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5.5 oz. MPEG-4/Audio Portable From Archos

Posted by timothy on from the horning-in dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Several manufacturers produce hard drive-based MPEG-4 portables now, but to date they are all big and heavy devices weighing in at around 3/4 of a pound. Archos just announced the Gmini 400, a 20GB video/audio player that comes in at the iPod's dimensions and light 5.6 ounces. Presently shipping, I guess they are ready now for the iPod Video in case that player ever becomes more that a /. myth."

2 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Gizmodo has pictures and bit better of a review by Milhouse_ph · · Score: 5, Informative

    Gizmodo has pictures and bit better of a review:

    http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/archos-gmini-400-e verything-but-a-price-019630.php

  2. Some more details. . . by Cyberllama · · Score: 5, Informative

    I've been looking at all the portables coming out for a while and I'm passing on this one -- thought anyone who just wants a music player will probably like it. Here's the things this can do that the ipod cannot:

    1) View photos

    2) Copy photos/movies/music directly off of compact flash (or other formats with adapter) using built in compact flash adapter.

    3) Play movies (Screen is only 2.2 inches, but its pretty) at *FULL* dvd resolution (impressive processing power for such a little guy).

    4) Has a very nice gui for playing music on its color screen -- which of course you'll shut off to save battery life.

    5) Plays Mophun games -- you know, the cheesey little cellphone games. It comes pre-loaded with 5 of 'em. . .

    In otherwords, it can do everything ipod can do, much more, and in the same size. It's a neat little gizmo. Not perfect though, I won't be getting one in fact -- Here's why:

    1) 400 dollars for 20 gigs -- a bit more than a similar featured ipod. This is not a problem for me, but might scare some people away -- though archos is a bit less into the whole "price controlling" thing that apple does so you might actaully find it on sale for less.

    2) 2.2 inch screen only takes up about half the total dimensions of this -- you could theoretically make a larger screen on this unit without increasing the size. My guess is they didn't for costs/battery life reasons. Nevertheless, if I can't read the subtitles on my anime, it's no good.

    3) The real killer for me: No support for Advanced Simple Profile for divx -- this means that most of the files encoded "in the wild" will have to be re-encoded to play them. Archos is coming out with it's AV500 (pda with a harddrive) model soon which is supposed to have support for ASP.

    Since I personally am looking for a video player primarily and music player secondarily, I will wait for the AV500. I don't want to re-encode all my anime. However if you guys were looking to buy an ipod, you should definately consider this little guy. For just a bit more money you get ALOT more features (video, photos, compact flash, pretty color screen, mophun games).