The Archos GMINI 402 comes in two versions; one with a camera/camcorder, one without. This review is for the version without the camera/camcorder functionality. Without the camcorder it retails for £199 but can be found on Amazon much cheaper. I purchased mine there for £129.99 about a year ... Read review
(+) Great screen quality and size, built in speaker and stand. (-) The only downside is that it is fragile, and can be hard to get used to the on screen keyboard.
Advantages: Can play SNES and GameGear Games Disadvantages: Poor headphones. Interface can be cumbersome
The Archos GMINI 402 comes in two versions; one with a camera/camcorder, one without. This review is for the version without the camera/camcorder functionality. Without the camcorder it retails for £199 but can be found on Amazon much cheaper. I purchased mine there for £129.99 about a year ago.
The French company Archos make many fairly well rated hard disc based music/video players. They've got a few smaller flash players but, to ... ...on.
The Archos GMINI 402 is the successor to the GMINI 400. It is about the size of a gameboy mini and has a very similar design. The unit has a 20GIG hard disc, a 2.2" LCD screen in the centre with three soft buttons below (soft not in touch but meaning that they map to different functionality in different stages, similar to a mobile phone). To the left is a joypad, power on and power down/back button. To the right of the screen ... more
The Archos GMINI 402 comes in two versions; one with a camera/camcorder, one without. This review is for the version without the camera/camcorder functionality. Without the camcorder it retails for £199 but can be found on Amazon much cheaper. I purchased mine there for £129.99 about a year ago.
The French company Archos make many fairly well rated hard disc based music/video players. They've got a few smaller flash players but, to be honest if you're looking for a good flash player, looking at the Korean companies such as Samsung or iRiver or of course, America's Apple. if it's a hard disc player you're after, read on.
The Archos GMINI 402 is the successor to the GMINI 400. It is about the size of a gameboy mini and has a very similar design. The unit has a 20GIG hard disc, a 2.2" LCD screen in the centre with three soft buttons below (soft not in touch but meaning that they map to different functionality in different stages, similar to a mobile phone). To the left is a joypad, power on and power down/back button. To the right of the screen is a volume up/down style button that again performs different actions in different states. Three L.E.Ds can be found on the top to depict Hard Disk access, Charging Status and the unit's power status, ON or battery dying! A 3.5" standard headphone jack can be found on the top in between the dedicated AV out jack (for connecting to a TV - LCD or PAL). To mini USB 2.0 ports are used for connecting to a PC and for USB on the go. The unit is supplied with installation CD, manual, headphones, charger (euro/UK) and small pouch.
Power on the gmini and you will se a pretty Archos bootup screen. The unit should be ready to use within 5 seconds. The unit has a couple of themes to choose from, a standard grey look, or a green/blue look. They look fine but are nothing special. A 3x3 grid of icons allows you to select between video/music/photo, resume setup, browse (explorer style file access interface), setup, games, audio recording and help. At the top of the screen, volume status, battery power (3 bars) and the time are displayed. The bottom states the version of software that is being run. All in all, it's a good layout. Languages can be changed between a large variety of european and far east ones.
SOUND Music playback is very good but not with the supplied headphones are terrible. They lack any good form of bass and are generally quite soft. If you want a good pair of headphones, please read my review of the SONY NC-22 noise cancelling headphones (see my list of reviews for further information). The unit allows the user to increment volume within a range of 0 - 100. Bass, treble, balance and boost (bass boost) have a range of -5 to +5. They're adequate but nothing special.
PLAYMODE. The user can set to play a FOLDER, ALL tracks, a SINGLE track (repeatedly), QUEUE or SCAN (intro only). These modes can be mixed with NORMAL, SHUFFLE or REPEAT to create a selection that satisfies the user.
