I still haven’t found the perfect MP3 player, but things are looking up with the new products that are being released almost every other month.

My Samsung Yepp was falling apart; the battery door didn’t quite close, the buttons sometimes didn’t register a press, and I hated a parallel cable (and didn’t want to pay a pirates ransom to Samsung for the USB cable); it didn’t work on my laptop and was slow.

On one of the sites I visit, there was a banner ad for the Nex II; the price was great, and it had a few of the features I wanted, so I bought it (probably the only time a banner ad has induced me to purchase anything).

--The Goods---

Well, it’s kind of big. My wife has a Yepp that’s the size of my thumb. This one is about the size of a deck of cards. A good chunk of that size can be attributed to the two-AA batteries used to power the unit. My wife’s Yepp uses a single AAA, and my Yepp uses two AAA batteries. The battery life of the Nex II is significantly better; it lasts a week or longer.

Rather than just a measly LCD showing the song, the Nex II has a largish backlit screen that can display all sorts of info, like the songs on the player, menus to for configuring the player, and an equalizer (if you select Spectrum Display rather than Normal Display). The backlit option doesn’t sound that important, but it’s essential for controlling the player when you aren’t under a bright light.

There are the standard volume buttons, a Function button (for accessing the menus), a Stop button to stop the music, a jog-wheel (more on this in a bit), and a lock-button (so that the player can’t be turned on accidentally while in a pocket or backpack.

The jog-wheel has a few functions. It is pressed inwards to turn the player on. When in normal mode, pushing up or down (and then letting the wheel snap back) jumps one song ahead or behind. Pushing and holding lets you fast-forward or fast-rewind through a song.

The Nex II comes with a nice water-resistant neoprene case, with a clear window over the LCD display, a bunch of plastic inserts to change the color of your Nex II (mine went in the garbage), and a pair of funky headphones that were quickly replaced with something more conservative (why do they assume that the purchase is still a teenager?).

Where the Nex II really differs from the competition is it’s use of Compact Flash cards. These are the same cards you’ll find in PDAs, digital cameras, and the like. This means that the card you use for your camera one day can be put in your MP3 player the next. The ability to reuse cards, rather than paying for memory that is only usable by one device is a great feature.

Finally, the player connects to your computer with a USB cable, though the interface on the player is proprietary; don’t lose that cable.

---What’s To Like?---

Well, the USB interface, the use of Compact Flash memory, the large LCD with the nifty equalizer, the controls (particularly the jog-wheel), and the neoprene case it comes with.

The sound is decent (read “What’s Not To Like”), and the battery life is great. I picked up some Nickel Metal Hydride batteries to power it, and they seem to last forever.

The USB cable means it’s speedy to transfer songs, and the large LCD lists the songs.

Frontier Labs, the maker of the Nex II claims that they will be updating the player with new codecs to handle other formats. For example, Ogg Vorbis, an open-source audio codec that achieves better sound quality with a smaller file size. Ogg Vorbis recently releases an integer-only version of the codec (most hand-helds cannot handle floating point numbers).

Frontier also allowed the BIOS to be upgraded, and they don’t attempt to enforce any Secure Digital Music Initiative features to prevent you from moving your music to and from the player.

And finally, because your computer sees the Nex II as a hard-drive, you can use it to transfer data. It doubles as a simple Compact Flash reader and writer.

---What’s Not To Like?---

Well, unfortunately there are a few things.

The first is that there doesn’t appear to be an off-button. The player detects that no music is playing, and no keys have been pressed, and turns itself off. You have to make sure to turn on the key-lock before tossing it in a bag, or it will stay on quite a bit longer than anticipated.

I hear glitches in some songs. If I rewind back to where I heard the glitch, it’s gone. There is some sort of problem with the decoder, I think (just a guess). The glitches are annoying, but don’t happen that often.

The volume is also an issue. On a quiet song, it’s sometimes too quiet. And if you max the volume out, you hear some distortion. There is some sort of amplification problem with the hardware.

Some might find the size a bit too much, but I don’t mind it. It’s smaller than any CD player or Walkman I’ve ever seen.

Next on the list is the lack of titles on some songs. I believe the player uses MP3 ID tags; if the tags are not set, the title doesn’t show up.

And last but not least, the battery cover is flimsy. Actually, that’s an understatement. The plastic started discoloring with stress the second or third time it was opened. In addition, the battery slot is not mistake-proof. Sometimes the batteries are not touching the contacts, and you have to jiggle them before the player starts to work.

---Do I Like It?---

Yes, and so does my wife. She’s always disappearing with it on her way out the door.

The problems are minor, though annoying. The day after I got it, I sent an email off to Frontier Labs complaining about the battery cover, and they promised it would be better in the next version. I haven’t seen the battery cover on the Nex IIe so I can’t say if they’ve actually fixed it.

I hope Frontier Labs implements Ogg Vorbis support; it will definitely put the player in a class of it’s own.


Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 90