The most recent articles from Personal Computer World

Cowon S9 Curve portable media player

Matthew Moore — 2009-03-03T10:00:00.000Z

Matthew Moore, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 3 March 2009 at 10:00:00

A well-designed personal media player that compares well to the iPod touch

The Cowon S9 Curve is a mid-capacity personal media player (PMP) and serious competitor to the Apple iPod touch and other high-end players. With Sony and Samsung’s new PMP players due soon, this is one market niche to keep an eye on.

The S9 is an attractive product that’s well designed and built, but it doesn’t quite live up to its image. At 77g, it’s light without being insubstantial, and trimmed with a titanium or chrome effect finish. With a gentle curve at the back, the S9 slides easily into your pocket.

Its most eye-catching feature is the 3.3in Amoled (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen. This technology dramatically reduces power consumption, and contributes to a video playback time of more than 10 hours and a music playback time of about 55 hours from one charge. Charging takes about five hours via a USB port or three hours through the optional USB charger.

The screen responds nimbly to touch and there are a number of hardware controls across the top including volume and fast forward/rewind rocker switches, and a protruding play/pause switch. At the bottom, the 3.5mm headphone jack is flanked by a combined on/off slider and hold switch. A USB/external device connector will also take a line-in feed to supplement the built-in microphone.

Without multitouch, the S9’s user interface isn’t cutting edge and left us wanting something slicker. Navigating between folders and individual files after launching music or video applications could be improved; it currently involves juggling menus.

Audio quality is excellent there’s a real sense of air and space from audio files (you’ll want to use higher bit-rate files to take advantage of the audio quality). We also liked the Jeteffect equaliser. It has 26 factory presets and four customised presets. You can specify the frequency of the five equaliser channels and disable Cowon’s BBE+ audio technology and stereo enhancer.

There’s a choice of 24 frequency presets on the FM radio, which is easy to tune, set and record from. The in-ear headphones supplied with the S9 are a cut above Apple’s standard issue, but it’s worth getting a pair of decent headphones to take full advantage of the S9, or you can use a wire-free Bluetooth headset.

Video playback is equally impressive thanks to the 480x272 pixel screen, and 24-bit colour depth will do your videos justice. Tap the flip control to toggle between basic playback controls, bookmark, aspect ratio, and playlist settings. The auto pivot feature means you can always see video (or photos and slideshows) in the correct orientation, although switching between vertical and horizontal could be quicker. To connect to a TV you’ll need the optional video cable.

The USB cable plugs into the same connector, and allows drag and drop file transfer between the S9 and PC. You probably won’t bother with the bundled Jet Toys software most is functionality-limited trial software with no dedicated S9 options in the setup. Jetshell offers device backup and a little housekeeping, but, like the Flash support and text document viewer on the device itself, it seems redundant.

The Cowon S9 Curve is an attractive, well-built PMP with excellent battery life. At £169 it’s expensive the iPod Touch is cheaper, and offers more features and better usability. But if you want hours of excellent quality video and audio playback the S9 should be on your shortlist.

Review: Sandisk Sansa Fuze digital music player

Paul Lester — 2008-08-07T10:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Thursday 7 August 2008 at 10:00:00

Can this recent addition to the Sansa range challenge Apple’s Nano?

There’s little doubt Sandisk is pitching the Sansa Fuze as a direct competitor to iPod Nano.

Although around twice as thick, its height and width are similar to Apple’s player, however, its black plastic and soft rubber chassis can’t match the style of the Nano’s chrome casing.

The player has a 1.9in display and the overall build quality is solid. Capacities range from 2GB to 8GB, though, like the Sansa View, it also offers a Micro SD slot for memory expansion.

The player connects using a proprietary port at the bottom which looks very similar to the iPod interface; unsurprisingly, it’s not compatible with iPod cables.

You can copy music and photos via drag-and-drop, but to make video content viewable you will need to download Sansa’s Media Converter software to encode and copy on the fly.

This doesn’t appear to have changed much, but it does perform a bit faster than before; in tests it processed a 100MB file in around five minutes with a reduction in size of around 25 per cent. It’s still not an ideal scenario though, and it’s a shame format support isn’t better.

