The T.sonic (the 8GB, black version) is my 12 yr. old's first MP3 player and, so far, he is happy with it. I would say that this little player is worth about what I paid for at one of Amazon's one-hour specials.
I will first summarize what I got for my money and then I will have some closing thoughts where I will explain my rating.
- The contents -
The little box includes the player itself with a rechargeable battery (up to 22 hours of music playback or radio play on a full charge claimed) inside, a protective silicone skin, neck lanyard, a multi-lingual manual with the English section being 6 or 7 very small pages, the headphones, a USB cable and a mini disk that has an extended version of the manual plus a video file conversion utility, a slide show maker and some utility that is supposed to password-protect files that one would save on the device.
There is NO charger. The expectation is that the person who owns the player will use a computer to charge it through the USB cable. For those of us who don't carry a charged laptop next to their MP3 player, I found that a Blackberry charger works. I suspect that other independent USB chargers work as well.
- Design, ergonomics -
The player itself is not too bad looking. The screen is small but bright.
The interface is basic and anything that's a bit more 'complex', such as organizing a playlist can be difficult to execute.
- Features -
Computer interface:
Any file can be loaded off a computer by simply connecting via the USB port, at which time the player becomes a 'removable drive'. .mp3, .wma, .jpg, .txt and other file types can be simply dropped into the 'drive' and they will be played or displayed as appropriate. Given that the device looks like a drive to the computer, one can create folders to better organize content.
Music player:
Play is adequate but accessing your favorite song once you have hundreds is a different matter. I am repeating myself but the fact is that the interface and ease of use leave a lot of room for improvement.
Photo display:
Pictures are displayed off a separate menu and, like the songs, can be difficult to organize. It can take 5 to 10 seconds to display a 4MB file. I have little doubt that, had I reduced the size/resolution of my photos, they would have been displayed a lot quicker but I didn't feel that the user was 'expected' to convert dozens or hundreds of picture files prior to loading them on the player.
Voice recording:
It works and the 'voice activated' trigger is useful. If one takes the time to meaningfully rename the voice files, they could become meaningful records.
Radio playing:
20 FM stations can be preset on 20 'channels' and one can listen to a preset channel or seek a station not yet saved. The controls are a bit awkward but this is becoming a 'constant' observation already. An interesting feature is its ability to automatically scan the spectrum and assign stations to each of the 20 channels. It's a nice idea but, in my case, the same stations were assigned to 3 or 4 channels and some of the stations 'found' were nothing but static hiss.
Video:
I did not test it yet and it's not something that we are going to use. My son wanted a 'music player'. To play videos we have big screen TV's and laptops that do a much better job. I will enter my impressions here, once I have a chance to test it.
E-book:
Yes, it opens text files but one must be irresponsible to attempt actually reading a book on a postage-stamp size screen. We only have one pair of eyes and they don't get any better.
Clock:
Apparently, this model was not meant to be sold in the US. When setting the clock, you will find that the 'Pacific' time zone is labeled 'United States' and 'Eastern' seems to be called 'Venezuela'. Daylight savings time is available as an option to check but, who knows when that kicks in, since my time zone is 'Venezuela' now.
File storage:
I suppose this is a possibility but, with 8Gb thumb drives available for about $10, it would be a waste of MP3 player to actually attempt to use it as a file storage device.
- Performance, quality -
The player is overall slow. It is slow to respond to commands, slow to display large files, slow to turn itself on or off.
The quality of sound is acceptable and the basic (as in cheap) ear buds could be easily replaced with something better.
To conclude, this is something that my first born is likely to use for a while until he manages to impress me (good grades or some new belt color in Taekwando) into getting him something better. It's also a good way for him to get used with the concept of an MP3/gadget.
This model's several shortcomings would normally earn it a 2-star but the not-so-high price pulls it up into the 3-star territory. I view it as a 'disposable' gadget and, as such, it can be considered a 'good buy'.
To be fair, my little guy would give this 5 stars without hesitation. He is very happy with what he got and, if he's happy, I'm not unhappy either :).Buy Transcend T.sonic 840 2 GB Video MP3 Player (White)!
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