A REALLY good MP3 player...that is just shy of excellent
Pros:
Super light weight, good warranty, excellent sound with correct headphones.
Cons:
Included headphones poor sounding, covers for SD and USB ports easily misplaced cheap plastic.
The Bottom Line:
This is an inexpensive, upgradeable, excellent sounding MP3 player (with different headphones) that boasts many positive traits other units lack.
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Overall Rating:
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Author's Review
Everyone wants a super light MP3 player that is shock resistant, easy to configure, has a good warranty, is upgradeable (memory wise), allows you to use your own battery (simple AAA's here) and has great sound. This unit fulfills all of these!
This being a true flash player it is not susceptible to skipping or hard drive failure. It also includes an SD slot which will accept up to a 2GB memory card to allow for expansion of memory up to 3GB!
Unlike certain players that require special software to even load your music, using the supplied USB cable you can just "click and drag" your music to the player as if it was another drive on your system. You can also move music off of it the same way.
I have read some reviews that complain about poor sound. Let's be clear...that is the issue with the supplied headphones. Saying they sound "tinny" and "metallic" is actually being gracious. Using my Etymotic ER-6i, Shure E2C's or E3C's the sound is fantastic and matches any other portable MP3 player I have come across -- yes even the iRiver or iPod products. There is also a simple equalizer (not just a "rock", "classical" or "jazz" setting). While the unit boasts an SRS WOW setting it boosts in the wrong areas (for me) and for the music I listen to it actually detracts.
Let's talk warranties. Look at most of the other MP3 manufacturers like Creative and RIO offering only 90 day warranties. Do you honestly believe that is a mistake? They KNOW they failure rate is so high after just couple months they have to limit their exposure. For this unit it is one year. In my case the power button stopped functioning after 30 days. I posted an online request via their tech support board and had the first response back within two hours. After the initial troubleshooting steps failed to fix the problem they issued a replacement RMA...with a supplied free FEDEX label.
The navigation gets some getting used to, but I am very simple in my needs. Play all, play by album title or play by artist. True, there is no play list functionality. But it works as-is for me. The multi-line display is easy to read and provides plenty of information.
Not everything is totally glossy however. The covers over the USB port and SD card slot are VERY cheap plastic and easily lost. The volume dial feels very cheap as well but had no problems with it so far. The supplied carrying case to protect the unit is a simple clear plastic shell; I would like to see a better looking and more substantial case.
Even with the issues...highly recommended.
