The little mp3 player that could....
Written: Jun 08 '03
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Pros: Small, lcd screen, good size memory, battery life, voice recording, expandable.
Cons: No arm band to wear it, no fast forward only skip, plastic feel.
The Bottom Line: A great innexpensive alternative to the I-pod and other high end mp3 players. Good in all areas, great in one or two will meet the needs of almost everyone.
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| zlmajors's Full Review: Creative Technology Nomad IIc (128 MB) MP3 Player |
First and foremost I am not a knowledgeble reviewer in the field of audio, so this will not be the most technical review ever. If you want a common persons review of the nomad IIc please read on!
The situation was this, I was increasing my jog times beyond 25 minutes and was very sick and tired of listening to my workout clubs music, and my portable cd player would skip due to the bouncing of the treadmill. I decided I needed to get a mp3 player that I could use to workout.
Sure I looked at the "fancy" models such as the apple mp3 player ($400 ouch!) and the higher end sony and even the nike models but I just couldn't see myself spending that kind of money on an item I'm only going to use at the club. My search brought me to the Nomad IIc 128mb mp3 player.
I looked at the reviews of the smaller nomad IIc's and decided that 128mb was the way to go because I just didn't know when I might need more storage space.
I purchased my Nomad IIc on amazon.com for a price of $122 and have been happy with it ever since. So now you know the background here is the technical review.
SOUND: A
What is a mp3 player worth without decent sound? Nothing and the Nomad IIc will not let you down. The nomad IIc uses a technology called EAX. EAX audio technology delivers an unique sound by adding customizable effects to the songs you play. With a whole range of EAX effects and applications, you can create a completely personalized listening experience. This ability to control features that normally are reserved for stereos and car audio. For a less expensive mp3 player this is kinda cool.
Memory: A-
Ok its hard to give any mp3 player an A+ rating in memory when you have the apple Mp3 player and the nomad jukebox that have memory in the gigabyte realm. But for the price the Nomad IIc's 128 megs of memory is a nice amount, certainly enough for 2-4 hours worth of songs and with the ability to be expanded to 256mb you could get up to 8 hours of songs on a relatively innexpensive player. They sell add on flash cards for the Nomad IIc at most major electronic stores, I myself don't have one because 3-4 hours of music is more than enough for me.
Versitility: A-
Will the Nomad IIc organize your life? No it will not but it does organize your music fairly well and it has a few extras included. A cool plus on the Nomad IIc is that it has a built in microphone that you can record classes, meetings, seminars, notes, shopping lists, or keep a voice diary. Plus, you can upload the content directly to your PC. So in this record it will help you organize parts of your life :)
Ease of Use: A-
The biggest complaint of some of the reviews of mp3 players is that the screens are not adequete, you'll be pleased to know that the Nomad IIc has a icon based, large LCD with backlit feature for high-quality viewing, no matter where you take it. This is actually very nice when I'm jogging and I want to find a song, its easy to see.
The Nomad IIc uses a standard usb port chord to connect to your pc and is easy to put songs on it. The plug-in for your headphones is ontop of the player and is in an ok spot. The buttons are big enough for you to use without looking at them (touch only) but one nice feature about the nomad IIc is that it has a locking switch that when you activate it, it stops any of the buttons from working. This means that when locked you can't accidently turn it off or switch songs by bumping it.
The only thing bad about the Nomad IIC that I have noticed is that it comes with a clip on the back of it to attach it to your belt or your bag or whatever, but it doesn't come with an armband to wear on your arm while jogging. This seems weird to me because that is the trend in small mp3 players right now. In fact you creative labs doesn't even sell an armbad for it even though it is certainly small enough to be worn on the arm. A bit strange.
Battery life: A
The nomad IIc uses a single AA battery that will give you about 10 hours of listening time. The player also very accurately tells you how much battery is left, and I've found it to be fairly accurate. I have read that some players will tell you that the battery is full for 6 hours then all of a sudden tell you that it is low for the last hour. The nomad IIc gives an accurate reading from full to 3/4 full to halffull to 1/4 full to empty.
Durability: A
I have had my Nomad IIc for about 5 months now, and I have dropped it about 5 times. One of those I had it clipped to the treadmill and flailed my arms like a moron and caught the headphone chord ripping the mp3 player off the treadmill and flying through the air. Splat on the ground and the battery case came off and the battery flew out. I thought "dangit there goes my mp3 player" but NO!!! the screen was not cracked , there was no damage to the case, and the thing worked perfectly after I put the battery and battery cover back on. I'm impressed with it for sure. As for longevity I can't comment on that because I haven't owned it for years, so that is why I have to give it a A instead of A+
Software: B+
The software that comes with the Nomad IIC is ok, it has the same feel of the windows media player. It works ok but it has a weird way of doing things. It has the play list creator kind of intermingled with the selection list to be added to the player, thus you must make a play list and then add that play list to the player. Its not a bad way to do it but just a little peculiar, sorta like a dog wearing clothing, not awful, just a bit weird.
Conclusion
Well this turned out to be more detailed than I thought I could make it. Overall I am happy with my player, and if you only want to spend about a hundred on a good size mp3 player than maybe the Nomad IIc is the right one for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 122.00
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Epinions.com ID:
zlmajors
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 - Top 1000 |
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Member: Zach Majors
Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 16 members
About Me:
Husband and father, picky when it comes to products for my family or myself.
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