HyunWon RockBOX 128 MB

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Good
Ease of Use	Average
Look & Design	Satisfactory
Range of Features	Diverse
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Records, Nice sized screen
Disadvantages:	Almost useless documentation, upload issues, battery life (lack of)

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I’ll admit that whilst I had been using mp3s for a while I didn’t know much about actual mp3 players when I purchased this product about 18 months ago. I am soon hoping to upgrade to an iPod so I thought I’d take this opportunity to give my opinion on my first mp3 player.

I bought it motivated by price more than anything, and it looked compact with a small screen. Had never heard of the manufacturer and honestly I’m still none the wiser.

The player itself is fairly compact but a bit chunky compared to newer models. It is turned on by the centre button which has five functions. Hold it down to turn on (took me a while to figure this out), up for Play/Pause, down for Stop, left and right for rewind and fast forward respectively. On the right hand side there is a “Hold” slider, or keypad lock, a mini USB port And an input audio slot. On the left hand side there are five buttons: Record, Vol (Up & Down), Mode (Press for mode, hold for sound) and bookmark. The mode button can skip through the play modes on the player when pressed (Normal, Repeat, Repeat All, Random, Random All) and can skip through audio presets such as “Rock”, “Flat” and “Live. Batteries go in the back, headphones and MMC card in the top.

MP3 and WMA files are supported and usually I can fit around 30-40 on the internal memory. MMC cards can be bought to extend the memory. The player also features a recording function and inbuilt microphone. There are two modes which can be accessed by pressing the “Rec” button (which also gives access to the erase function). These two record modes are “Voice Record” and “Music Record”. Files are recorded in MPE format which can be converted using the provided software. Voice record uses the microphone, music record the audio out cord provided.

The player comes with software CD, holder, audio cord (for recording from Hi-Fi etc. and USB cord.) The software is fairly basic and lets you add and delete files. It only lets you upload files from the player which you have recorded (ie in MPE format) not MP3s and WMAs (for Piracy reasons). I’ve always thought this was stupid as you have to have the MP3/WMA file in the first place to put them on there so surely the danger of piracy is more with the recorded files! Ah well never mind.

The interface is quite good. It shows file type, track number and total stored tracks, battery power, audio preset (ie rock), Volume level, track name and timer. The track name scrolls. It is backlit but only for a short time. On the topic of the screen, I’ve had a problem come up several times where, after replacing batteries the screen is light up when turning on but does not display anything. This is usually rectified by taking the batteries out and putting them in again.

Power. The player does not support rechargeable batteries. Just 2 AAA batteries from which it drinks heavily. This may be because there is no “off” function and the player turns itself off after a while of no use. This is definitely not ideal.

Sound quality is ok, and transfer times are average. The documentation is very basic and not very helpful The troubleshooting is pretty basic and the instructions are not very well written. I figured it out for myself mostly, although it wasn’t too hard. However I decided to stick with this player as it can also be used for file storage and transfer. Which at the time of purchase came in very useful. Although this is a decent player I would recommend looking at newer models and other manufacturers. As I said I am hoping to upgrade to and iPod as my needs have changed, just thought I’d review this awkward little contraption.