Overivew
What can I say about this machine - it's a cracker! Like a lot of people, I waited for some time to buy a real "heavy duty" multimedia player. I didn't necessarily want to go down the Ipod route as clearly there are issues there around screen size, poor battery durability, susceptibility ... Read review
(+) Good screen size for the price. Easy to use. Good sound quality. Not too heavy or bulky. (-) Takes a long time to charge. Battery life could be better.
Advantages: Big sharp clear screen, great sound quality, massive capacity, removeable battery Disadvantages: A little bulky, Ipod menu and controls slightly more intuitive, no stand or cradle
Overivew
What can I say about this machine - it's a cracker! Like a lot of people, I waited for some time to buy a real "heavy duty" multimedia player. I didn't necessarily want to go down the Ipod route as clearly there are issues there around screen size, poor battery durability, susceptibility to scratches etc. So if, like me, you are searching for more than an MP3 player and want a machine that does many things well, ... .../>
Accessories
In the box, you get the 40GB player, audio and video cables, USB cable, AC adapter/charger, earphones and a carry pouch. The only niggles with these are, as usual, the supplied earphones are cheap sounding and won't do justice to the unit's quality. It would have been nice to get even a small plastic cradle or stand to pop it on so you need not hold it all the time on long trips. The pouch is essentially just ... more
Overivew
What can I say about this machine - it's a cracker! Like a lot of people, I waited for some time to buy a real "heavy duty" multimedia player. I didn't necessarily want to go down the Ipod route as clearly there are issues there around screen size, poor battery durability, susceptibility to scratches etc. So if, like me, you are searching for more than an MP3 player and want a machine that does many things well, then this is very close to perfect on that score.
Accessories
In the box, you get the 40GB player, audio and video cables, USB cable, AC adapter/charger, earphones and a carry pouch. The only niggles with these are, as usual, the supplied earphones are cheap sounding and won't do justice to the unit's quality. It would have been nice to get even a small plastic cradle or stand to pop it on so you need not hold it all the time on long trips. The pouch is essentially just a cheap felt bag that doesn't provide any of the functionality of a real case, so I'd suggest that you get a case if you want to protect it.
The Unit
With a whopping 40GB drive, the unit can store either up to 20,000 songs (less depending on encoding), 400,000 photos or up to 160 hours of video. You will need to use applications like MPEG flask to get your movies into the machine, but once you do, the results are amazing.
The 4 inch screen is sharp and clear and delivers rich colours without blurring or distorting even in high action scenes. It is a treat to watch. The movie sound is nothing short of fantastic. With the right headphones, the sound is big enough to immerse you in the film - this is one of its strongest points. It does have a built in speaker, but this is uncharacteristically pathetic-sounding and seems like an afterthought.
For music, it is a very capable MP3 player and with good headphones will pump out very high quality music. While its menu system and controls are not as slick and intuitive as the Ipod, these are easily mastered and it's no big deal. Also, the player syncs directly to Windows media player, so you can rip your CDs, organise playlists of your MP3s and update your machine with minimum hassle.
Other features include a voice recording function, data storage and the ability to output video straight to your TV set.
It isn't really Perfect is it?
Well, no but it is very close. Probably the main niggle with the unit will be that it is bulky. It isn't a neatly-slipped-into-top-pocket kind of unit and it is relatively heavy. However, it isn't bulky for nothing - it has a solid feel, you get a large screen and a large REPLACEABLE battery. Battery life is excellent and it's good to know that at least some manufacturers are not sealing up the battery and designing their products to go straight to dustbin after 18 months.
The only other aspect is that you may have to experiment a little with the video encoding to get the quality right for you, but this would apply to any player. It is incredile to be able to walk around with so many movies and so much music all in one still reasonably compact unit. For around £170, there was nothing else remotely in its league.
Advantages: Huge hard drive, large screen, built in speaker Disadvantages: limited accessories
...Battery:
The battery on the archos is, in my opinion, very good. You can get about 15 hours of music or 5 hours of video (so you can watch an entire film). Also the recharge timee is very quick sometimes taking just a few hours to fully charge.
Speakers:
In my opinion a very good feature is the built in speaker. Though not very good quality, if your like me (and have small ears) headphones start to hurt after a while, so it's good to have a rest. ... ...yhe format (some actually say Archos gmini 500) and click rip.
Accessories:
Admittedly there are very few archos accessories (especially compared to the ipod). There is a carry case that costs around £25 and you can buy a bigger battery
Overall a brilliant machine for a very low price. I would recommend this to any one searching for a multimedia player. ...
mjl14 02.04.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 500 40 GB
Advantages: Huge Harddrive, Large Screen, Huge File Support Disadvantages: Poor Customer Support, Minimal Accessories
...with a conclusion. The Archos Gmini 500 is better than the Ipod 5th Generation. There is no doubt this product is fantastic, however, due to a huge marker in Ipods the archos does not stand a chance in getting its fantastic product across to its buyers. However, considering this, the price isn't at all bad. Once i purchased mine after a warey few weeks of decision making, i was pleasantly surprised when the product arrived. In a nutshell it was totally ... ...the amount of colours the archos can give off is 10x as much as the ipod.
Although the product is larger and heavier than the Ipod it is more of a media centre than an MP3/MP4 player. This is understandable with its synconisation abilities with Windows Media Player 9 or above. This is also a fantastic feature because although the archos supports most picture, music and video formats, any that it doesnt will be converted while being copied onto the ...
Coolfox1988 04.06.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 500 40 GB
Advantages: Huge memory for photos, music and videos. Disadvantages: Lack of accessories.
I have had my Gmini for about a year now. In that time I have only been able to listen to songs on it for about 9 months. It is a brilliant product, which is great for listening to music and watching films with. But the main problem is the lack of accessories and the availability of them. It took me ages to find a decent place to buy new headphones and a new usb cable. Apart from that though it is very good. It has a huge amount of memory, which ... ...and lots of movies too. The display is excellent and all of the colours are exquisite. the only other complaint I could have about this is the weight and size. it is a very big player and is really quite heavy, but for the amount of memory it has, it is expected. I would definitely recommend this and would have one over an iPod any day. ...
alexthegreat 14.09.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Archos Gmini 500 40 GB
Advantages: Great Screen and Space, Plays more files than Ipod Disadvantages: Slightly Heavy and Chunky
Firstly I got my archos of amazon for about £180 which is great value.
When I got it I was pleasantly suprised. The screen is very bright and the picture quality when watching films is great.
With some video files the sound will go out of sync but this can be fixed by decoding the files with the decoder that comes with the archos.
I has a great feature where it connects to hard drives and digital cameras even the Ipod so on holiday you can back ...
vish3108 06.11.2006
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful Review of Archos Gmini 500 40 GB
Product Information for "Archos Gmini 500 40 GB" »
Video
Video Playback Formats
MPEG-4 SP, WMV, AVI
Power adapter
Type
Power adapter+battery charger
System requirements
Operating System
MS Windows XP, MS Windows 2000, MS Windows ME, Apple MacOS X 10.2.4 or later
Manufacturer's product description
ARCHOS presents its latest Pocket Multimedia Center allowing you to download all your movies, home video or recorded shows from your PC, store up to 160 hours of video or 400,000 photos and watch them on a 4" color screen on the go. The Gmini 500 offers all the digital entertainment you may expect form a Pocket Multimedia Center!
