Olympus m:robe MR-100 5 GB

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Good
Ease of Use	Simple
Look & Design	Excellent
Range of Features	Average
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	So shiny !
Disadvantages:	Chuffing m : trip

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I recently purchased a shiny, new mp3 player and thought perhaps you might like to meet him. Being a fashionable sort he does have a very hectic social life, but luckily I managed to corner Mr m:robe for long enough to extract a few details that might be of interest to a potential buyer. Read on...

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Sootica.P.Monster: Hello Mr m:robe, as my new best friend I wondered if I could ask you a few questions for the benefit of other people thinking about introducing one of your family into their lives.

m:robe: Certainly Sootica, I'd be happy to oblige. What would you like to know?

I think we'd best begin with the basic specs. So, if it's not too personal a question, how big are you on the outside, and how much do you weigh?

I'm a rather svelte 90 (w) x 52 (h) x 14.9 (d) mm. So pretty small, and certainly pocket sized. And-although you shouldn't really be asking a gentleman such a question-I weigh only 100g.

And on the inside?

I'm an iPod Mini**/Nano beating 5GB, plenty enough to keep you going for a good long time. That's approximately 1200 songs at 128 kbps, though obviously you can fit a darn sight more Rudimentary Peni or Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster on it and rather less of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. I do draw the line at Westlife, you'll find I can fit only half one of their tracks onto my internal memory at any one time. It's a bug in my circuitry. Ahem.

Touché. That's not a bug, it's a blessing... Which formats do you prefer?

I only accept WMA or mp3; I can't be doing with any of this OGG or M4A silliness. I like to keep things simple, and it doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Would you mind describing your appearance?

Well, I'm a foxy little beast if I do say so myself. The picture above does me no justice! I've got that particular Knightrider cool that surely anyone born in or around the 80's will appreciate; I wipe the floor with those silly clunky iPods as far as appearance goes. I'm red and black and all glossy, and manage to look disco cool rather than Goth. I'm a bit masculine, but a bit beautiful too. Like the MP3 version of the dancers in the Robert Palmer Addicted to Love video. Very androgynous, very Uber-Mod. This MP3 player has cheekbones and no mistake.

I have to admit that I only went to buy a pair of earphones after Fenella* chewed one of my old ones off the cord, but I took one look at you all shiny and lovely, giving me lascivious glances in the display case, and I was entirely smitten…

I do find that I have that effect on people.

How long can you play music for? There's nothing worse than being stranded on a train with a bunch of besuited and benewspapered commuters only to have your little musical friend fade on you…

I'm pretty good on that score. I have a rechargeable Li-ion battery and take about 3 hours to charge from empty to full capacity if you use the charging cradle. Then I'm all yours for a minimum of 12 hours of constant playback, hurrah! I also charge via the USB cable when connected to a computer, either when you're loading music onto me or just idle-though I do take a little longer to charge this way. As another direct comparison to the iPod, my battery is built-in but is also in fact replaceable. As with any Li-ion battery devices after about 500 charges I can become less effective and run down more quickly, and this is where the iPod sucks as the battery can't really be removed and replaced. But do not fear! Olympus offer a full spares list and even show you how to replace the battery in the instructions.

You've got an unusual name, what's that all about?

My full name is Mr Olympus Music Wardrobe, but that's a bit of a mouthful and as I'm a little bit funky I have abbreviated it J.Lo style.

What are you wearing right now?

Saucy… I'm currently sporting a black and red velvet number, however this is not included in the m:robe package and usually needs to be bought separately. What you do get for your money however is a simple little camel feely pouch, suedette I suppose, which protects my shiny outside from scratching. However some people lose theirs as soon as they get them and have to resort to the posh accessories [glances my way]. So yes, the official m:robe case is rather cool, it's a convertible outfit which can be altered to attach to an arm or belt for sports or gym activities. Further details can be found on the official Olympus website ***.

I've never been to a gym in my life, but it's nice to know that I am equipped should I randomly feel the need. Anything else?

