3. Where Do I Plug It In?

Music connectivity is well-provided for, but hard to get your head round. On top is a jack input extended on either side by connectors. This is where you can plug in standard headphones. When you plug in the adaptor, there is a double as well as a triple jack socket. The double jack socket serves as the line-out with which to plug the Gmini into a device such as a home stereo system.

The triple socket is used to plug in the cable supplied and has three cinch plugs on the end, a red, a white and a yellow. The first two are the analog input and the yellow is a digital coaxial input. Are you keeping up? Anyway, you'd better study the documentation on the CD where it is explained. Not too user-friendly, this system. Now that input on the top we mentioned can also be used to connect an FM radio, using an optional cable. By the way, it is a scandal that they didn't include an FM tuner when you get them on keys for $100. Another detail is that the built-in microphone can turn the Gmini into a Dictaphone.

A High-speed Train

The built-in battery only gives eight hours of continuous play. You charge it with the mains cable supplied. This plugs into the single connection socket, which also takes the USB cable. The mains cable has a doubler to charge and connect in USB at the same time. Archos really does love intricate solutions! The computer connection is USB 2.0 and you have to admit that the tiny 1.8" disk is incredibly fast. It took just 6 seconds to transfer 30 MP3 files totaling 100 MB, the best score we've ever reached on a hard-drive portable player. Copying little files amounting to some 10 GB took less than twenty minutes. And of course, the Gmini is detected as a removable disk and needs no driver.