to 20 gb jukeboxes

I wish I could write a scatheing review but I am not. I checked out a lot of MP3 players before purchasing the Archos GMini 120. I also looked at all the reviews here on amazon.com and weighed those for the iPOD, Zen Xtra and Diamond RIO before making my purchase. Here is my experience:

The Good: Price vs. Features hands down goes to the GMini. At 249.00 (CompuUSA) with it's 20GB hard drive, Smart Card memory reader and voice recorder (I am a student and am tired of packing a tape recorder) no other player even comes close.

After letting my batteries charge for 24 hours connection to my PC was a breeze, just plugged it in and boom I was up and running in seconds (literally). The icon based menu made browsing the units features easy.

Before installing MusicMatch I uploaded a couple of hundred songs to the unit just to see the sound quality and options. After a little bit of learning the key layout I selected a song from Pink Floyd just to see how dynamic the frequency response was. I was pretty impressed by the playback. The environment setting were pretty basic and the EQ did not impress me too much but it was useable and the volume range was excellent.

The Bad: I am not going to elaborate too much here just give the down and dirty facts as most of the dis-advantages have already been listed in prior reviews.

The button controls are awkward to use even after using the unit for a week or two. The documentation provided was not very well put together and in a lot of places erronious. The earbuds hurt my ears and I had to go purchase a pair of sony headphones. Music Match is the only product you can use to transfer to the GMini to sync and update it's ARC library.

The Return: While I did not experience some of the issues other users have listed and I was quite happy with the GMini, I did have to return it 2 times. No matter how long I left the unit charging it would only get to 2 bars, never 3. This meant a battery life of around 3 - 4 hours if I was lucky. My second unit done the same thing. After finally getting a hold of customer support (That was a nightmare) they told me that I must not have followed the initial instructions to let my batteries charge fully before using the unit. I asked them how long did that take, they replied 8-12 hours. I told them that I had let it charge for over 24 and basically they called me a liar.

I really did like this player but without the option to change the battery pack without voiding my warrenty I returned it for an in-store credit and purchased the Nomad Zen Xtra.

I spent weeks researching mp3 players and ended up with the GMini 220. I wanted both the music and Photo wallet features. I travel for extensive time without a laptop and needed something to down load pictures to. The sound quality is great and the photo wallet works great. I've had the unit for 5 months now and it has worked perfectly. I would buy another one (or maybe the GMini 400 series when that comes out)

This gear is perfect!!! Huge screen, tons of info on the screen, and it looks tight. Plus you get AV cords to plug it right into a stereo receiver, so I can get a thousand watts behind my Gmini on my surround sound. YOWZA, couldn't ask fo' a betta unit. I've had mine fer 'bout 6 months, no complaints. Buy it, love it, nevva leave wit out it! Holla at cha girl.