"Swiss Army" knife for the digital world.
Written: Oct 01 '05 (Updated Oct 02 '05)
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Pros: Has built-in MP3 encoder, small, lightweight, feature packed, inexpensive.
Cons: Relatively low battery life, can't organize song files.
The Bottom Line: Feature for feature, price for price, this MP3 player is a standout. Easy to use and compact, you can take this anywhere.
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| robotnut's Full Review: Auvi Technologies SA250 (128 MB) MP3 Player |
The Auvi SA250 128MB MP3 player is also marketed under the Emerson brand name as model number MP215 and this is the unit I have. I bought it at Kmart in Dec 2004 for $69, I guess you could say it was an early Christmas present for myself.
I basically wanted to be able to listen to some tunes during my commute to work on the train. At first I considered getting one of those personal CD players but decided they were too bulky and I would also have to carry a mess of CDs with me. That's when I started looking at MP3 players.
Well, being the cheapskate that I am, 200 bucks for an iPod was just too much. So I started comparing all the MP3 players in the under $100 price range. Feature for feature, price for price, the Emerson MP215 (Auvi SA250) came out on top.
It not only plays mp3 and wma files, it also has a built-in FM tuner with 20 station presets and you can record directly from the FM tuner. Plus, it has a built-in condenser mic so you can record lectures, meetings, or record personal voice memos. The deal breaker for me was that it has a built-in mp3 encoder. This means that you can record from any external source (e.g., LPs, cassettes, CD, radio, etc.) without using a computer and it will save the recordings in mp3 format. Most of the other MP3 players I looked at did not have this feature and the ones that did were much more expensive. The patch cord to connect to the external audio source is included. I've used this feature to record foreign language lessons from streaming audio through my computer.
Uploading music files to the player is very easy. This being my first experience with digital music files, it was very easy to learn. I don't really download mp3 files from the internet. I use Windows Media Player to convert my CDs to wma format and then I copy the files to the player. The advantage of using wma files is that you can fit twice as many wma files than mp3s. This means that with a 128MB memory capacity, you can store up to 4 hours of music in wma format but only 2 hours in mp3 format. The player has a USB plug built right in so it's totally self-contained, although a USB extension cable is included. Oh, by the way, you can also use the player to store data files. So like, if you're at work, working on a big spreadsheet and you need to...dare I say it...take it home to finish working on, you can use the player like a flash drive and save the file to the player then transfer it to your home computer.
I really like the design of this player. It's oblong shape fits comfortably in my hand and the controls are well placed so that I can easily work them with my thumb. (This is easier done when holding it in your right hand than left hand). I also like that despite its compact size, it has a full-featured LCD display which shows all the vital information such as battery status, album name, song title, time elapsed, total memory, amount of memory used, and much much more. The display is blue backlit so nighttime is no problem. The sound from this player is great and I can customize the tone by choosing from one of 5 equalizer presets. The best part though is that since there are no moving parts, the music plays totally skip free.
Emerson has a good support website where you can download a bunch of software such as: drivers if you're still using Windows 98 (like me), an electronic copy of the instruction manual, firmware updates, and a firmware update installer. Firmware is like the mp3 player's operating system. I've done this with my player and had no trouble running the software.
Ok, now a few things I don't like about this player. While the player allows you to skip to the next song or to the previous song, you cannot cue or review within a song. This feature would be especially useful when I'm listening to my foreign language lessons. If I want to go back and re-listen to a certain part, I would have to start over from the very beginning. Another problem is that the songs in the player are not in the order that I upload them. I would think that the first song I upload would be song #1, the second song I upload would be song # 2, etc. but that doesn't seem to be the case. All the songs seem to get mixed up in order and I don't see any way to manually change the order. And finally, battery life is not that great. It uses one 'AAA' battery. The specs say that battery life is 10 hours based on a 1000 mAh battery. The rechargeable battery I use is rated at 750 mAh so I get less than 10 hours of play. I get around this by keeping an extra charged battery in my backpack at all times but I have to change the battery quite often.
Overall, I'm very happy with this mp3 player. It's given me many hours of music listening pleasure. It's so small and lightweight, I take it with me every day on my commute. And besides being just an mp3 player, with all of its other features, I consider this my "Swiss Army" knife for the digital world.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 69
Recommended for: Beginners - Easy Enough for Tech Newbies
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Epinions.com ID:
robotnut
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Location: NJ
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 3 members
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