The title only covers part of what this unit can do, it can also record and play .wav files as well as having an FM radio, so far it has stubbornly refused to make the tea.
Buy Now...
The unit is tiny about the size of a lipstick at 7cm long and a
little over 2.5cm across the weight is well under 50grams with its
single AAA battery inserted. There is a 4x1cm LCD display that carries
a multitude of information including ID3 tagging so whatever
information you transfer with tracks from the PC is displayed.
On both sides of the LCD are three buttons and another the on/play
button at the right side. There is a single sheet for a Getting Started
Guide this could be better as in one diagram it lists by number 12
buttons and points on the unit. Only by trial and error reading the
rest of sheet does it describe 8 of them. However the symbols on the
buttons are fairly self explanatory. There is a manual on a CD-ROM,
also a driver but this will only be required by Windows 98 and 98SE
users.
The end of the unit has a mini USB socket and not only is a USB to
mini USB lead provided but also a neat USB to mini USB socket plug and
if you have front facing USB sockets the latter is all you are likely
to need.
Plug in the device to a USB port and Windows installs a driver, you
then have an extra drive in My Computer. You can drag and drop files to
the unit very quickly and should it be required you can also use the
unit as a mule to transfer files between PCs.
A reasonable set of earpieces are provided on a lanyard that also
contains a FM radio, these are never great and rather directional but
this one was better than others I have used. Should you wish to use
your own earpieces or headphones they work just as well but only on the
main unit as the FM radio is part of the lanyard with the earpieces.
The voice recorder is remarkably sensitive and I placed it in a room
and talked across it to someone else and both our voices are clearly
audible. These files are recorded at a low wav rate, but it is great
for easy note taking. In round figures a four minute conversation takes
around one megabyte of space. As this is a 256MB recorder you could in
theory record well over 17hours of speech at a single time.
As an MP3 player I transferred 260minutes worth of tracks and they
sounded great both through earpieces and a set of speakers. In theory
WMA take half the space and are meant to be the same quality, that
would be over 500 minutes of tracks.
A single AAA battery lasted around 450 minutes in my tests. You
could use a rechargeable battery but as AAA batteries tend to be low
power in comparison to AA offerings you would not get much time from
them.
As an MP3 player this is good, as a voice recorder excellent, plus
an adequate FM radio and earpieces and the bonus of being able to use
it as a mule. The price is £79.99
Link : http://www.theupgradestore.co.uk/digital/product_page.asp?id=MP3 > select PA-33 256MB
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