Bantam Interactive Interactive BA50 (64 MB) MP3 Player

Pros: Perfectly adequate if you can get one cheaply enough. Moderate sound quality.
Cons: Now outclassed by newer models. A bit flimsy.

I bought the Bantam BA50 one year ago and, as an owner of several MP3 players in the last few years I feel I can give this an objective review. Description. The Bantam BA50 is an entry-level MP3 player primarily designed for students. It looks like ...

Pros: price
Cons: service battery life

Gave a Bantam to my wife some months ago. Battery life was terrible. Bantam replaced the unit with a improved battery model. Its now slightly over 12 months since it was sent and the battery again holds little power.

Bantam wants $100 to replace the unit (the new unit cost about $135) as they say all of their batteries are in Hong Kong. What a terrible example of service.

Just be informed, your Bantam may work great for a short period of time but not for long unless they improve YOUR battery system.

Pros: Cheap, good battery life. Uses standard batteries (always a big plus)
Cons: Bad MP3 sound and radio reception, terrible form/design.

Has a loud hiss when playing MP3's, like it is emulating a cheap cassette player. The FM reception is the worst of any radio I have ever heard.

The unit looks bizarre, apparently designed to look like the torso of the "Lost in Space" movie robot and needlessly bulky. You actually feel embarassed showing this thing in public: it feels and looks like a plastic cereal prize. Poorly labeled cheap-feeling buttons require a lot of guesswork, and the easiest way to turn it off is to remove the battery because of lack of an obvious power button (a problem not unique to the Bantam: even the iPod has not mastered the concept of the on/off switch).

Not only that, the packaging is modeled after a Mountain Dew bottle, and is very hard to open. It does, however, ably serves the function of hiding what the unit actually looks like before you buy it and open it.

No service: they point you to a web site that points you to another web site which is dead.