The interface hasn’t really changed since the original Sansa e-series of players, though we did notice that it’s a little smoother and more responsive. The display is decent enough without being outstanding, and while playback quality is reasonable the 1.9in screen means you won’t want to watch long movies.

With a customisable equaliser, audio quality is also good, though you’ll need to replace the headphones supplied. You will also find an FM radio and voice recorder, with the two able to work together to copy broadcast content direct to the player.

The features, quality and usability of the Fuze aren’t radically different to other players in the series, but the small size, expandability and low price make it a decent choice.

Review: Oakley Split Thump MP3 sunglasses

Paul Lester — 2008-07-18T14:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Friday 18 July 2008 at 14:00:00

A pair of MP3 player glasses that actually look the part

Oakley’s Split Thump sunglasses are another attempt to combine technology with eyewear – in this case, a digital music player.

It’s certainly a stylish offering and comes with a set of earphones that adopt a double-hinged design and clip into the bottom of the glasses when in use.

This offers the advantage of allowing them to look just like a normal pair of shades when you want them to, and the design of the arms is such that they can fit very snugly into your ears with no danger of falling out.

The Oakley logos on the side of the frame double up as audio controls; volume is found on the left arm, and play controls on the right.

Various button presses can enable functions such as the graphics equaliser, shuffle settings and a range of shortcuts that help when browsing large collections.

There’s good format support, too, including MP3, M4A and DRM-encoded WMA files. Music can be copied using drag-and-drop by plugging the device into a computer via the mini-USB connection that’s hidden under the right arm.

We were very impressed by the sound quality of the glasses, and it’s certainly loud enough to be heard when you’re out and about. You can expect up to seven hours’ playback from a full charge, and you’re given both visual (via a tiny LED) and audible warnings when the power’s getting low.

The glasses are available in both 1GB and 2GB capacities. And while they’re not cheap, you should bear in mind that you’re paying for a decent pair of designer sunglasses at the same time.

We’ve never been particularly impressed by these sorts of devices before, due to their often chunky and rather unstylish designs. However, thanks to some very clever design decisions, this is the first pair of shades we’ve tried that we’d genuinely be happy to wear out and about.

Review: Cowon Iaudio Q5W portable media player

Paul Lester — 2008-03-07T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Friday 7 March 2008 at 00:00:00

A serious rival for the more established players?

Cowon is looking to take on the big names in the portable media player market with its Iaudio Q5W.

The 5in display takes up the bulk of the front panel, but there's still room for a full-sized USB port for transferring digital content from other devices, and one for porting content directly to a TV. It’s feature-packed on the inside as well, with support for all the modern audio and video formats and codecs, FM radio, built-in Wifi, Bluetooth, Flash player and voice recorder.

These features are accessed by selecting from an icon-base list of categories down the left and right sides of the screen. The Cowon allows you to change view modes quickly and features a bigger icon view for finger operation and a smaller one for using the built-in stylus – a nice idea but the small buttons are tricky to use with your finger.

Stylus operation is painless and will make it far easier to access the massive range of customisation and control settings for each category of media, including an unprecedented degree of video control, the Jeteffect equalizer for audio and full slideshow creation for photos.

We found that there was a noticeable pause when switching between the various applications, perhaps a result of the Q5W’s interface being overlaid on to a Windows CE 5.0 operating system. Aside from the fact version 6.0 has been around for some time, this choice of operating system offers both advantages and drawbacks.

A big plus is that you have Windows-style access to your media and files and can even run compatible games and applications as you would on similar devices. But it doesn’t do much for user friendliness and we can see less tech-savvy users becoming frustrated by the verbose menus and, at times, clinical interf a ce. Those looking for that extra degree of control might find it a sacrifice worth making.

As well as viewing media directly you can hook the Q5W up to a television using either component or composite connections. We were pleased by the playback quality but disappointed by the unresponsive and rather quizzically designed remote control, which makes it difficult to access the sorts of settings you’d usually browse through with the stylus.

In general, audio and video performance is good, in particular the excellent quality of the 800x480 resolution display. It’s superbly clear and vibrant, making it perfect for viewing photos and video. After setting up a wireless connection you can browse the internet through the CE interface using Internet Explorer.

