Solid, albeit non-sexy performer
Pros:
great audio quality, supports multiple formats and bit-rates, decent battery life.
Cons:
bulky adapters required to charge battery and record audio. sub-par navigation. line-in adapter loose.
The Bottom Line:
Strong performer, although there are prettier and easier players out there. Good cost/benefit ratio.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
We purchased the Gmini 220 about 18 months ago to use in our church to capture our sermons. We were initially attracted to this recorder because of its line-in feature and large storage capacity.
When we received the recorder, I was a little surprised to find you can only use the line-in jack if you attach a bulky adapter to the headphone jack. I also quickly discovered that you have to attach another adapter to the mini-USB port to charge the battery. with these two adapters attached, the Gmini quickly loses its "mini" appearance.
The navigation buttons are small, and pretty easy to operate. the system navigation is not well laid out, but I may be a little spoiled by my iPod Nano. The recorder supports mp3 and wav recording, with multiple bit-rates. I decided to record in mp3 at 128k since 98% of what we capture is spoken word. This gives me plenty of headroom to mix down and resample the files for optimization.
The recorder performs very well. I have had very few issues related to actually recording audio. I did have to secure the line-in adapter with a rubber band because it moves a little, and can inject static into the recording. Other than that, the sound quality is great, and works very well for our purposes.
The Data-transfer is quick and mostly trouble free. the USB port uses the industry-standard mini-USB plug, so when I lost the link cable I was able to buy another one from Staples. The USB-2 transfers 50 to 60 MB files in a few seconds. I have also used extra space on the 20GB hard drive as storage for pictures, video files, and other data.
The battery lasts quite along time. I am able to record 4 or 5 one-hour services before I start to get worried about dropping in the middle of a service. I did have a problem with the included power supply. About a year after we bought the Gmini I plugged the power supply in, heard a loud pop, and smelled ozone. The power supply had died. We bought a replacement from Archos for about 20 dollars, and it's worked fine since then. I also found out during this time that you can charge the battery from your computer's USB port.
The display is a little low-resolution, and would not be suitable for displaying pictures. The blue backlight is pleasant, and the duration can be changed by the user. I was a little frustrated to find that the backlight shuts off immediately when you start recording, and cannot be changed. I'm sure this is a battery-saving measure, but in the real world it prevents me from being able to see the recording levels in the low light of our sanctuary.
I have also used the Gmini several times as a standard mp3 player. The player performs well, and is very compact without all the extra adapters connected.
Overall, the Gmini 220 is a utilitarian workhorse. I never need to worry that my recording will fail. I don't think I would choose this particular unit for my personal media player, but for the most part I have been pleased with its performance in our unique environment.
