Absolute Summer MP3 Player

I ordered a new MP3 player recently, and it just arrived! As the rebel that I am I don't use cellphones, and I don't usually use Apple products, and I haven't even used my old 512KB MP3 player purchased back in the day in a long time. I've had no need for one. Yet when I found this ^ neat gadget lying around with a price tag screaming "buy me", I did so. I bought it. I took a couple of images while unpacking for you people of the Interweb. Here you go; click for bigger versions.

So this is what it looks like unpacked. It's in the shape of the CD, which I guess is intentional since the player also includes 44 tracks. You'll find the list below.

Here's the list. Also in regular text:

1. Sommertider - Gyllene Tider
2. Sommaren är kort - Tomas Ledin
3. Öppna landskap - Ulf Lundell
4. Sol vind och vatten - Ted Gärdestad
5. Stockholm i mitt hjärta - Lasse Berghagen
6. Dina färger var blå - Tommy Nilsson
7. Ta mej till havet - Peter Lundblad
8. Oh vilken härlig dag - Jill Johnson
9. Oh boy - Peps Persson
10. Vackert väder - Orup
11. Blå blå känslor - Tomas Ledin
12. Idas sommarvisa - Christer Sandelin & Marcus Ubeda
13. Vågorna - Uno Svenningsson
14. Välkommen - Stefan Andersson
15. Sommar - Kayo
16. Magaluf - Orup
17. Ingen sommar utan reggae - Markoolio
18. Gå och fiska - Gyllene Tider
19. Sommarnatt - Snowstorm
20. Sommarens sista sång - Peter Jöback
21. Idas sommarvisa - Lena Wisborg
22. Mitt sommarlov - Anita Hegerland
23. Barfotavisan - Mats Paulsson
24. Turistens klagan - Cornelis Vreeswijk
25. Till stockholms skärgård - Lasse Berghagen
26. Jag tror på sommaren - Mats Olin
27. Gröna granna sköna sanna sommar - Lill Babs
28. Sommar och sol det bästa jag vet - Sven Ingvars
29. Ta av dig skorna - Povel Ramel
30. Båtlåt - Robert Broberg
31. Sommarkort (en stund på jorden) - Cornelis Vreeswijk
32. Änglamark - Sven Bertil Taube
33. Det gåtfulla folket - Olle Adolphsson
34. Visa vid vindens ängar - Håkan Hellström
35. Om maskros och tjärdoft - Carl Anton
36. Sjösala vals - Evert Taube
37. Härliga sommardag - Family Four
38. Sommaren som aldrig säger nej - Malta
39. Drömmen om Elin - Tommy Körberg
40. Sakta vi gå genom stan - Monica Zetterlund
41. Att angöra en brygga - The Real Group
42. Så skimrande var aldrig havet - Marie Fredriksson
43. I denna ljuva sommartid / Den blomstertid nu kommer - Stockholm Kammarkör
44. Sommar sommar sommar - Radions Underhållningsorkester

Underneath the manual there's a small CD with drivers on it. They weren't needed though, Windows 7 installed them automatically. The player has built-in battery, rechargeable through any USB port. It takes 4 hours regularly, 8 hours when newly bought.

Here's a matching box so you see how small it is. The player is really sleek and easy to use, with buttons that aren't too hard to press and a screen that seems to fit everything despite it's size. Sound quality is good, even with the small earplugs that came with the package. Better headphones = great sound quality.

Here's a close-up of the screen. the menu's are easy to navigate. There's a simple settings section, a navigation section to quickly browse through tracks, a music section with more detailed information about the track now playing and a recording section to... record stuff, obviously.

I tested the recording quality (see file below). The player records a WAV file at 65 kbps (the highest quality); below is such a file converted to MP3 at 39 kbps. You can adjust recording quality on the menu if you like. Unfortunately this is the highest quality available. I don't even want to know what low quality sounds like. For recording notes and reminders it'll do just fine though, and the files take up very little space.

Overall it's a good MP3 player. The battery seems to last longer than it takes to recharge, since it's been going strong for a couple of hours with no sign of weakening. It fits 2GB, which amounts to a lot of tracks, MP3 and WMA being the accepted formats. Included tracks are encoded at 160 kbps, sufficient for them to sound good, but I'd have appreciated the double. 320 kbps is real quality.

Two flaws in the design are the USB cap which took a lot of tugging to remove, and the lack of a visible microphone. When recording it's impossible to know how to hold the MP3 player properly without covering the microphone or speaking to the wrong side, it's absolutely invisible. The sound still records though, so it works, but it needs some clarification. Notable also that the model is from 2009, so not the latest. ;) I have no complaints though, for the price I paid I'm dually satisfied. If you just want to listen to music, this is all you need.