POWER The unit can be set to shut off the LCD after seconds or minutes to conserve battery power. It can also be set to power down the hard disc and itself if not used for a period of time. Different display settings can be stored for when the unit has AC power (as opposed to just batteries). The rechargable battery is not removable, so if it dies, Archos will need to service the player. Using it for music, it will last for 10 hours, video will allow for 3 - 4.
MUSIC Music playback is great. The unit supports MP3, WAV and WMA (Windows Media) files. It doesn't support Apples format. Of course, playing back MP3 tracks are quite standard these days as it's not new functionality so it comes down to the settings and, those provided by Archos, i.e. shuffle, repeat etc... is quite good. Sadly the unit lacks the ability to automatically generate playlists based on my person usage or ID3 tags(stored within MP3 tracks) and that is a real shame. The user can however generate playlists on the MP3 player, or transfer WINAMP m3u playlists to the unit. A good pair of headphones is recommended.
VIDEO Video playback is pretty good. Users can either transfer a fully sized DIVX, MPEG or WMV file across for playback, or can use the supplied software from Archos to re-encode it to a smaller size (to suit the screen and save space). In either case, nowadays the screen is quite small in comparison to what can be purchased elsewhere. Playing and controlling videos is good but, if your are buying a new player and want to watch a lot of videos I'd recommend the Samsung P2 (see my reviews for details of this). The larger screen on that device will be much better for you. If video playback is only ocassional, then this will suffice.
PHOTO Whilst this version of the GMINI cannot take photos, it can happily display them. Photos look quite pretty on the display but it lacks the sharpness of newer devices with much better screens. Photos can be display individually or browsed as 4 or 9 pics at a time. Photos can also be browsed from a thumbnail view and set as wallpaper but no option for a slideshow is present.
GAMES A series of basic demonstration games are provide, i.e. games such as blocks, fire, basic space invader type games. Nothing out of the ordinary but good timewasters. So, that's why the unit was designed like a gameboy. Don't expect games that they supply to be of a similar quality though. HOWEVER, if you look around on the internet and feel confident, you can download new firmware to the player (which will invalidate your warranty) but that allows the user to play sega MasterSystem, Gamegear and SNES games on it. Whilst ROMS are easily attainable on the internet, you should own the actual cartridge before you download it. Legalities aside, being able to play those old games on the archos jukebox is really good fun!
TRANSFERRING MEDIA Thankfully the unit doesn't force me to use Windows Media Player to transfer my music. Whilst it can be used with WMP, I prefer to use it as a Hard Disk and then drag my files and folders of music/photos etc... across to the GMINI. This is a good interface for me and it's reasonably quick at transferring.
NAVIGATION The interface provided by Archos is fairly intuitive. It works as expected and does its job very well. The only negative side is that scrolling down a list of many artists, albums etc... can be cumbersome. I guess I should reorder the files, i.e. create an A folder and put all albums by artists start with the letter A within it, and then put their albums under their name. Newer players have gotten around this issue by using scrollwheels or touchscreen displays.
OVERALL In summing up, the player is quite good and does the job for which I bought it quite well. Battery power isn't too bad and the ability to play SNES and Gamegear games on it is great. It's a shame that it cannot multitask since sometimes I'd like to listen to music and view my photos. The screen is a bit small in comparison to what can be purchased nowadays and not being a flash based player, it's a little heavy.
Advantages: Plays video, small, TV out and USB host Disadvantages: Not the best looking, interface isn't brilliant, short battery life and can crash
I paid £200 for this mp3 player a year ago and I've used it nearly every day since. It's still in good condition and has survived one drop onto a hard surface which goes to show the build quality is good. I'll explain the good and bad points of the mp3 player in this review.
The sound quality on this device is good when using a good pair of earphones. It's clear with a good bass output when using bass boost. The volume isn't very high but I never ... ...is very quiet. I see this is a good point as having the volume too loud can damage hearing although some people might disagree with me.
The interface is one of the biggest let downs with the device. While I do like d-pads it can be a little slow to navigate through long lists with which can be annoying on the go. The button layout isn't brilliant either but it works once you get used to it. Having proper buttons makes it easier to use in a pocket ...