Video clips can be viewed from sites such as Youtube and content can be downloaded to the internal hard drive (40GB and 60GB versions are available). The Q5W certainly appears to be a worthy contender, and packs an impressive array of features into a fairly portable, albeit rather heavy, frame.

Its strengths include the impressive degree of control over your media and the flexibility that the CE-based approach offers, but in reality it’s not nearly as pleasing to use as those in the Archos range. And, as you can see from the price tag, it’s also substantially more expensive for a relatively meagre internal capacity.

We can see how some users might prefer the Q5W to more mainstream offerings, but for us there are a few too many niggling issues for us to recommend it over alternatives from Cowon’s rivals.

Review: Cowon iAudio 7 portable media player

Paul Lester — 2007-11-22T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Thursday 22 November 2007 at 00:00:00

A feature-packed media player with some new sound processing technology

Cowon is obviously hoping its much touted Jeteffect technology, which offers a range of equalizer effects and sound enhancements to give you Sony-style audio control, will help its appeal.

Indeed, we were fairly impressed by the Jeteffect audio options. If you’re prepared to take the time to experiment, you can achieve some very good results.

Aside from Jeteffect, other features include a photo viewer, video player, text reader, voice recorder and FM radio, which allows you to schedule recordings so you can save programmes to the built-in memory. You’ll also find a line-in port to record directly to the player.

However, none of these features are particularly accessible, at least until you get used to the ‘swing touch’ slider control. Even after extended use, we found the controls too small and it’s not always obvious which you should press to get to where you want to go.

The various options aren’t nearly as accessible as the similar range of effects built into Sony’s range of players, which is partly down to the rather small 1.3in screen. Although it’s not particularly bad quality, it’s too small to enjoy video or photo playback properly and does leave you having to squint closely, even during normal operation. Getting video onto the player isn’t particularly hard though - the software provided will convert files specifically for the player.

Despite the range of features and impressive audio quality, we ultimately felt let down by the iAudio7. Photo and video playback is partly redundant anyway due to the screen size, and although there are smaller capacity models available the 16GB behemoth we had on test will set you back a whopping £235, almost twice the price (if you shop around) of the equivalent sized Sansa View player from Sandisk.

Review: Apple iPod Nano MP3 player

Emil Larsen — 2007-09-20T00:00:00.000Z

Emil Larsen, Personal Computer World, Thursday 20 September 2007 at 00:00:00

The squat, third-generation Nano plays video and comes with a brand new interface

Apple's new Nano looks distinctly stubby compared its predecessor thanks to it being 20mm shorter.

It's fattened out a bit horizontally to accommodate the bigger 2in screen, but remains shockingly thin in depth.

It's an all-metal design that is, quite frankly, an astounding piece of engineering. The new screen has a 320x240 resolution, the same as the regular iPod, and can now play video too. Getting video onto an iPod remains a hassle because iTunes can't convert video into the correct type of MPEG4 or H.264 format which it requires.

Instead you have to shell out for Apple's Quicktime Pro software (£20) or hunt around for freeware on the net. Once you've transferred videos onto the Nano though, the visual quality is very good.

The headphones Apple provides remain a major grumble. Whereas other manufacturers (such as Sony with its NW-A805 Mp3 player) have moved on by providing high quality buds with separate rubber inserts, the iPod still uses big white plastic 'phones that feel uncomfortable in the ear.

Various changes have been made on the software front, with the interface getting one of the biggest revamps since the iPod's inception six years ago.

As well as split-screen menus, where graphics such as album art and disk usage are displayed alongside the navigation pane, there's a new way to browse your albums called Cover Flow. Select this option and album art sits horizontally side-by-side, allowing you scroll through it by stroking the iPod touch wheel.

It's a bit gimmicky though and is a particular disappointment when you don't have the album covers to your CDs. Apple's iTunes will locate album art for you, but you need to sign in to the store. If you don't already have an iTunes account, you'll need to create one, which also means handing over payment details, such as your credit card even if you've no intention of purchasing anything.

Compared to Sandisk's excellent MP3 players (Sandisk sells an 8GB version for £99), Apple's price tags (£99 for 4GB, £129 for 8GB) look rather expensive.

