I have had this unit for some time now and I like it quite a bit. I don't use it as much as I once did since I got an mp3 player in my car but I still bring it with me when I go on a long trip in the van with the family or when I want to listen to music outside of the car. I considered selling it when I got my car mp3 player but it's really so reliable and useful that although I wouldn't be using it for the main reason I got it anymore, I couldn't bring myself to part with it.
It is rock solid as far as durability and functionality. I have been very happy with it overall. In fact, since this was the first mp3 player (other than a computer), I never knew that mp3 players had problems until I saw some of the others that my friends had. It never skips, never fails to play, never reboots, never sounds "junky." All my songs are encoded in Variable Bit Rate (VBR) which sometimes makes players choke but not this one, it just works. The sound is wonderful but I'm not that picky either so I won't say much about the quality of the sound.
I don't use windows so I can't say much about the software that it comes with but the linux software that you can download for it works beautifully, I have never had a problem putting stuff on or taking stuff off of the unit. (I even used it to put on a power point file that I needed to transport from work to home once because I didn't have anything else and it even did that just fine (I didn't try to "play" that file.))
There are a couple of things that I wish were different about the unit. The first and most annoying to me is that the unit doesn't remember what you were doing when you turned it off. There is no way to "save your place" and resume later. I used the unit to play audiobooks in my car and this turned out to be a big deal at the time (it's the main reason I got an mp3 player for my car.) I would have to write down where I was in which audio file (Alice in Wonderland (5 or 20) at 23:45) and then when I started the unit back up again, patiently hold down the fast forward button until I got to that time. That brings me to the other gripe. The fast forward is painfully slow, it's really designed for SHORT (2-3 min) files, not files that could be hours long. I have since learned that other mp3 player "fast forward" moves only a little faster than play. This player goes faster than that but not as fast as I would like. (My mp3 player in my car dog slow but luckily it remembers where you are in a file when you turn off the car.)
The other item that I didn't like as much about the Nomad Jukebox is that it's pretty big and bulky. I would love to carry it around with me everywhere I go but it's just too big for that so I usually keep it in my car and take it out when I know I want it. The battery life is limited as has been noted in other reviews, however I don't often find myself in the situation where the power is not near but want to listen to music so it's less of an issue for me.
Although the unit isn't perfect, I really like it. Most of my friends have newer units but I've never seen anything that I wish that I had in theirs and plan on keeping this one for some time to come.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
Huge storage capacity; 10GB hard disk holds up to 333 hours WMA files or 166 hours of 128kbps MP3 Fast downloads and broad compatibility, with USB 2.0...More at Amazon Marketplace
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