Creative Nomad II MG... the ultra cool and sexy MP3 player
Written: Jun 26 '01 (Updated May 26 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
| Portability: |
|
|
| Battery Life: |
|
|
|
Pros: Stylish, Average price for MP3 player, expandable, FM tuner, voice recording
Cons: Poor headphones, other MP3 options available, expensive to expand memory
The Bottom Line: An excellent MP3 player overall, but other competitors out there like the Sonicblue Rio 800 and other larger memory MP3 devices as well
|
|
|
| yusakugo's Full Review: Creative Labs Nomad II (64MB) MP3 Player |
With epinions now finishing a merger with Dealtime... many of the products I wrote reviews on got placed into the same catagory even though they were different products... since the II MG was the stylized version of the II, epinions thought to merger all Creative Lab Nomad II models (c, normal, MG, MG special edition, etc.). I'll be talking about the II MG and II MG model here.
Original review
I been playing around with my Nomad II MG for nearly 8 months now. The Nomad II MG has 64MB of flash memory built into the unit and is easy to expand via the SmartMedia card slot. Overall, where does the Nomad lie in the world of MP3 players?
The Nomad is another good solid state MP3 player with some nice features over the Rio 800 and a few features that are worse. Overall, I think the Nomad II MG is an overall solid unit that you should consider along with the Rio 800 as well as other units.
Now (March 2001), I have my own Nomad II MG player with an additional 64 MB SmartMedia card on it and the wired remote. The Nomad II MG firmware upgrades now allow it to accept 128 MB SmartMedia cards.
Being the Nomad, traveling free!
The Nomad II MG has a thin profile with a sleek and sexy look partly because of the magnesium casing it uses. Looking directly at the unit, you see the silvery (or light metallic blue) magnesium housing with only a round LCD in the middle of it. There is a thin black border on three sides of the unit (excludes the top) where the buttons lie. I personally like the overall look of this unit over the Rio 800... but this is really a style issue and a personal preference. The center LCD is easy to look at (although I still preferred the Rio 800 LCD) and illuminates with a very soft blue light. The unit fits well in the palm of your hand and easily operable with one hand. Again, all the buttons for the unit are on the side.
The Nomad II MG uses a USB connection for fast downloads.
Voice recording seems to be the in thing on MP3 players now. You can get up to 4 hours worth with the internal 64 MB of memory. Considering that you also have the SmartMedia slot that can accept a 64MB or even a 128MB card... you have many options for music and voice recording. On top of this, the Nomad has EAX Time Scaling which is used to slow down or speed up the playback speed of voice recordings... I haven't really played with it though. Sound useful though plus it's the reason why the Nomad can record up to 4 hours on 64MB of memory. The microphone also seems to pick up better than the Rio 800 but not by very much. By the way, the mic is located on the top right front side of the player when you look directly at it. You should still talk fairly close to the unit.
You get a FM radio tuner with up to 32 presets! The FM tuner is okay... it has poor pickup in certain areas like areas with heavy electronic usage. There is a plus side though. You can record an FM broadcast to memory and play it back. Might be useful for some of us.
You get a pair of AAA NiMH rechargables. Very useful and spare you some expense of buying lots of alkalines. I would recommend buying another set of rechargable AAA as they don't last all that long! I would say a definite 3 1/2 hours with on and off usage (including downloading to the player). You do get an AC adapter though.
Sorry folks, no remote. You have to pay extra for it. The NomadWorld (i.e. Creative) website sells it for an extra $59.95 plus $8.95 standard S&H! It is an inline remote and adds to your cord length to the headphones. However, the inline remote for the Nomad is very nice. It has an LCD and several main function buttons like play, stop, skip ahead and back. This remote does have a microphone on it as well which seems a bit clearer than the one on the unit (although the mic was pretty good on the unit as well). The inline remote also allows you to use the lousy protective pouch that came with the package. A much, much nicer remote than the Rio 800 one.
Well, that brings us to the headphones. Better yet, throw the ones in the box away and buy decent ones. You'll be happier for it.