But Apple can take solace in that its standard interface (which can be used instead of Cover Flow) and touch wheel remains the best way to whiz through your music.

Review: Iriver X20 portable media player

Paul Lester — 2007-07-19T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Thursday 19 July 2007 at 00:00:00

A feature-packed multimedia player at a bargain price

Iriver had been relatively quiet of late on the media player front, but CES 2007 saw the unveiling of a new line-up of players for this year that includes the versatile X20.

It’s effectively a widescreen multimedia player, sitting in-between devices such as the Sansa E-series and more advanced players like the Archos 604.

You can pick it up in capacities up to 8GB and there’s also a micro-SD card slot on the side, so you’ll find plenty of room for your media files. It’s intended to operate in landscape mode, with the bulk of the controls on the right of the screen; the display can be flipped for left-handed users.

A rotating scroll wheel lets you browse around and adjust volume, with standard directional controls and a menu shortcut doing the rest. It’s pretty straightforward to browse and adjust settings, although the wheel requires quite a light touch to avoid pressing a directional button by accident.

Although the device is bulky, the 2.2in screen is large enough to make video content genuinely enjoyable. The X20’s real strengths come in its media support and extra features. Two built-in speakers are at the rear - they’re predictably tinny but are good enough on a temporary basis if you need them.

In addition to video and audio playback you’ll find a photo viewer, FM Radio and voice recorder. You can record radio to a MP3 format or use the line-in port to connect an external microphone or record directly from another audio source.

Audio quality isn’t fantastic, but can be improved by tweaking the equalizer and using some decent headphones. There’s also not a lot in terms of fine-tuning, although the basics are all there.

The X20 is a decent all-round player though, and these minor foibles can be forgiven when you look at the low price tag. It's available now from Advanced MP3 Players.

Review: Creative Zen Stone mp3 player

Paul Lester — 2007-06-11T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Monday 11 June 2007 at 00:00:00

A micro-sized player to rival the popular iPod Shuffle

Creative’s Zen Stone is a new micro-sized mp3 player aimed directly at the iPod Shuffle market.

It sacrifices a display in the name of portability, comes in a choice of six colours and, inevitably, you can now pick up a range of accessories for it.

As expected from a player of this nature it’s very straightforward to use, simply plug it into your PC with the supplied shortened mini-USB cable and drag and drop your tracks across.

A simple directional pad on the front allows you to adjust volume, skip and search and pause and play. It’s responsive enough and the depressed design makes it fairly easy to use by touch. On the top of the unit is a flick switch that adds a little more functionality by allowing you to move forwards through your collection an album at a time. You can also randomise playback to mix things up a bit; an extremely worthwhile addition for a player of this type.

Sound quality is very good. It’s easily loud enough to use when out and about and you’re given some decent enough headphones in the box. Of course, you can also use the Stone as a portable hard drive by dragging content across, and if you want to rip CDs you can do so directly by downloading a small application from the Creative site called Creative Media Lite, which can also sort out your ID3tags for you.

The most impressive feature is the price tag. This 1GB player is currently available for around £27.99, around half the price of the iPod Shuffle. As you might imagine with a player of this nature, there’s not a lot to criticise about it when you realise how cheap you can pick one up for.

It would have been good to see Creative squeeze a little more juice from the battery considering the lack of display. However, playback stands at around 10 hours, which will be acceptable for most and only slightly behind the iPod Shuffle. However, the mini-USB connectivity is far more convenient that the Shuffle’s dock system.

Review: Samsung YP-K3 mp3 player

Karl Foster — 2007-06-06T00:00:00.000Z

Karl Foster, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 6 June 2007 at 00:00:00

Black and gorgeously glossy, Samsung’s latest sounds as good as it looks

Samsung has seemingly taken a leaf out of Henry Ford’s book. Unlike Apple’s rainbow of iPod Nanos, the YP-K3 PMP is liveried in black, although with an attractive chrome trim.

Switched off, you can’t see the front-panel controls, while the screen, a 1.8in organic display (OLED) is barely visible.

