Archos Gmini XS 200 - MP3 Player 

Efficiency can sometimes be underrated.  We like our stuff to have personality and a little 
character. But every now and then you really have to consider what a product is offering even if it isn't 
beautiful.  Archos's Gmini XS200 definitely lacks pizzazz.  It has no fancy features, no overall outstanding 
performance, and certainly not much to rave about.  But it is the sum of the parts that make up the whole. 
Hello Gmoney.. meet Gmini. Let’s look at the specs.

Specifications for Archos Gmini XS 200

Ok. That's pretty straight forward.  Nothing over the top but wait!  20GB that fits in the palm of my hand? 
Yes 20GB of storage that fits in the palm of your hand and very useable as a removable hard disk.  Well 
that's bound to appeal to somebody so let's see what else we get with this little player.

What does Gmini have to offer?

 The Gmini is a leightweight ladies and gentlemen.  At 4.3 ounces, it weighs in light enough to compete 
with the rest of featherweights such as the iPod mini, Rio Carbon, and Creative Zen Micro. Using Hitachi's 
Travelstar C4k60m mini-hard disk which is about 1.8", Archos clearly has a storage/weight ratio advantage.

 Gmini isn't going to win a fashion show, but this might have appeal for some people.  Cased is 
brushed aluminum and chrome trim, the outside reflects the inside.  It's quite simple to use with not too 
many buttons and not too many menus. You get four menu options Music, Browser, Resume, and Setup which are 
very self explanatory, and if not with a little joystick exploration, most will figure it out. You get two 
buttons for Stop/Escape/Off and an On/Menu control. There also three ports an earphone, USB, and power 
adaptor.  Wow! that's it in a nutshell.  That's it. Save money printing the manual because that's all you 
need to know when it comes to operating the Gmini.

 It's USB throughput goes hand in hand with its simple to use drag and drop file transfer. This 
ultimately is what gives the Gmini the right stuff.  Simply plug in the USB 2.0 device and it's like most 
removable storage devices you'll find. The difference being this palm sized puppy can tote a small database. 
It delivers a good throughput around 10MB/s so it can manage transferring larger files as well.  You don't 
have to deal with third party music managers, which I consider a plus.

 Audio playback is average. It's not great, but it's not bad either.  It's not as good as the Creative 
Zen Micro, but with your own set of headphones, most people won't complain.  The joystick works fairly well 
in navigating the menu and controlling playback.  We all like the Ipod click wheel, and this isn't it. But 
again it's average and efficient.  Move the joystick up/down controls volume and left/right skips backward 
and forward.  Simple.

What does Mr. Gmini lack?

 Yes it has a 20GB of space and you could put over 300 hours of music on it.  But you won't be able to 
listen to much of it before you have to find an electrical outlet to recharge it's lithium-ion battery.  It 
tops out at around 7-8 hours of battery life, and the battery is hardwired in too so if something goes wrong 
with it you'll have to send in the whole unit to Archos.  Archos made trade-offs and probably a larger 
battery would have increased the size of the unit. Gmini doesn't have much room to grow and still battle the 
current line up.
 
 Archos has a couple of areas where it looks like they seriously cut costs. One is with the earphones. 
As mentioned above, the Gmini delivers decent audio quality.  But the supplied ear buds are abysmal. Now if I 
had to guess, I'm quite sure somebody at Archos supposed that many users buy and use aftermarket headsets so 
it would just be a waste to put higher quality earphones with the unit.  Well I don't know how entirely 
accurate this statement would be, but with a MSRP around $249.95,  they could have included a slightly better 
pair. 

   Just a few other small items that probably will turn up your nose.  You will not get an FM tuner nor voice recording capabilites with the GMini.  Whether this is due to size or costs restraints, I do not know.  Would have been nice, but it's not a tragedy. The joystick works fine for browsing through music, but if you have a large amount of songs you'll want to create playlist with the unit.  This is simple to do with the menu and will alleviate having to browse through hundreds of songs which tends to be a little slow with the joystick.  Speaking of playlist you won't be able use Windows Media Player or other software to download your own playlist.  You have to create them with the unit.  If you have any questions how to do this, the manual is always with you as it's stored in pdf on the Gmini. 

Is Gmini a Mac Daddy?

 Again, it's something that's not exactly off the chain, but I have to like it.  Its simply efficient 
approach to audio playback and style is something that will appeal to people. The fact that it's a palm sized 
external 20GB storage is something that should appeal to many people.  Some people have hundreds of gigs of 
music, but I know I'm happy just walking around with 10GB of music.  And I can carry another 10GB of data 
files. I don't need any frills with it or super high quality audio, so the Gmini is the Mac in my book for 
now.

Pros:  Simple design, Small size, Large amount of storage space

Cons:  Short Battery life, sub par earphones, lacking features others have

OVERALL RATING OUT OF 10:    8.0