Solid Performance. Not for wimps.
Written: Mar 21 '02
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Pros: Light weight. Easy-to-read screen. Manufacturer does updates. Good accessories. No anti-piracy nonsense. High-speed transfers. Price.
Cons: Buttons are in weird places. No built-in rechargable battery support. Custom cable.
The Bottom Line: The only player I will buy. There are user interface problems which can be fixed with a downloadable update, and some which are not as easy to fix.
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| jpmcdaniel's Full Review: Frontier NEX II MP3 Player |
This review is based on version 1.4C, the latest firmware version available at the time. I’ll try to only provide opinions when appropriate. The majority of this review will be an objective description of my experiences using the player. I don’t own any others, so I won’t compare it to other players.
***Weight***
I immediately noticed that the Nex II was very light weight. I was encouraged by the weight because I planned to use it mainly while exercising.
***Screen***
The back-lit screen is small but clear because of a high resolution display. You will probably be impressed with it if you have good eyesight. If not, you're not going to like it because the words on the songlist are fairly small. (About the size of 8 or 9 point text on a printed page.) The song info while playing is a more easily read size.
***Software Upgrade***
My first task was to upgrade the software on the player. I would say that process was pretty easy, but I’m really quite used to this sort of procedure having upgraded the firmware on countless motherboards and modems. The manufacturer website spelled it out pretty well, you download two files from their website, transfer them to a blank memory card, insert the memory card and turn on the player. The player does the rest. I did the upgrade because I desired the “resume” function in the new version. More on that below.
You might want to think about how comfortable you are with technology in general before considering any player’s “upgradeable firmware” as a plus. You might never actually upgrade it yourself.
***Transfers***
Next, I tested the transfer of songs to the player. Once connected to my Windows 2000 or Windows ME computers, the player behaved as advertised. A new drive was available in Explorer and I could drag and drop any file (not just music files) to the player. You also use your computer to arrange the files in folders. You can only create one level of folders for music. If you put a music file in a folder that is, itself, in a folder, you won’t be able to play that song. There is no file management on the player. You can’t move songs from folder to folder using the player, nor can you delete files.
The transfer speed was impressive. Moving 3 or 4 MByte files, one at a time, seemed almost instantaneous (I'm not kidding).
***Navigation***
When first powered on, the player displays a list of the songs and folders it can find. Navigating the songlist and folders with the “jog” button was fairly intuitive. If you’re not familiar with a jog button, imagine a springy lever. You bump it up and down to navigate menu selections and push it in towards the player to make your selection.
***User Interface***
There are four other buttons on the player: a volume up/down pair in an awkward place around the middle of the right side of the player, and a stop/function pair on the left side of the player. You should get used to picking up the player by the top and bottom to avoid hitting one of these by accident. Turn off the player by holding down the stop button. The function button is used to enter the menu system that allows configuring the player.
A side effect of having to hold down the stop button to turn the player off is that the resume function does not work in an intuitive way. To resume from where you last turned off the player you have to use the menus and choose resume. Normally one would expect it would just resume the next time you hit ‘play’.
You can mark songs for “program mode”, but the program is not saved after turning off the player. Slightly annoying: shuffle mode will play the same song twice before going through the complete list.
***Accessories***
The included headphones were very similar to the Sony neckband-to-over-the-ear types that you sometimes see. They are pretty comfortable with decent sound reproduction. I still prefer my Koss TD-61's for bass-y techno. The included neoprene case has tough plastic windows over the display and buttons. It has cutouts for the jog button and headphone socket. The double stitched clip has a closed belt loop as well. Over all the case has a confidence-inspiring toughness to it. The USB cable provided is proprietary, meaning that you can't replace it easily if lost or broken. The connector on the player is similar to the tiny, flat connectors on notebook computer expansion (PCMCIA) cards. I would prefer the generic USB-B connector. This also means that if you move songs between home and work that you will have to take the cable with you.
***Battery Life***
I’m still on my first set after quite a while. Unbelievable.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
jpmcdaniel
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Nerd since 1979 when my dad brought home my first home computer. I love gadgets.
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