A flip of the dual-mode power/latch slider and its touch-sensitive icons spring to light giving access to a slick navigation system. The supplied Samsung Media Studio 5 is Windows (including Vista) only, but does an efficient job of ripping CDs to mp3 at rates of up to 320Kbps (WMA is also supported). There's also a tab that’ll bring up Samsung’s UK online music store.

USB2 connectivity makes for speedy upload of files, while navigating your portable library and customising device settings is a breeze thanks to well-thought-out menus and navigation buttons. Of course, the downside to the K3’s high-gloss finish is that finger smudges are quick to accumulate, so expect much polishing.

The supplied EP370 earphones deliver a sweet response and you can further tweak playback tone with one of five effects settings, including a handy bass boost for those lacking ear-canal phones, and an unusable over-ambient Concert Hall mode.

A built-in FM radio enables you to create a list of favourite stations, quality of reception depending on your location, while the OLED offers a passable view of stored Jpegs - the screen isn’t high-res enough for quality viewing.

Those with a penchant for slinky black gadgets will find the YP-K3 a tempting alternative to a Nano. With a suggested price that’s a fraction less, it’s a mite tastier than the Apple, but doesn’t have such extensive file support.

Review: Sony Video Walkman NW-A805 portable media player

Emil Larsen — 2007-04-17T00:00:00.000Z

Emil Larsen, Personal Computer World, Tuesday 17 April 2007 at 00:00:00

Sony's first flash Video Walkman tries to outdo the iPod Nano with a widescreen display

Video Walkmans are back.

Sony launched the brand in the 1980s when 8mm tapes were used to play back content and now, two decades later, it's using the moniker for its latest mp3 players.

The three new devices to carry the name have 8GB, 4GB and 2GB of flash memory, of which we had the latter to test.

All are metal clad and come in a range of matt-textured colours.

Although mathematically 50 per cent bigger than the nano, it's still a slender design. To justify the extra size, Sony has squeezed in a 2in widescreen LCD that outclasses every other flash-based player on the market.

The display is bright and detailed thanks to a QVGA (240x320) resolution and can display videos and picture slideshows horizontally or vertically.

Much of the styling is reminiscent of the Sony A1200. The button layout is very similar and the silver border along the sides remains. It's easy to navigate and a search function is included if you can't remember where a track is.

Sony has stubbornly stuck to its Sonicstage software for music transfer. Audio support is better than with older Sony audio players; the NW-A805 will playback mp3, aac and wma files natively.

Sony's Atrac files are, of course, still supported and used for ripping CDs and converting unsupported files into.

Having let up a bit on audio formats, Sony's politics have moved onto the video arena. Playback is limited to custom AVC H.264 and Mpeg4 files.

The supplied program Image Converter 3 must be used to transfer videos, for example DivX or wmv, to the device in either 'high' or 'low' quality, which corresponds to bit rates of 768Kbits/sec or 384Kbits/sec.

We found the tool was buggy, sometimes spending half an hour transcoding a video only to throw up an error message at the end of the process.

Infuriatingly, even AVC H.264 files that only vary slightly from the required bit rate (for example 634Kbits/sec instead of 768Kbits/sec) must be transcoded before they'll play on the device.

Sony says the device can play back files at up to 30fps (frames per second), which is impressive. Indeed, videos played back smoothly and had vibrant colours. You wouldn't want to watch a whole film on a screen this size, but for shorter train or car journeys, it is comfortable to watch TV shows.

The Walkman can be used as an external hard disk, but any files you drag and drop onto it can't be accessed by the player itself – Sony's software must be used for this.

The none-removable battery has impressive stamina. The NW-A800 series is rated at 30 hours playing back music or up to 8 hours playback for low-quality video files. In testing we found battery life went on and on and we have no reason to doubt Sony's claims.

Sony's EX-style headphones are provided; in-ear models that block out some outside noise. They're comfortable to use for prolonged periods of time and certainly better than Apple Nano buds. Although there is a hint of static when the headphones are plugged in, audio quality is very good.

We think £120 is a steep price for a 2GB player, especially when the corresponding iPod Nano costs £99 and Sandisk's excellent Sansa C250 only costs £65. With the other players though, you may have to shell out for better headphones – something you're less likely to do with the NW-A805.

