ZIP ME UP SCOTTY!
Written: Aug 14 '01 (Updated Aug 23 '01)
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Pros: Amazing sound, great idea, small, batteries...lots of things...
Cons: Noisy, hard to get used to, firmware makes me want to cry
The Bottom Line: Well worth the high price tag. Go buy the Hipzip! You'll understand what MP3s are all about! It's a lot of fun, honest!
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| Biggs219's Full Review: Iomega Hipzip 31311 40 MB MP3 Player |
I bought the RCA Lyra Digital Audio Player awhile ago. I soon realized that unless I wanted to listen to music at 64 kilobytes per second (NOT great quality), 32 megabytes was not enough. So I headed out and found myself a 64 megabyte card to add to my wonderful player. Well, that was $170. Hah hah, NO! I threw that idea out the window and came up with a whole new one, I'll get a new player, bigger and better. Well I found myself a new player, rather it's smaller, but, better in oh so many ways.
The Iomega Hipzip, first off, is an excellent idea. Rather than completely digital information discs, it runs Clik!/PocketZip discs. Basically these are just tiny floppy discs, with 40 megabyte capacity each. Each disc is around $10-$15 each, making it affordable, and I got 4 with my player.
The Player:
-The player itself is stylish and fun to look at! I swear! It's a work of art in itself. Very attractive. It has four buttons on the front, play/pause, stop, seek/scan forward and backward. Three buttons on the side, these are for volume control and accessing the menus. One button on the other side, more of a switch, the hold switch...the Lyra did not have that.
-The screen is very detailed. It gives time elapsed, volume level, song and artist, an ACCURATE battery meter, the equalizer setting, and playing mode. The screen has a light green backlight, not as nice as normal blue, but still very readable at night.
-The disc is held inside the player from an opening at the top. A blue plastic cover then covers it. The disc is spring loaded in, holding it in firmly and making it easy to remove. Other features, a USB connection port, power port, and headphones jack. Also; a reset switch, see 'The Baddest of the bad' further down for explanation.
-The player sports a lovely, hehe, lovely, combination of ash gray and purple/blue. I think it looks good with this color scheme, maybe that's just me though.
The Player Features:
As I said, it has a great backlight and a very detailed screen. Very good features. But what else?! Let's see, it has several playing modes (random, repeat, repeat all...etc.), it has four preset equalizer settings and one for adjusting bass/treble. These are all accessible through well laid out menus through the player. You can also scan song, disc, and player information through these menus.
Okay, now, I loved my little Lyra player. It just didn't work for me anymore. So...here's the good and the bad from MY PERSONAL experience with the Lyra. Be aware other players may be far worse or far better than the one I had, so this is purely MY EXPERIENCE.
The good:
Obviously, the Hipzip holds more music. It's easy to afford, and well worth the extra money for the player itself. The Hipzip uses USB connection, fast, easy, drag and drop, I like that combination. The menus are very convenient for looking for information on the song/disc. One of the biggies- the sound quality is amazing on here. It handles songs as low as 16 kbps (that's LOW). I've used my songs at 96 kbps, and they sound just like 128 on the RCA Lyra. This Iomega is a monster!
-An important one, the Hipzip has a HOLD SWITCH. I was VERY angry every time I bumped the off button on the Lyra, no more! The screen is a bit more detailed, not a big difference, just a little nicer.
The bad:
Okay, here we go...
Number one, the Hipzip is hard to use. While the menus are convenient themselves, they're a pain in the butt to get to. Give yourself some time with your player, you'll adjust.. The Lyra also had a listing of all the songs on the disc when you stopped it. I really liked this, but with a little research, it looks like the Lyra is one of very few players that have that, so no complaint there. And the BIGGEST. Due to the fact that these discs used in the Hipzip are like tiny floppy discs, it means they have to be spun for information to be read.
What does that mean? It means every time the player has to access information it makes a high pitched whirring noise. I'll be honest, it annoyed the heck out of me at first, but I got used to it. It's just enough to bug you, the owner, but it won't disturb anyone around you. Luckily, the player reads the information and loads it all in memory at once. This means it doesn't need to constantly read the disc while playing songs. It only does it when you first start it up, when it switches songs, and every now and then in the middle of a song to read more information.
The baddest of the bad, the rotten cheese, the spoiled milk, the duddiest Milk Dud, the smell yogurt, and other various and witty rotten dairy products:
Ahhh yes. The big tomale. The firmware for the HipZip sucks. It just sucks.
(Firmware is basically the internal programming for the device that controls how it operates.)
I know that comment was very unprofessional, but it's true. I must be honest and say I lucked out, my HipZip only has errors when the battery is getting really low, and even then they're fairly rare and can be avoided. But...
Many other users have consistent problems, some people are on their third or FOURTH HipZip. Iomega has given us faulty firmware for the player and do not appear to be doing a lot to solve our problems except shipping out new ones to everybody. Problems you may encounter:
-Difficulty with battery meter and life
-Temporary freezing before a song switches, especially with WMA files
-Songs appear 'not valid' and can't be read
-Freezing while disc is read
Many other problems can occur, but they all fall basically along the lines of the player freezing up. Which is where the reset switch comes in. It's a standard switch, you poke a paper clip in and it sets the player at it's original start up configuration. Actually with new firmware most of your settings are now saved. If there was no reset switch, I think my player would be in pieces on the sidewalk right now.
Well that's about it on the player and the discs! My Hipzip came with two extra discs, plus the always included 2. So I got four. It also comes with a nice carrying case with a belt clip, a sturdy one at that. It has a USB cable for transferring to the player, CDs with software for Macs and PCs, a power adapter for battery charging, and a pair of pretty crappy headphones. Just go buy some nice headphones and you're set.
Further Issues:
Again, with the discs being non-digital... some people have said this may cause skipping. Not only is this little sucker very sturdy, but it has a built in 8mb buffer; I've tried shaking this thing like a drunk at a frat party, and nothing happens, so do yourself a favor; avoid skipping the songs, don't chuck your player at a brick wall.
Two things I didn't cover. The battery is awesome. It has a charge of about 11-12 hours (again, MY experience, not just the ,manufacturer's guess). The battery can be completely charged in about 1.5 to 2 hours. Very nice. Iomega says it will last about 5 years, and at that point, this thing will be VERY obsolete, I guarantee it. To avoid battery issues, run your battery dry. Don't charge it until your player has kicked off due to no power. At that point, plug it in for two hours straight. It's a lithium battery, they're sensitive. Imagine it this way...
You've had a long day at work, you get home from working twelve hours, and you take a GREAT two hour nap. (In this world, two hours is all you need to fully restore your energy.) The next day you get back from working twelve long hours, but instead of sleeping two straight hours, you take a half hour nap, then keep working. You get some time in, then sleep for another 30 minutes. You're going to gradually get more tired. The HipZip needs two full hours to charge, not four 30 minute periods. And to avoid faulty battery meter indication, let it run completely down before recharging it.
The other point, the firmware upgrades. Very simple to install. You just download a program to one of your discs, load the player, and follow simple instructions to upgrade. Easy, simple, fast. Do it!
Iomega just dropped the price down to 150 dollars. I'm very angry for not having waited, but then I couldn't have brought you all this quality review! As far as I know, Iomega is planing to release a 100mb PocketZip series. It may or may not be compatible with this HipZip, and there have been rumors of a new player coming out. With price reductions down to half of their original though, Iomega is trying to clear out stock. I wonder why...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300 (seerev)
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Epinions.com ID:
Biggs219
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Member: Brian
Location: St. Paul, MN
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 33 members
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