In the world of portable MP3 players we once had only a small choice of players, and they had only a few sizes available. 32MB, 64MB, 128MB or 256MB. They may or may not have upgradable functions and they costed a mint.
But now we have bigger and better MP3 players such as the Creative Muvo2 4GB with 4,000MB storage. No need for upgrades anymore, there's more than enough space for a few albums and a documentary on fish fingers.
Yes this Muvo2 has the capacity and it is small, smaller than it's rival the IPOD Mini in fact and lighter too. It can play WMA files as well as MP3 files and has a very nice neon electric blue backlight for it's screen.
The Muvo2 comes with 2 USB2 cables (1 long 1 short) so that songs can be transferred from PC to the player. Since it is USB2 the speed of transfer is very very fast. Before you would make your tea, have a biscuit, then return to find it still transferring but not anymore. It also comes with a carry case to protect the player and the case I must say is very secure and padded without adding too much to the size.
Well that's the good stuff out of the way, let's start with the bad stuff.
The Muvo2 itself feels cheap with it's fragile plastic casing. The battery sit very fragily inside the Muvo2 and feels like it will fall out if you should jump the wrong way. Battery life itself isn't very good. It claims battery life of up to 10 hours constant playtime, but in actual fact its more along the lines of 5 hours and that's with the volume at 30%.
The screen itself is teeny. It's basically a strip of LCD that displays the song's information as it plays, however it can only display one song at a time. Thing is when I have a few hundred songs on it it makes browsing songs a nightmare. Also you can't jump straight to that song you want, you must press the forward button until to reach that song but with the small and diminutive screen you may miss the song and not realise it.
The earphones that come with it don't seem to have any bass. Treble is all there but the bass for it is rather , how you would say, like beating your baby finger against your foot, i.e. none existance. Even with the extra bass option on, the Muvo2 still lacks oomph. There isn't a remote control either and you must purchase it separately if you want one. I don't know about you but I don't really enjoy reaching into my bag/coat/pocket to change tracks each time. The remote also adds dictaphone and FM radio capabilities to the Muvo2, functions which should of came with the Muvo2 in the first place.
This player would of been a fantastic competitor to the IPOD Mini except it has some screen issues and a missing remote control with the retail package. But it must be mentioned that this is much cheaper than the IPOD Mini. So, a decent MP3 player for those on a budget, but if you have the money go for the IPOD Mini instead.
Rating: 6/10
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(+) Av Output to plug to a TV, built-in speakers, easy to use. Come with very good earphones (-) Does not come with power supply (easy to charge from the PC though), av cable is sold separately
Aug 20th, 2004
(Aug 21st, 2004)
very helpful by (75%):
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