Ultimately, the Sony NW-A805 is a classy device that is well manufactured and easy to use. But getting video onto the device is another matter entirely, and we can't understand why Sony persists with the stubborn and unintuitive Sonicstage software.

Review: Sandisk Sansa C250 mp3 player

Rob Jones — 2007-03-15T00:00:00.000Z

Rob Jones, Personal Computer World, Thursday 15 March 2007 at 00:00:00

Light, low-cost 2GB mp3 player

Sandisk’s Sansa C250 now comes with an FM tuner in Europe, but costs no more than the original version which lacked a radio.

The company has quickly carved itself a reputation in the digital music player market, and although still a long way behind Apple and its iPods, it is giving the likes of Creative a headache in this sector.

Better known for its flash memory products, it uses that expertise to build small, light solid state mp3 players.

The Sansa C250 is like an over-sized pack of chewing gum, weighing only 50g. Its black casing houses easy to use buttons, and a small 3.6cm colour screen. Once again, it uses a scroll pad, and navigation through its options is simple and logical.

Features include an FM radio and record function. This acts as both a voice recorder – with a tiny microphone at the top of the unit, or can record the radio as you listen to it.

The player will also store and displays your photos – but unlike the Samsung YP-T9 - not video. And while the similarly-specified Samsung mp3 player has excellent screen quality, images on the Sansa are dull and appear soft. You certainly won’t be showing of your favourite snaps using the device.

While 2GB is big enough to hold around 1,000 WMA (or 500 mp3) tracks, a microSD card slot on the side allows for expandability. Currently a 1GB card will set you back from as little as £10, so it’s a cheap means of increasing the player’s capacity. Additionally, we’d suggest investing in better earbuds, as the ones supplied are at best average. With a decent set, sound quality was excellent.

Battery life was around 15 hours, so it’s fine for long journeys. Included in the box is a lead for charging, which connects to your computer via USB. If want a mains charger, that must be bought separately.

The supplied software makes it easy to transfer photos to your device, but with the poor screen it’s really not worth taking the time to use. For music, you can simply drag tracks across.

If you want a small, low-cost mp3 player that has few additional thrills but is good at its core job – that of playing music – the £65 C250 is to be recommended. If you want extra features, such as a good screen for playing video, and are prepared to shell out more money, then we’d recommend the Samsung YP-T9, which is the best mp3 player we’ve seen over recent months.

Review: Samsung YP-T9 mp3 player

Cliff Joseph — 2007-02-01T00:00:00.000Z

Cliff Joseph, Personal Computer World, Thursday 1 February 2007 at 00:00:00

A strong rival for the Nano, with Bluetooth, radio and video

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Apple will be pretty pleased by Samsung’s YP-T9.

The slimline design of this new mp3 player bears obvious similarities to Apple’s iPod Nano – even the packaging follows the simple fold-out design used by Apple. Samsung’s Media Studio software also takes its lead from iTunes, complete with its own online music store.

The YP-T9 lacks the minimalist elegance of the Nano. It’s festooned with a series of buttons rather than the iPod’s simple scroll-wheel control system. However, it does boast a few extra features that the Nano lacks.

The YP-T9’s key feature is its Bluetooth capability, which allows you to do away with cables and listen to your music on wireless Bluetooth headsets. It can also play video – something that the iPod Nano can’t do – and has a built-in FM radio tuner as well.

The 1.8in screen only has a 176x144 resolution, but image quality is surprisingly good – very bright and detailed. The Media Studio software works well here; just right-click on a video file in the Media Studio library list and you can automatically convert it into a format suitable for the YP-T9 and then download it onto the player.

The Bluetooth features push the price up a bit, though. The YP-T9 costs £89 for a 1GB model, £119 for 2GB, and £149 for 4GB, which is £20 more expensive than a comparable iPod Nano.

You’ll also have to cough up extra for the Bluetooth headset, as the YP-T9 only includes an ordinary set of wired headphones. However, if you don’t need the Bluetooth features then there’s a non-Bluetooth model called the K3, which is £30 cheaper (making it £10 cheaper than a comparable iPod Nano).

