hydrogen_wv's Full Review: Olympus m:robe MR-100 (5 GB) Digital Media Player
I picked one of these puppies up at Radio Shack for $100, and I couldn't be happier. I see people walking around all the time with iPods, and now I chuckle about it. They paid over twice as much as I did for something very similar.
If you want an iPod, be my guest, but if you are in the market and are low in cash, try to hunt one of these down. It might be hard though, as Olympus quit supporting and producing them.
Now, onto the m:robe. This little thing is sleek looking. The red and black really makes it stand out, and it has a TOUCH SCREEN! How cool is that? At first the controls are a little fumbly, but once you get the hang of it after using it for a couple days it's like second nature.
It has 5GB capacity, which, like most other 5GB players, is really only about 4.7GB. It'll hold roughly 1000-2000 songs, depending on your style of music... Most songs I listen to are 5-8 minutes, so I fit about 800-900 songs. If you listen to speed metal or speed punk where the songs clock in at around 2-3 minutes, you could fit closer to 2000.
After throwing the stock headphones into a blackhole, and buying some decent earbuds (Sony earbuds for about $10), The sound is incredible. Don't expect miracles from the equalizer settings.... in fact, don't even use it because it is essentially worthless. The equalizer only has presets (no custom), and leaves a lot to be desired.
The battery life depends a lot on how much you mess with it and your backlight settings. If you have the backlight set for 5secs and you don't always change songs and make the backlight some on, you can get about 6-8 hours. With backlight on all the time it'll drop to about 3 hours. This is usually enough for me to go about a week each charge since I don't listen to it a whole lot.
The software can be a nightmare, plain and simple. It works with no problem for some people, others it refuses to work at all. Oh, and the software is only compatible with Windows XP. Luckily, since Olympus stopped development people have started digging into the workings of these and have created there own software to handle getting the music on, even on different operating systems. A lot of other 'hacks' have been created (changing logos, images, fonts, etc) as well. Check out http://www.mrobe.org for more info and head to the forums.
Enjoy over 1,200 songs with over 5 GB of storage Convenient and easy-to-use touch panel lets you quickly play music, view music and device settings, b...More at Amazon Marketplace
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