Archos Gmini402 20 GB Camcorder and Multimedia Player

in 2007 this was the best all in one that i've found on the internet. It had everything a person could ask

I bought this MP3 player/camera/camcorder because I figured I could use all the functions whenever I need, all in one device. The first time in 1 month the hard drive crashed. I could not access anything.I called up Archos and they said to send it in, which I did. They "fixed" it and sent it back. In fact, what they had done is replace the device with a refurbished ones because the serial number was different. Anyways, I checked out the new device, which seemed to be working properly at first, until I tried to use the camcorder and camera. The camcorder would record the audio fine, but the camera was not working at all. The screen would turn black and you couldn't record any pictures.I called Archos back and was on hold for over 2 hours. I eventually hung up because they never came on the line. I e-mailed them and have to wait to hear from them. So now, I end up paying for shipping, insurance, etc. two times for a product that has broken twice in 3 months. This is ridiculous. This could be a good product if they actually cared to make it well.

I asked for a digital camera for Xmas. My husband went to a electronic store (alone) and came back with this. It does everything he says. Camcorder. MP3 player, has games, records voices and takes pictures. Well it takes crappy pictures. The camcorder and the MP3 player were very nice. We ended up returning it and getting him an Ipod and myself the digital (low price) camera that I wanted in the first place. I would wait until this gadget has been upgraded a few times. Like the 3rd or 4th generation.

This product has a lot going for it especially on the surface--you can use it as a camera (low megapixels), digital video camera (not too bad), MP3 player (just fine), mediaplayer (can be difficult to import media) and overall digital storage device. Yup a lot there overall and a good price as well so what's the real issue? Well mine fried, the video screen and therefore all menus and all use just gone for no apparent reason; although fortunately within the warranty period but still no fun. Another major flaw although this will seem minor is that there is no way to attach a strap to this player and therefore it is quite awkward to hold and use in it's camera capacities; as your one handed hold will often hit just on the tiny lens that is far off center on the back of the device. So way to go Archos on giving it the old college try and please go back to the drawing board, and include WIFI when you do!!

So far i have enjoyed the product. 1. The video camera works very well for an all in one product although the sound is kind of muffled. 2. Media player works great for music and videos, as long as you have an updated version of windows media player to convert all the files. 3. Can't tell you much about customer service but downloading and converting software from the archos site is a little annoying especially trying to get some of the older updates for the media player 4. the gameplayer is really pretty fun and simple it's no psp but it does offer more than the psp. 5. works very well as portable hard drive but still have not figured out how to read other portable harddrives. 6. all in all a very nice all in one machine. if your just looking for either a specific single tasker try to find something else. but if you like multitaskers this is a good deal and a heck of a buy.

I have had the Gmini 402 cam for about a week now, and I have been very impressed so far. I started off looking for a device that I could simply dump digial photos on, but the gadget monger inside of me wanted more than just a mass storage device for photos. This was the best option I could find that included the USB Host(direct connect with digital camera) and a good mp3 player on it.It has a little smaller hard drive than devices like the Cowon X5 and the Toshiba Gigabeat, but to me this wasn't really a problem, 20 GB was fine. The design of the the Gmini is ok, personally I like the looks of the Gigabeat, and (while not an I-Pod fan) the I-Pod better. It looks a little too much like a gameboy or some kind of game only device. But function won out in that battle, and I had to go with the Gmini.For those interested in the USB host function, after comparing devices for a couple weeks I found out a few things about the other devices that I didn't like; the Gigabeat for example can only use 2 GB of its 30 GB for photos dumped from your digital camera, and I am pretty sure you can not view those dumped photos either. The Cowon X5 does allow you to view images, but limits the size of individual pictures to 2.5MB each. The Gmini does not have any of these limitations, and has a great viewer for the images as well.Aside from the USB Host function, all the other features on it have been great. The camera is obviously not real good, but I wasn't really expecting it to be. The camcorder on the other hand isn't bad, obviously its no sony handycam, but not bad. The video player is cool, but i don't foresee using it too much. And as I mentioned before the MP3 player, is pretty much all I could ask for, album art, ID3 compatible, good sound as far as I can tell. Battery life so far has been decent, though simply comparing stats with other devices, it is probably not quite as good.Overall this has been a great device, and I look forward to using it a lot!

Archos makes a lot of products with great functionality, but they are also very unreliable and when they break, you have to deal with some of the worst customer service around. If it only takes a month to get a working replacement for your broken product consider yourself lucky. It took a month for them to send me another broken product which I had to send back. 5 weeks later I'm still having to call them up and listen to some lady who works part time complain about all the problems they have with their warehouse.Avoid Archos!