phereless's Full Review: Dell Pocket DJ (5 GB) MP3 Player
I bought 2 of the 5 GB Dell Pocket DJ MP3 players last Christmas, one for me and one for my girlfriend. I bought them about a month before, so I used mine (in secret of course, heh) for about a month before she got hers. I was torn between the iPod and DJ, I finally went with the DJ because behind the iPod, it was the best looking one out there, the price was better than the iPod, and it was recommended to me by 2 people - one of which had an iPod. I also debated getting the 5 or 20 gb models, as at the time the price was very close. I went with the 5s, and am glad I did, as I loaded every song I had and it only took up 2 GB of it. It's also a good size smaller than the 20GB.
Purchase and delivery from Dell's website was quick and easy. Setup of the player was as well. I charged it up, loaded the Musicmatch software that came with it, and started transferring Mp3s AND WMAs to the unit. I created various playlists, added and deleted songs, all of which is fairly intuitive. The sound is good, although the earphones that come with it leave a lot to be desired. I do have an issue of some random popping or crackling noises, between songs sometimes, doesn't both me, but it might others. Navigating the DJ is easy, my gf who is a computer and electronics novice, has minimal problems using it (which she does almost daily) and has only asked for my help with it a couple of times, and those were for legit problems.
Her problem is that it has completely locked up on her a couple of times, to the point that it needed to be manually shutdown and rebooted. Seemed to play fine after that. On mine, I have had it start a song from the beginning, while it was in the middle of it. What's really strange about it is that it would not reset the timer on the song, and once the timer thought the song was finished, it would just end and go to the next. It started happening more frequently so I checked their support boards for the issue and found out how to defrag the drive, which fixed it. I have had the issue come up a couple of times since then, probably 3 times since I have had it at this point (6 months). Doesn't seem that big of an issue at this point.
The software that comes with it is Musicmatch Jukebox. Fairly easy to setup and use, very easy to buy music from. I used to use iTunes, but had no problem switching to MM and making it my default player. Overall I liked iTunes better, but it's not that big of a difference. Although you will want to know that when you purchase music from MM, you will download a WMA instead of an Mp3. I didn't have an issue with that either, as the files tend to be smaller and actually sound a little better.
A couple of other things, I ordered the armband with mine to wear while jogging, which is fine. For the others, I ordered one of the 'skins' you can get in different colors, I got the white one. While it looks great initially, they have a sort of rubbery texture and picks up a LOT of dust and grime, to the point that after a couple of months being used, I could barely read the songs on the screen. I've have researched to see if there is an easy, effective way to clean and keep it clean. The armband one is made from a different material, and doesn't have that problem.
Overall, my girlfriend and I both enjoy the players, would buy again or recommend to anyone looking for a good mp3 player.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 199 Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
The new players come in two flavors a tiny iPod Mini competitor called the Pocket DJ 5G charming name , which features a 5GB internal hard drive. The ...More at eBay
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