There are also a couple of other bits available, but not quite the range you get with iPods. After all, my first priority is to be an mp3 player and not just a shiny, pretty brick. However, I do have a matching pair of earphones-which of course you get included in the basic m:robe package as they are rather vital. These are fairly standard iPodalikes, you know the sort-white earbud things. I'd have designed something a bit foxier myself-they're a bit of a copout compared to the rest of me. But they do the job well enough. There is also the optional extra of a remote control thingy, which is really designed for the MR500 (my photo capable brother) and so clashes a little with my red and black features. But it's available and compatible should you require it.

So we've established that you're very shiny, but how do I get my music from the computer to your mp3 player brain? Does it suit those with technological inertia like myself?

Once you've docked me in my cradle-which incidentally comes in the basic package-Windows XP recognises me straightaway. I register as a removeable disc drive on your desktop, and this is the part which I know that you have trouble with, Sootica. It's unfortunately not quite as simple as dragging and dropping mp3 and WMA files into my folder, as with a flash drive based player. Instead Olympus have tried to create a piece of software to rival iTunes, but even I must admit that they have failed miserabley here. Because, straight from the horse's mouth as it were, m:trip is absolute pants. It's got a horrible interface, it's very slow and to get any music to adhere to my memory you need to first load it into the m:trip library. Which, for indecisive people who keep rearranging their files-yes-that's you Sooty, becomes something of a nightmare. To cap it all off, transferring files is none too reliable and sometimes you have to sync twice to get it to fill in the bits that didn't work the first time around.

I have to agree, m:trip is amazingly awful. It's entirely un-userfriendly and-not to put too finer point on it-I hate the thing. But, in its defence, it is still being ironed out by Olympus and upgrades are available; moving from version 1.0 to 1.2 via their downloads page has already made a big difference to the software.

They're nice like that, Olympus. It's not just the software you know, there are firmware upgrades available too-all via the website***. In fact, Olympus are currently working on another of the issues that you've mentioned in some of our more heated arguments… The volume. This should be sorted in one of the future firmware upgrades.

You just don't go loud enough!

Yes, but we don't all want our ears to bleed, Sootica. Just because you've been to too many live gigs in your time…

It's just that I can't hear you very well over the Thameslink trains. They clatter to excess, and it does rather encroach upon my quiet time with you.

Well, they are stupidly loud. But I do agree I'd like to have a better range of volumes. I currently go from silent to quiet to quite loud. I'd like to have a super LOUD option too! Rrrah!

Once the music is stored in your memory, are you actually easy to use?

Absolutely. And best of all, I've got a touchscreen! Yay! I laugh in the face of buttons. So nernernernerner to the iPod once more, their click wheels are terribly passe. This could I suppose prove problematic if you have big stubby man fingers, but you've not experienced any problems with the menu selections and suchlike, have you Sootica?

Not at all. I think your touchscreen is lovely.

Good. My menus are easy to browse once you get to grips with the touchscreen, which is essentially very like manouvering with a laptop touchpad. Once you get the hang of it it's peasy. You can browse by artist, album, genre, year etc and can set up playlists via m:trip if you're brave enough, or Media Player if not. You can shuffle across the folders, or within each one and can also repeat tracks or playlists to your heart's content. I always think it would be nice if you could create playlists on the fly, or delete tracks that you don't want-but as yet Olympus haven't written this option. It's a minor gripe however, and I'm pretty happy with my menu capabilities.

Well, we've talked about your defining features and suchlike, so who do you think would benefit most from your company?

I would say that if you're the kind of person that cares more about a label than form and content, a person that likes their mp3 player to play Reversi with them, who wants to carry around their entire music collection all at once and who has shares in Apple then go for the iPod or iRiver or whichever other iThing catches your eye. If, however, you appreciate all things sleek and shiny, favour simplicity over carting around a million tracks you'll probably never listen to and want your mp3 player to play mp3's rather than do the dishes then I say give my brothers and I a go! You can't go far wrong with the m:robe family. And even better, Olympus are bringing out a range of coloured models and are constantly updating firmware. They don't stand still, those Olympus lads.

Clearly you're in a similar bracket to the iPod Mini in size and shape, how do you compare? Could you take one in a fight?