You do get a snug case for your Nomad, but it really hampers the use of the Nomad unless you have the inline remote. The case actually prevents you from accessing the buttons on the side of the player, which makes no sense! On top of that, the case doesn't have a belt clip! This is an item that you can totally do without. You can find a case on Computers4sure.com that seems to fit the Nomad II MG but the case is $19.95 in a box or $15.95 open box... and the S&H is $5.95 on top of that. I didn't buy it so I don't know if it is any good. Somebody who has it please let me know.
The Nomad II MG supports MP3 out of the box but currently you need to download the software patch to play WMA files. After you've downloaded the patch, everything is okay. The software Creative provides is more than adequate to start you off on loading your Nomad with MP3 goodness. By the way, Mac software is included too!
Lastly, the memory is upgraded by adding a SmartMedia card into the slot. Definitely a cheaper way to upgrade than the Rio 800. You can get 64MB on a SmartMedia card for as low as $34 bringing the memory on the Nomad up to 128MB. 128MB SmartMedia cards are becoming available as well in the $80 and higher price range. The player would have cost near $330 with the 128MB add on but at least you have 192MB of flash memory on board. The only advantage the Rio has in this catagory is that the Rio backpacks may add more memory (at least 340MB with the IBM microdrive attachment) than any SmartMedia card would. Then again, if you wanted to store entire MP3 libraries, you would likely look at other MP3 devices like MP3-CD players and products like the Nomad Jukebox and Archos Jukebox.
Conclusions
You are going to pay a street price of $235 for a solid state MP3 player with a base 64MB of RAM with a few nice extras like FM tuning and voice recording. It is a reasonable price for the unit overall. At least the Nomad II MG is much easier to upgrade the memory and cheaper to boot than a Rio 600 or Rio 800 player. Another soon to be released competitor is the Intel PC-AP (Pocket Concert Audio Player) which will cost $299 for the player and $349 with the accessory kit (a much better deal). The Intel PC-AP will have 128MB onboard without the ability to expand the memory and FM tuning capabilities. By Intel's description and several previews, the unit sounds very nice so far.
With the prices of SmartMedia slowly dropping and the capacity increasing, the Nomad II MG's future looks fairly bright. The ability to increase the memory easily... and hopefully for a low cost (a few months to years from now) keeps the Nomad II MG from becoming obsolete anytime soon. It's a nice touch in my opinion.
Realize that if you're in the market for a solid state MP3 player and don't need tremendous amounts of space/memory, keep this one on your short list. Remember to also look at the Rio 800 and even the Rio 600 and Rio 500 players. The Nomad II units are also attractive as well. Read my Rio 800 product review by cutting and pasting the following
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_11880205956
Also read my latest MP3 player reviews on the following!
My RioVolt review
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16976219780
My Intel Pocket Concert review
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16884993668
My Rio 800 Extreme review
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16723119748
If you want a mega-memory solid state MP3 player, guess what! Two models exist... but you have to spend the dough to get them. One is the Nomad II MG Limited Edition. Limited to a production run of 800 units, you pay $499 bucks to get a 256MB Nomad II MG. Otherwise, you get nothing else new with the unit. Is the $250+ premium for the MP3 player worth it... I'm not sure about that. It certainly is better than the original $799 Creative wanted at first! The other unit is the Rio 800 Extreme that is more reasonable priced at $599. You get 256MB in the Rio player with a 128MB backback. That means 384MB of MP3 or WMA enjoyment! The units are supposed to be released on the SonicBlue store in mid-March 2001. It's a $300+ premium but the 128MB backpack will cost at least $250 by itself. If you consider that, the additional 192MB of memory is really adding say $50-100 maximum to the Rio 800 price. Recent news is that SonicBlue is releasing a Rio 800 with 128 Megs for $299 and a Rio 600 with 64 Megs for $219. Not bad when you think about it.