The YP-T9 can’t match the iPod’s elegant design, but it works well and its extra features arguably make it better value for money than its Apple rival.

Also consider:

Apple iPod Nano

The slimline nano gets a brightly coloured facelift

Maxfield Max-Ivy

Another super-sleek player takes on the Apple nano

Sony NW-S706

Sony’s superbly stylish new player threatens to outperform the competition

All mp3 player reviews

Review: Maxfield Max-Ivy mp3 player

Paul Lester — 2007-01-25T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Thursday 25 January 2007 at 00:00:00

A super-sleek player takes on the Apple nano

Maxfield hasn’t set the world alight with its past offerings in the mp3 player market, but in the Max-Ivy you’ll find a stylish player to rival the Apple iPod nano.

Supremely slim, although a little larger, it can certainly compete in terms of aesthetics. There’s even a touch-sensitive flashing blue slider control for moving through menus and adjusting the volume. You’ll find more features on offer here as well; including a voice recorder, video player and photo viewer, along with a well featured mp3 player.

The luminous blue control buttons fade totally to black on the touch-sensitive surface - although this looks impressive, it leaves you having to mash randomly at the display to get them to light up so you can see what you're doing.

This is easier said than done, if you're lucky enough not to hit the wrong button by mistake you'll notice that more often than not it takes a fair few presses to get it to wake up. Not the kind of behaviour that's in keeping with the high standards set by the sleek design and clever fade-out surface. That said, we did notice that a quick flick of the power switch lights up the controls so the problem can be avoided.

The display and audio quality are extremely good; Maxfield’s Mediacoder software, downloadable from the Maxfield site can be used to convert video and audio to the correct format for the player. This works extremely well at optimising file sizes and seemed pretty versatile in its file support. In addition you’ll find the Magix Mp3 Maker application in the box along with a transparent rubber case for additional protection against damage and scratches.

There are plenty of options for adjusting the display’s behaviour, but not a lot for controlling the media on the device, although a customisable equalizer and range of presets offers good control over audio.

The interface takes a little getting used to but soon becomes pretty straightforward and you’ll find it quick and easy to navigate around. The touch sensitive slider, although it looks very nice, isn’t particularly responsive and can be frustrating for making quick volume adjustments or scrolling through menus.

With first impressions as dramatic as these we really wanted to like Maxfield's latest player. Like England's last World Cup squad, it has all the ingredients for success but comes up a little short. That's not to say it's bad by any stretch, it's incredibly slim and scores heavily in terms of design. There's just something about the usability of the touch sensitive scroll slider, menu controls and totally fade-to-black buttons that means it's not quite as easy to operate as it should be.

This is the only real drawback though, overall impressions were very good and there are enough positives surrounding the design, features and usability of the device to outweigh niggling issues with the controls. The encoder software is impressive; many rivals tend to fall down in this area, particularly with video content. And although the 1.8in screen is a little small for any real impact, it’s a feature you’ll probably end up using more than you think.

Price varies depending on where you purchase. We found the 4GB version available for around the same price (£125) as the equivalent sized nano, but the 2GB is available for considerably less (£80) and would be a good shout in terms of value for money.

If you’re looking for an alternative to Apple’s offerings without sacrificing style and portability this could be right up your street.

Also consider:

Sony NW-S706

Total audio control with breathtaking looks and undeniable quality

Apple iPod nano

A modest cosmetic upgrade, but the competitive pricing should guarantee success for the new iPod nano

Samsung K5

A stylish music player with a built in slide-out speaker

All mp3 player reviews

Review: Neodigits Helios X5000

Nigel Whitfield — 2006-11-29T00:00:00.000Z

Nigel Whitfield, Personal Computer World, Wednesday 29 November 2006 at 00:00:00

This network media player aims high

The Helios X5000 is aimed at audiophiles; it has a solid aluminium chassis, gold-plated connectors and support for the Flac audio format, which lets you compress your CDs to save space with no loss of quality.

It's also designed to play back video, including HD, and can upscale material to 1080p via the HDMI port, or component video. DivX and WMV 9 files can be played back, and look excellent – but there's no support for protected material so you can't watch the WMV HD version of Terminator 2, for example. You can’t play H.264 either, which is a serious omission for a unit aimed at the HD market.