With ease! Just look at me. I'm toned and honed and ready to take on those prinky big girl's blousy iPod Minis. I have greater hard drive capacity**, style and I think credibility than an iPod. I'm an individual, not one of the bleating Apple flock. I'm also usually cheaper! Though I prefer to say better value, lest I sound tarty. Sure, the iPod Nano is all skinny malinky and colour screeny, but what can you do with a colour screen the size of a postage stamp anyway? It's a big show off, that Nano. Ultimately I'm a good size, I play your mp3s and look super smart. What more do you need? It's clear I'm anti-iPod. Yes, I'm a contrary sort, but I really do think it is overrated and overpriced. Whilst I know I'll never knock the iPod off its podium or steal it's crown I think you should give me a second glance as my potential is pretty darn good. Consider the mark one iPods, they were clunky things with a million squillion bugs so already my m:robe friends and I are well ahead. Watch this space...if this is the first generation, imagine how lovely my siblings could be!

So, in summary, why are you so great?

Well, you can just look at me and go oooooooooooooooh! like you do with a particularly impressive firework. On a more practical level, my size and shape is perfect for pockets. I'm slim enough to merrily while away my time in the back of your jeans without making you look like you've got a weird, deformed, cornery buttock. The quality of my music playback is good, for people like you with peculiarly vast range of tastes it is important that they all sound good. I do find that for best results I tend to perform well on the HipHop setting-which ironically is probably the only type of music that you don't really go for, Sootica. The bass sounds mighty fine on this setting though, you have to admit. I would like to offer you a little bit of customiseability on this front, maybe a way to set the equalisers yourself and create your own personalised settings but Olympus haven't got to that yet. Again, it's a fairly minor issue as the presets are perfectly acceptable. I look shiny, I sound shiny and I'm cheaper and shinier than an iPod Mini. You know you want me.

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Now, whilst Mr m:robe is looking at himself in the mirror I'd like to add a little extra which I don't want him to hear or he'll get all stroppy with me. So sssshhh…I'll just quickly bring up the things that prevents him from getting five stars.

The biggest problem really is mTrip. What the hell is this rubbish? I was going to be a little more...er.. expressive there, but in the interests of sounding like a fishwife I'll soften my language. If only they would do away with this I'd be a much happier bunny. In addition to the other issues mentioned in the interview, the battery indicator can be misleading. It has three indicator levels-full, two thirds full, one third full followed by GrraH! No music! Fine you think, that sounds ok. A fairly standard display. It's just a little quirky however... It stays on full for a good long time, the battery life is excellent after all, but as soon as the display dips to two thirds full it goes a bit loopy-in about an hour's time the m:robe's died on you. Sure, you can switch the thing on, but it just laughs, flashing an empty battery symbol at you. The moral is that when you get home you need to charge it even if it says it's full, as it could be teetering on the brink of not-really-full-at-all. Finally the earphone jack sticks in the side of the m:robe rather than the top, which seems rather daft as it gets stuck in my pocket all the time! Ooh I hate that. And that, I'm afraid, means only four stars for Mr m:robe.

Oh he really is beautiful though. So shiny. He's quirky, but now I'm used to his little foibles I'm very happy with him. I am optimistic that future firmware upgrades will address certain issues such as volume, and I do trust Olympus as a brand for quality so I think my shiny little music friend will be with me for a long time. Hurrah!

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So you want one too?

You can buy m:robes in all the usual places, though Dixons have invariably run out. Which did rather work in my favour as I went online and discovered Pixmania, where I got my little mp3 player for £140 with a free case, worth a tenner on its own. We like Pixmania. However, if you do find a Dixons where they stock the things and are actually capable of selling it to you, it'll cost you about £160. It's definitely worth shopping around…

*In case you were wondering, Fenella is my kitten and not some strange human being with a liking for eating electrical gadgets.

**Yes, I know Apple fans, the iPod Mini also comes in 6GB size which is obviously not smaller than 5GB. I did do maths you know. My comparison is with the most similar model available in price and specs-that is the 4GB model.

***have a butcher's at http://www.olympus.co.uk/mrobe/25_m_robe_MR-100.htm for more information!