If portability and skip-free functions are not the priority compared to amount of play time and ability to archive, then look at MP3-CD players and the hard drive based MP3 players. On the MP3-CD front, I am awaiting my Rio Volt player and will definitely review this when the category becomes available. The MP3-CD players are definitely the cheaper units available out there... the Rio Volt costs only $134.99 at most retailers as well as the TDK Mojo. Look at the Creative Nomad Jukebox and the Archos Jukebox. Both of these units use hard drives for MP3 storage and can double as a backup hard drive to some degree. They are certainly not much more expensive than the top of the line solid state players. There are so many options opening up in the world of MP3... it will bring an interesting future!
More MP3 players and epinions on MP3 players in general!
Read my How to Choose MP3 Players Article (cut and paste link)
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1025089668
The future of MP3 players coming to you!
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1692377220
Finally want to buy a Nomad II MG... then check out my ebates.com review to find out how to save more at several online stores and retailers. Get the best deal for your bucks! (cut and paste following link)http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_11868081796
The Intel Pocket Concert costs $299 at MSRP. I have been able to find it for $230 at the lowest... and the average price is $270-280 on the web. This is a 128 MB player with the best and loudest sound of any flash MP3 player! It also has an FM tuner! Read my review by cutting and pasting the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16884993668
The Rio 800 128MB costs $299 at MSRP... only $20 more than the Rio 800 64MB version. This unit has one of the best LCDs packing the most information I've seen to date. It doesn't have a FM tuner but it does voice record. The unit is expandable through the Rio Backpacks as well. Read my review on the Rio 800 64MB version (the only difference is the memory on the 128MB and 64MB versions) by cutting and pasting the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_11880205956
You might want to read the Rio 800 Extreme... this is the same Rio 800 unit but with 256 MB internal memory and a 128MB Rio Backpack added to the mix. This means 384MB of monster music in addition to all the great Rio 800 features all for $599. To read my review cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16723119748
Read my RioVolt review... this is a CD MP3 player which is the most cost effective MP3 available. You get up to 650 MB of storage (i.e. the CD-R or CD-RW) or even 700 MB on specialized CD-Rs. You get great battery life as well, great MP3/WMA skip protection, and the ability to play CD (but only decently due to poor skip protection for regular music CDs). Cut and paste the following review:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16976219780
Read the AVC Soul Player review... this is basically the same unit as the RioVolt but cheaper and with different accessories! Cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_19010981508
Read my Nomad IIc review here. 32MB of flash memory with voice recording for a low $129... so what's wrong with it? Cut and paste the following link
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_20535348868
I also suggest the hard drive jukebox players like the Creative Nomad Jukebox ($299 MSRP... I just purchased one for $239 brand new), the Creative Nomad Jukebox C, and the Archos Jukebox. There are other brands but they hover around 6GB in storage capacity... yes! 6GB of storage!
This is my CD-MP3 player review on two of the best players as of June 2001. Cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1561895044
You may want to read my first choosing an MP3 player review. Cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1025089668
Nomad II MG Special Edition - MRSP $499 at time
Creative first released the Nomad II MG Special Edition player before the Rio 800 Extreme, before the Rio 800 128MB, and before the Intel Pocket Concert. This was a 800 unit production run containing an unheard of 256MB of memory for an out of this world price. This original price was $799! Can we say ouch!
As products like the Rio 800 Extreme (384MB unit) for $599, the Intel Pocket Concert for $299, and the Rio 800 128MB model for $299 were announced. Creative regained their senses and dropped the prices to $499. Much more affordable.
And then I went out and bought one despite owning a Nomad II MG, Intel Pocket Concert, Rio Volt, and Rio 800 64MB (which I gave to my brother). I had a Rio 800 Extreme for a little bit before selling it to a friend. Since I own several products utilizing SmartMedia cards and I already have the cool Nomad II MG inline remote, the Special Edition fit me better than the Rio Extreme.
Special Nomads... the II MG on steroids
Well, actually, the special edition only has one difference from the regular Nomad II MG... that is the amount of built in memory. The special edition contains 4 times the amount of memory as the regular Nomad II MG. Which means 4 times the amount of music. For me, I had a 64MB SmartMedia card in my regular MG giving 128MB of music. The special represented 2 1/2 time more music (with the 64MB SmartMedia card inserted).
