The size of a deck of cards, but it's missing one ace.
Written: Mar 24 '04
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Pros: Portable, Chic, Customizable, Standard batteries, Great battery life, Simply interface
Cons: USB won't work, cords won't recharge batteries, freezes when dropped, lack of features, "dumb" shuffle
The Bottom Line: Best in it's class and dead sexy. But lacking in extra features and perks to make it perfect for everyone.
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| captainslug's Full Review: Frontier NEX IIe (32 MB) MP3 Player |
Having used an MP3 CD player for a few years (with which I was dually impressed) I decided to look for other, more portable options with similar storage capacity. I was however completely unimpressed with the majority of other flash-based players on the market since they seemed to emphasize size savings over usability and battery life.
This is one of the few flash-based players to use two AA batteries, which I highly prefer since I already had a gaggle of NiMH rechargeable AAs on-hand from my previous player. Having been impressed with the feature package and capabilities of this player, I set out to purchase one.
She's a Brick, House
This is an extremely beautiful player and is well suited for any kind of usage. Since you can upgrade to even 4GBs of standard CompactFlash cards it's comparable to some hard drive players in possible storage capacity WITHOUT being chunky or sucking batteries dry like a maniac. However, do not expect this player to support a wide range of Microdrives. I've tried several and some either require too much power and won't boot, or drain the batteries too quickly to be of any practical use. As stated by the manufacturer, the only know supported microdrives are the IBM 340mb and 1gb models. Hitachi models of the same size are supposedly compatible, the Magicstor 2.2gb, Magicstor 4gb, and Hitachi models of the same capacity however are not.
Freak Like Me
The LCD display is simply gorgeous. Despite what some of the promotional photos show, both the white and black versions come with a blue LED backlit screen which can display in most lighting conditions except for bright summer afternoons.
With the newest firmware update you can even adjust the screens lit contrast ratio.
And lastly, you can replace the jacket "face" on the player to any of the 6 colors provided, or you can print and cut out your own. I thought this was a silly feature, until of course I was able to make this player look even cooler than it already does by making 3D abstract rendered faces for it.
Simple Things
The interface on this is quite graceful, until of course you want to change options which will also pause/stop playback. Once booted the player will list the main directory of the installed flash card, showing you directories, and all music files listed by filename, but ordered by the order in which they were written on the card.
In terms of battery life, this is one of the top players. I average around 14 hours on 2 AAs. And since it uses standard batteries I can simply pack a bunch of spare charged batteries with it when I travel. I have yet to experience being stuck without music to listen to while on-the-go because of this. If I do somehow manage to drain all of my batteries and I don't have an access to an electrical outlet for 15 or 20 minutes I could just buy another pack of AAs and be happy for 3 more days.
Days Go By
Suprisingly this is one of the few MP3 players I've owned that delivers all that is promised. However it doesn't offer a lot in terms of features, so that's not saying much.
My previous player had several different shuffle modes and a sleep timer. Both of which I used a lot while travelling, and now that I don't have them they're sorely missed. In fact, the shuffle feature on this player is really unintelligent and is forgets what song it just played as soon as it changes tracks. So by chance you may hear one song, another, and the previous song again. This would be less likely if I had more storage capacity (I have 64mb at the moment) but it is annoying that the firmware wasn't written with more shuffle options like 1 directory shuffle.
Just Friends
I was hoping to find that the USB and power cords were capable additions to the package. They however are nearly useless, and cannot even perform a simple function like recharging the batteries in the device. In fact I have yet to get the USB cable to work properly, even under Windows XP. Why couldn't this device have been setup to work like a Compactflash card reader instead of a media interface device? Oh well, two less cords to travel with I guess...
Distractions
This player isn't without it's quirks. When dropped the player will promptly eject it's battery cover and either freeze or reset. In fact any time you strike it one it's sides it's prone to resetting. This is the fault of the spring holding the battery in place. Weirder effects can be experienced once the batteries are sucked dry. When the power gets really low the player seems to have no way of recognizing it, so it will continue trying to play the song even though it cannot manage to power the card to read the files on it. This usually causes it to just freeze or display flat blue. Other times it just plays noise or tones. This is no where near as pleasant as my last player which just beeped and promptly turned itself off.
Also the included headphones will be comfortable for most people, but I couldn't stand them since they wouldn't allow me to wear my glasses, and they pinched after a while.
So I'm happy with my purchase, but I'm not exactly jumping for joy or singing it's praises on the roof tops. From what I've seen it's the best in it's category. But against players in other format types it can't cut the mustard.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65 used
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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Epinions.com ID:
captainslug
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Location: Sterling, VA, USA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Self-Educated computer hardware pundit and resident mad scientist.
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