As well as playing material from DVD, there’s a USB port to which you can connect mass storage devices, including NTFS-formatted drives, and network connectivity is via 100Mbit Ethernet or WLan, though the latter isn't fast enough for HD playback.

Network setup is simple, with WPA and Wep supported, though entering a Wep key via the remote – which has decidedly spongy keys – isn’t much fun.

For network playback, you can use the supplied Neolink software or any other UPnP media server, like Twonkyvision or WizD; Neolink will pick up your web bookmarks and playlists.

You can even view some online TV; the NBC Mobile news looked surprisingly good upscaled on a 32in LCD TV, but other bookmarks didn't work, and we couldn't play the BBC news clips; in fact, the built-in web browser is a bit fiddly to use, and scroll around.

But for audio playback, this is certainly a good performer, with a great sound, especially using Flac files. Video worked well too, including Transport Streams from Freeview.

But for a box that claims to be for audiophiles, it's disappointing to miss out DVD Audio and Super Audio CD, along with multi-channel analogue outputs; the best you get is digital optical and co-ax, or analogue stereo.

There's no doubt this is a competent performer – but we think the lack of H.264 is a serious omission, as the format is set to appear in more and more places, and we'd like to see a better remote control, too.

Also consider:

Kiss DP-600 media player/streamer

A good-quality media player and streamer, but it has its fair share of irritations

Mediaman Multimedia Player HVX-3500

The Mediaman Multimedia Player HVX-3500 is a clever little box of tricks that enhances its usefulness with a wide selection of connections and high-definition capabilities

D-Link DSM-320 media player

Great concept and very stylish hardware but comes with a clunky interface and troublesome setup

All Home Entertainment devices reviews

Review: Samsung K5 mp3 player

Paul Lester — 2006-11-20T00:00:00.000Z

Paul Lester, Personal Computer World, Monday 20 November 2006 at 00:00:00

A stylish music player with a built in slide-out speaker

Samsung’s K5 comes with the interesting addition of a slide-out speaker built behind the main player.

The idea is to allow you to listen to music from a short distance without headphones, but although the quality here is relatively good you won’t be holding any house parties with the twin 0.7W speakers.

It’s a smooth and very stylish design though, finished with an attractive chrome grill that contributes well to the overall ‘wow’ factor of the menu and controls.

In a similar way to the Sony A1200 the K5 has a fade-to-black screen that illuminates with cool blue lights when you brush the touchpad. Both these and the LCD display look stunning; you’ll find it easy to navigate around the vibrant animated menus to access the mp3 player, FM Radio, Photo viewer or alarm features on offer.

Part of the reason the minimal controls are so usable though is that there aren’t a lot of options for managing your music. You’ll find simple graphic equalizer presets and playback control but this is about it. You can’t create playlists on the K5 either, although it does support those imported from the Media Studio software supplied.

You’ll need to use this iTunes clone to transfer content since you can’t drag and drop music directly. We are firm believers that this is the only way to go with portable players but thankfully Media Studio doesn’t make a meal of handling and managing tracks and photos.

Sound quality is pretty good, as is the 30-hour battery life. A pair of what are perhaps the most bizarre set of headphones we’ve seen do well to channel deep bass and clean treble to your ear but the equalizer would really benefit from a manual adjustment setting for fine tuning.

There are also some minor issues with the interface. It’s too easy to hit the wrong button by accident when the controls fade out for instance, and you’re paying quite a lot extra for the built-in speaker considering alternatives for the same money.

Despite these points Samsung has produced a great-looking player that does what’s it’s meant to do well. We’re not sure if the innovations hold enough appeal for a mainstream market but this is certainly a very capable addition.

Also consider:

Apple iPod nano

A modest cosmetic upgrade, but the competitive pricing should guarantee success for the new iPod nano

Sony A1200 portable audio player

The Sony A1200 is a good value, great-looking player for those serious about their music

Netac A200 portable media player

The Netac A200 is an excellent mp3 player in its own right, but the FM transmitter gives it an edge over just about every other Flash player in this price range

All mp3 player reviews