Since for all purposes, the Nomad II MG Special Edition is basically the same as the Nomad II MG regular edition. You get the same thin profile brushed magnesium casing that makes the MG one of the sleeker and sexier MP3 players today. Just above the Nomad II MG logo is "special edition" is gold lettering. There is the round LCD in the middle of the front of the casing that illuminates with a soft blue light. You have the same black border on the sides and bottom of the unit. I still like the look of the Nomad II MG over all my other MP3 players. It fits well in the palm of your hand, and I thought it was easy to operate with just one hand. (The style and operation preferences which vary greatly between people... my brother hates the buttons on the side and feels it's difficult to operate with one hand. He loves the inline remote though!) All buttons for operation are on the sides of the unit within the black border.
Voice recording seems to be a standard on most MP3 players now. You can get up to 16 hours worth with the internal 256 MB of memory. Considering that you also have the SmartMedia slot that can accept a 64MB or even a 128MB card (when you update the firmware... more on that later)... you have many options for music and voice recording. On top of this, the Nomad has EAX Time Scaling which is used to slow down or speed up the playback speed of voice recordings... I haven't really played much with it though. Sound useful though... plus it's the reason why the Nomad can record up to 16 hours on 256MB of memory. At least I can slow down fast talkers in review lectures and medical presentations. The microphone also seems to pick up better than the Rio 800 but not by very much. By the way, the mic is located on the top right front side of the player when you look directly at it. You should still talk fairly close to the unit. If you bought the inline remote, this really becomes a nice recording unit. The mic on the inline remote picks up quite a bit better than the mic on the MG itself.
You get a FM radio tuner with up to 32 presets. However, the FM tuner has only decent reception... it has poor pickup in areas like those with heavy electronic usage. There is a plus side though. You can record an FM broadcast to memory and play it back. Might be useful for some of people.
The unit uses two AAA batteries. A great addition included in the package is the pair of AAA NiMH rechargables. Extremely useful and spares you some expense of buying lots of alkalines. I would recommend buying another set of rechargable AAA as they don't last all that long and develop memory! I would say I got a definite 3 1/2 hours with on and off usage (including downloading to the player). You do get an AC adapter though but it is for the docking station.
Wait the docking station, another excellent addition. It is a USB docking station that allows you to charge your NiMH batteries while still inside the player and upload, download, and manage your music through your PC or Mac through the Creative PlayCenter 2 Software. However, no stereo output on the docking station like Intel's Pocket Concert docking station.
The headphones... urmmm... well... they stink. Buy your own, you'll be happier if you did. Even the low cost Sony Fontopia's sound better than the ones Creative supplied.
The protective pouch/case. This is the stupidest case I've seen. It does cover the Nomad II MG SE, but it only has two holes... one for the LCD and one for the headphones/inline remote. If you have the inline remote, the case is still only okay. The case doesn't allow you to attach the unit to your belt. If you don't have the remote, you can't really press the button on the side of the unit. Besides, the MG looks good, why would you want to hide it... urmmm... maybe to protect it then. Regardless, the pouch/case is near useless.
Sorry folks but you get no remote. You have to pay extra for it. An extra $59.95 that it plus $8.95 standard S&H! Secondly, you can only buy it at the Creative web store. It is an inline remote and adds a bit to your cord length besides the headphones. However, the inline remote for the Nomad is really very nice. Probably the best remote I've seen for any MP3 player. It has an LCD and several main function buttons like play, stop, skip ahead and back. This remote does have a microphone on it as well which had clearer reception than the one on the unit (even though the mic was pretty good on the unit). The inline remote also allows you to use the lousy protective pouch that came with the package. A much, much nicer remote than the Rio 800 one. I really do recommend purchasing it for your Nomad II MG.
The Nomad II MG supports MP3 out of the box but you might need to download the software patch to play WMA files. After you've downloaded the patch, everything is okay. The unit will even support 128 MB SmartMedia cards with the latest firmware update. The software Creative provides is more than adequate to start you off on loading your Nomad with MP3 goodness. I only installed the Creative PlayCenter 2 software (which I downloaded the latest version from the web!). The PlayCenter 2 software allow you to play MP3 and WMA files, upload and download between the computer and Nomad, create playlists, set the FM presets, and delete files from the MG. By the way, Mac software is included too but I don't know how well it works since I don't own a Mac!
