Home > Consumer Reviews > Archos Gmini 220 20 GB MP3 Jukebox / Recorder / Photo Wallet-Viewer with Compact Flash Reader

okay i bought the archos gmini 120 as an alternative of the extremely over priced ipod. and since im 15 and had to pay for it myself it seemed logical to buy an mp3 player that offered a great amount of space and features for a fraction of the cost of an ipod that i couldnt afford. so i got the gmini and immeditly opened it and tried to get it running... well 6 days of trying later it still wasnt working. the plugins are immposible to use and no one knows how to make it work. not only does it not work with itunes or just work period its huge and cannot fit in your pocket if you tried... so if you have bought this return it and get something that works...

I bought this a month ago because it played three formats of audio... good idea but it doesn't work. It seems that it does NOT play WAV files at all. The screen went dead after two weeks and it doesn't play more than seven hours without a charge. I would be cautious recommending this to anyone.

It is inconceivable to me how companies like Archos could have it all and consistently sabotage themselves. What is missing on the market is a simple-to-use, high-capacity player (40GB and up) for playing and recording multiple music formats, and data backup, not two similarly deficient products from the same company in different form factors with "downloadable plug-ins". The later idea is cheap captialism and razorblade marketing and simply moronic. If the player has all these capabilities, why not sell it all-in-the-box ready to go? I bought a different player/recorder and I am convinced that Archos looses a lot of customers due to such pathetic marketing (and a website that looks like from the beginnings of the web.)

Take my advice; don't buy the Archos Gmini 120. I'm vary savvy with electronics and I can tell you that I will never buy another product from Archos in the future. The Gmini 120 looks cool the GUI interface is a good idea but they simply don't work. I went through three Archos Gmini's in the span of one week. I kept getting another one figuring that I the one I got must have been a lemon, but they were all lemons from a lemon company. Each one had a different problem. The first one I had could not be recognized by either of my two home computers when it was connected via the USB cable. The second worked when connected through the USB and I was able to download my music to it, but it only work for all of three days. It was running good till the backlit screen slowly started to disintegrate to the point where you could not see anything at all and rendered the device totally useless. And the third one worked for less than a day. Out of the box I experienced difficulty navigating with the buttons. After I had downloaded all my music (again) the buttons would lock, causing it to keep scrolling and was unable to use it. When you have problem with your Archos Gmini 120 (and you will) it's difficult to get support. The Archos trouble shooting web site is not vary helpful, and if you want to call to talk with someone about the problems your having you will have to pay for the phone call because they don't have a 1-800 #. Hands down the worst electronic product I have ever purchased. Maybe you will have better luck. I'm spending the extra money on a better-established company and going with the i-pod.

I received this mp3 player as a gift from my wife Christmas of 2004. I debated between this player and the ipod. Eventually, I told her to buy the gmini 220 and she purchased one new off ebay. I regret that decision every day. From day one the unit has never operated properly in regards to its primary function, playing mp3s. I will relate my experiences with this player and the horrible company behind it below:

When my wife gave me the player, I greedily opened it and set about loading it with mp3s. This unit is extremely easy to load as both Mac and Windows machines (I own both) recognize it as an external hard drive. Just drag and drop. I loaded it with 4 gigs of mp3s, made sure it was charged, and set off listening to songs. The player played for approximately 5 minutes and then crashed, shutting itself off. I thought this was strange, but I restarted it and it did the same thing repeatedly.

By now I realized that the player needed "fixing." I downloaded the latest firmware from Archos and loaded it on the player. Still the same problem. I reformated the hard drive (following the advice of the Archos website). Still the same problem. I realized that the error must lie in the internals of the player. Now begins the terrible odyssey.

I emailed customer support because the website did not list a service number. A week passed and I got no reply. I emailed again after looking up the customer relations head, Terry Perrin, on the Better Business Bureau website and threatening to file a complaint. I got a reply this time giving me the customer support number. I called. I was informed that the player needs repair. They informed me that because it was purchased new on ebay they would not honor their warranty for an admittedly faulty player. They furthermore wanted $65 to fix a problem that they cannot identify. They also promised to email me information on how to send in the player for repair. I never received the email. I emailed them again letting them know that I would let all consumers know about their customer relations department and the quality of their product. I am now following through on my promise. The gmini now sits beside my computer as I'm writing this as a useless mp3 player but a good 20 gig external usb hard drive.

So, what do you need to know:
1. The product has known problems.
2. The company will not honor their warranty if you buy on ebay.
3. The technical support number is long distance and you must make threats to receive answers to your emails.
4. This company does not support its products and does not care that consumers make an investment of several hundred dollars in their products.
5. Buy the ipod.