x 2.4" x 0.7").

Weight:

160 g (5.64 oz).

System requirements:

PC: Pentium? III 800 MHz or higher, Windows 98 SE, ME, 2000 or XP. 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) with USB port and CD-ROM drive.

Mac: 9.2 or X (10.2.4) USB Manager version 1.2 or higher with USB port and CD-ROM drive."

Pics:

Edited June 16, 2006 by Miyagi Son

[SomeAzn]

10 hour battery?

Ewww. Count me out.

And you complain about the iPod's battery?

Why pay a 1$ a gb through Apple and only get a music player and have to convert music files.

Huh? I am SO confused. I'd pay $30 for an iPod. And what is this converting? iPods play mp3 files without converting.

[Lazih3nri]

Sounds like a nice product. Yet I can't see myself carrying it in my pocket.. to school or work.

IMHO, it's just too many features for something that small. Screen looks like it was meant for one person.

Nice review, the entire thing reminds me of my Neo Geo Pocket. (Which I would prefer over this thing.) ^^'

[hifive]

My friend had one. It broke in about a year.

[Miyagi Son]

It fits in my pocket real easy. it is the same size as an ipod, maybe smaller.

to someazn: i meant itunes makes it so you have to play the music through itunes and use itunes to put files on it. On the archos it comes up as a usb portable hard drive, i just go to my computer and it is their. bascially i got a 20gb portable hard drive in my pocket that can play music and videos plus look at pictures and play games. !!Also for a new ipod they charge 10$ a gb brand new!!

[SomeAzn]

It fits in my pocket real easy. it is the same size as an ipod, maybe smaller.

to someazn: i meant itunes makes it so you have to play the music through itunes and use itunes to put files on it. On the archos it comes up as a usb portable hard drive, i just go to my computer and it is their. bascially i got a 20gb portable hard drive in my pocket that can play music and videos plus look at pictures and play games. !!Also for a new ipod they charge 10$ a gb brand new!!

1. There are TONS of programs out there to put music on and take off of your iPod. iTunes is just one of them. Musicmatch (the original 3rd gen iPods shipped with Musicmatch because it was Pre-iTunes). Ephpod (which as been around before you could use an iPod with Windows). Xplay. Anapod. Hell, Winamp can do it.

Those that assume iTunes is the only way to manage music on your iPod are simply ignorant, because the iPod for windows has been around longer than iTunes.

2. You wrote $1 in your first post. Not $10.

[legendz411]

I don't mean to bash on your review, it's better then most anything I can write... I'm pretty sure. None the less, for most of the people on here who want only to see video and listen to music, maybe show some pictures, the can just get an iPod Video SIXTY (read *60) gig that does all the main selling points of this. Not to mention the batterylife is almost 2x that of this thing. AND, just to top it off, the iPod Video looks PRETTY! Not to mention that it is BIGGER and weighs more then the iPod Video.

It seems that this is just an outdated peice of software.

Good review though. Cheeres :D