Lastly, the memory is can be upgraded by adding a SmartMedia card into the slot. Definitely a cheaper way to upgrade than the Rio 800. You can get 64MB on a SmartMedia card for as low as $49 (the price I bought several of my SmartMedia card for) bringing the memory on the Nomad up to 320MB. 128MB SmartMedia cards are becoming available as well in the $120 and higher price range. The player would have cost near $620 with the 128MB add on but at least you have 384MB of flash memory on board. The Rio Extreme cost $599 for the same amount of memory. The only advantage the Rio has in this catagory is that the Rio backpacks may add more memory (at least 340MB with the IBM microdrive attachment with a 1 GB and the DataPlay module in question) than any SmartMedia card would. Then again, if you wanted to store entire MP3 libraries, you would likely look at other MP3 devices like MP3-CD players and products like the Nomad Jukebox and Archos Jukebox, which are also cheaper alternatives (how funny that it now).
Conclusions
Since I was sucessful in 1999 with the stock market, I can afford to buy several of these toys. In reality, the Nomad II MG is a high priced toy that the majority of consumers will not be interested in. The cost of the Nomad II MG is prohibitive at $499... and considering that the remote is almost a must, you have to have $49.95 on top of that. Furthermore, the product is only available on the Creative web store which charges an arm and a leg for S&H! Don't get me wrong, but I love this unit... but I also realize that $500+ to spend on this unit is overkill for most people. To be honest, I think 128MB is enough for the majority of people (2 hours of MP3s sampled at 128 or 4 hours of WMAs sampled at 64!). In reality, the only competition is the Rio Extreme when dealing with high capacity flash players. I think the Nomad II MG SE is a great unit but only for a select few...
Other thoughts...
The Intel Pocket Concert costs $299 at MSRP. I have been able to find it for $230 at the lowest... and the average price is $270-280 on the web. This is a 128 MB player with the best and loudest sound of any flash MP3 player! It also has an FM tuner! Read my review by cutting and pasting the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16884993668
The Rio 800 128MB costs $299 at MSRP... only $20 more than the Rio 800 64MB version. This unit has one of the best LCDs packing the most information I've seen to date. It doesn't have a FM tuner but it does voice record. The unit is expandable through the Rio Backpacks as well. Read my review on the Rio 800 64MB version (the only difference is the memory on the 128MB and 64MB versions) by cutting and pasting the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_11880205956
You might want to read the Rio 800 Extreme... this is the same Rio 800 unit but with 256 MB internal memory and a 128MB Rio Backpack added to the mix. This means 384MB of monster music in addition to all the great Rio 800 features all for $599. To read my review cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16723119748
Read my RioVolt review... this is a CD MP3 player which is the most cost effective MP3 available. You get up to 650 MB of storage (i.e. the CD-R or CD-RW) or even 700 MB on specialized CD-Rs. You get great battery life as well, great MP3/WMA skip protection, and the ability to play CD (but only decently due to poor skip protection for regular music CDs). Cut and paste the following review:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_16976219780
Read the AVC Soul Player review... this is basically the same unit as the RioVolt but cheaper and with different accessories! Cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_19010981508
Read my regular Nomad II MG review here... only less memory than the Special Edition unit. Cut and Paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_12093918852
I also suggest the hard drive jukebox players like the Creative Nomad Jukebox ($299 MSRP... I just purchased one for $239 brand new), the Creative Nomad Jukebox C, and the Archos Jukebox. There are other brands but they hover around 6GB in storage capacity... yes! 6GB of storage!
You may want to read my choosing and MP3 player review. Cut and paste the following link:
http://yusakugo.epinions.com/content_1025089668
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 230
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
yusakugo
|
 - Top 10 |
|
Member: Rich Go
Location: Somewhere in the NorthEast
Reviews written: 399
Trusted by: 497 members
About Me:
Losing Sleep and Lacking Time... sigh...
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.