Nex IA Bare (No Drive)
Written: Jul 29 '04 (Updated Jul 29 '04)
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Pros: Small, light, cheap, simple, FM tuner
Cons: Unreliable,poorly built, buggy firmware
The Bottom Line: I would not recommend- mine has been unreliable and the customer service disappointing
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| starrzan's Full Review: Frontier NEX IA (1 GB) MP3 Player |
I found mine online for about $55, and the model is called the Nex IA "Bare", or no drive. Seems an excellent deal if you already have a microdrive (miniature hard drive built on the CF type II format), which I have, but read on.
The player is small, light, plastic body, and comes with a fabric case with a belt loop- useless unless wearing a belt- do you wear a belt to the gym? I don't. Don't know why anyone would, but I guess if you are walking at the park or something you might. Anyway, a clip would have been much more useful.
My first impression is that the firmware that drives the IA is very weak, or bug-ridden. The player locks up constantly, and frequently will not switch on without first removing the batteries then re-installing them. I found the international website to have a link for downloading updated firmware, which I did, but the instructions say that you must format your drive before loading the firmware. Well, I had already loaded up my 340 MB microdrive with songs using the included USB cable, and the process was very slow, so I did not want to go through it again after reformatting the drive, so I grabbed the 512 MB compact flash card out of my camera, (the Nex is supposed to be able to use either type 1 or type 2 compact flash cards) attempted to format it in the player, and surprise, it locked up. The only way to "unlock" this thing is to remove the batteries. I did. The flash card (not cheap) is now useless. Toast. $75 down the drain. I contacted Frontier, the company that makes this piece of junk, in China through the support link on the website, and they want me to send them the card for "inspection". Still debating that, but I did get the Microdrive reformatted, got the updated firmware loaded, and reloaded the songs on the Microdrive using a flash card reader instead, and it was at least 10x faster, so don't load this thing using the USB cable. It is working better now, but occasionally still locks up, or ignores your request to turn on.
The sound is good, the reception on the FM tuner is weak, but if you live near the transmission source you'll be fine.
For 50 bucks you can't complain too much, I guess I didn't expect the thing to be perfect, but it irritates me that I have to send my dead 512 MB flash card to China for inspection before being (maybe) reimbursed.
If I had it to do over again, I would buy something more expensive and expect better reliability.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 55
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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Epinions.com ID:
starrzan
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Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 0 members
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