MattTS 22.02.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Archos Gmini 402 20GB
Advantages: Good quality, looks nice, easy to use, value for money! Disadvantages: Screen can get scratched easily
As a previous customer to Archos (i have brought the Gmini400) I was keen to try out their new product.
Gmini402 is a device that plays videos, music, and you can view photos, it is small, stylish, and can fit easily into a pocket.
The Gmini is very simple to use, there is no installation required, you simply plug it into your computer (via usb 2.0) and it appears as external hard drive, you can then simply drag and drop songs, videos and photos ... ...to heavily consider buying an Archos Gmini402, they out perform the iPod, and are a lot simpler to use. Archos have better quality goods for lower prices than IPod and other competing portable multimedia device brands.
There is also a Gmini402cc that you may want to find out more information about because it has a Camcorder built into it, which can take photos and videos. The version with a camcorder retails for £200 on amazon. ...
gothicbob 09.08.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Archos Gmini 402 20GB
Advantages: Great sound, great video, great price Disadvantages: Perhaps not as stylish as some other players, bundled earphones not great
...hardrive to play on the Archos when you sync. For example, you pick a video from your media player library and add it to the sync list, and when you click sync media player will automatically convert that video into an Archos compatitble format and then put it on the player. You can also drag and drop music and video (or indeed any other type of file) into the Archos, and it can be used as a portable hard drive.
The gmini can also be used as a photo ... ...than PSP.
Finally, the Archos gmini 402 comes bundled with a whole bunch of accessories - you get an AC charger, a usb link cable, a cable that allows you to directly connect the gmini to a digital camera so that images can be transferred directly, cables to connect the gmini to a TV or hifi and a pretty sturdy carry case. ...
whotook316 15.02.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 402 20GB
Advantages: Plays Videos, Small, Nice Design, Connect to TV Disadvantages: Battery Life, Browsing Songs,
...never really heard about the Archos mp3 players. However last year I was given one as a gift and at the time I was thinking id rather have an ipod any day. But after using I discovered the qualities the Archos has.
For a start the design looks very nice, its silver small and very tidy. However it does tend to seem fragile as I was afraid that I might drop it or scratch the screen. Hence immediately I brought a cover from eBay which cost me £20 but ... ...put the videos on the Archos is a lengthy and tedious one. To convert one video and put it on my Archos for the first time took me 2 hours. But that was mainly due to the reason of installing all the converting software (available of Archos website) and converting such a long video. The games on the Archos are simple games for a little bit of pass time, however I wouldn't really use it to play games as its so delicate and the buttons aren't really ...
taran36 13.09.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 402 20GB
Advantages: Video, Music, Photos all in one place. Small. USB hub Disadvantages: Capasity limited, scrolling poor, no music while looking at photos
I got my one of these last christmas, its awesome to be able to watch videos, look at photos and listen to music all on a device this small. There are some problems though, scrolling up and down takes ages if you have many artists/songs which can get very annoying, if you are storing films and your music i think the 20Gb capasity (which is 18.6 ish in useable memory) is a little small. Also you cant look through your pictures and listen to music ... ...aluminium body is easily damaged and scratched so you need a case of some sort. But, it plays most video and audio files, is a USB hub so you can directly download photos from your digital camera etc., it has an alright battery life if your not silly, very nice screen with good, vibrant coloursand one of my favorate features is the resume function- which allows you to return to what ever you were watching/listening to when you turn it back on the ...
kenco13 07.01.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 402 20GB
MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows ME, Apple MacOS X 10.2.4 or later
Manufacturer's product description
The Gmini 402 is the latest ultra-small, ultra-light, ultra-slim Pocket Multimedia Center of the ARCHOS Multimedia Range. Its compact design, stylish appearance, and extensive functionality offer the future of mobile entertainment.
