Sandisk Sansa Shaker
The Shaker is a rather novel concept from Sansa, (and after their audiophile-grade Sansa E2xx series), both a disappointment and a delight. One look at it will delight, but after hearing it perform we were a little disappointed despite the fact that it’s supposed to be a fun music player and not a real music player!
The Shaker is dressed in funky wear—bright blue and white and looks like a salt dispenser, complete with the holes on top (loudspeaker). It features two 3.5 mm jacks. There are two white bands running around the top and bottom of the player. Both twist left and right—the top one controls the volume, the lower skips tracks. There’s a large, receded play/pause button built into the body. Build quality is top class, and a classy aluminium clasp allows it to be belted on.
Specifications
Capacity: 512 MB Flash memory, SD expandable slot; Music formats: AAC, MP3, WAV; Dual 3.5 mm audio jacks; Lanyard with aluminium ring
Contact : Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd
Phone : +91-22-67090909
E-mail : amitp@rptechindia.com
Web site : www.sandisk.com
Price : Rs 1,899
Computer Kitchen MP4 Watch 1 GB
Bonsai From The Orient
This watch is solidly constructed and encased in a rugged steel case, with very firm rubber straps. It’s just as comfortable to wear as any other watch, but due to its rather large size, you better have large wrists to carry it around in style.
This ultra small PMP (Personal Media Player) boasts of a capacity of 1 GB, which is not much, especially if you want to watch movies and videos. There are 2 and 4 GB versions that are better options in such cases. It shows up as a removable drive in XP and you can easily copy files to it using Windows Explorer.
Specifications
Capacity: 1 GB; Display: 1.5-inch 262K colour OLED; Audio: MP3, WMA; Video: NXV (converted using bundled software); FM Radio; Dimensions: 39 (W) x 12 (D) x 39 (H) mm; Weight: 66 gm
Contact : Compute Kitchen
Phone : 080—41131001
E-mail : info@computerkitchen.com
Web site : www.computerkitchen.com
Price : Rs 5,990
Cowon iAudio 7 4 GB
Miniscule Music Monster
Cowon’s always been preferred by music lovers on the go for one reason—sound quality. Their PMPs have always been regarded as works of art, and the iAudio 7 is true to the heritage. A piano black (smudge magnet!) finish, four beautifully backlit buttons on the front bezel and a host of attractive matte-chromed buttons on the right side add to the looks and retain total functionality. The tiny iAudio 7 feels solid in hand—build quality is exemplary.
A 1.3 inch, 18-bit colour (262 K) screen allows for 7 lines of text and looks crisp, but a video player this is not—in our opinion a video player needs to have a much larger screen. There are numerous little features—direct line-in recording from multiple sources like CD players, TVs etc, a clock with alarm and support for scheduled recordings, FM radio and lyrics display support.
Specifications
Output rating 52 mW (26x2), 3.5 mm jacks (in and out),
Contact : Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd
Phone : 022—28743457
Web site : iaudio@lipap.com
Price : Rs 10,000
Creative Zen
Now That’s What I Call... A Media Player
The Creative Zen media player looks cool with its glossy front finish and a shiny pixie-dust speckled black matte finish and scratch-resistant back. The glossy front does not collect too many fingerprints, contrary to what we’ve seen thus far. It is available in a variety of colours, so you can choose according to your taste.
It comes with 4 GB of Flash memory and is detected as a portable device that you can sync with using Windows Media Player or Winamp, or even transfer files using the Windows Explorer. It is also compatible with iTunes Plus Music and lets you download music and videos from subscription services. There is also an SD expansion slot for additional memory capacity.
Specifications
Capacity: 4 GB; Display: 2.5-inch 16.7M colour TFT; Audio: MP3, WMA, AUDIBLE 2,3,4, AAC (unprotected); Photo: JPEG, BMP, TIF, PNG, GIF; Video: WMV9, MP4, DivX (converted using bundled software); FM Radio; Dimensions: 53 (W) x 10 (D) x 81 (H) mm; Weight: 60 gm
Contact : IDLDPL
Phone : +91-11-46096400
E-mail : contactus@idldpl.com
Web site : www.creative.com
Price : Rs 9,999
YES YMP45
You’ve gotta touch this one!
Featuring a rather large 2.4-inch colour touch-screen with a neon-red border, the YES YMP45 is encased in a black plastic case. It comes with 2 GB of internal memory, expandable with a Micro SD card (sadly, not hot-swappable). The device connects to the PC via USB and gets recognised as a MTP device if you have Windows Media Player 10 or above and lets you easily arrange and synchronise media content. You can also drag and drop content to it from Windows Explorer.
With the stock headphones, the YMP45 does quite well in the mid range, a little below decent in the highs and a little disappointing in the lows—it sounds a lot better with better cans. The highest volume levels aren’t too high though. Despite mentioning that lyrics are supported, MP3s with embedded lyrics didn’t show any sign of the lyrics. There are only four preset equaliser settings, and you can’t customise them.
Specifications
Capacity: 2 GB; Micro SD; Display: 2.4-inch 262K colour TFT touch-screen; Audio: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AAC; Video: AVI, WMV; FM Radio with RDS; Dimensions: 76 (W) x 53 (D) x 13.3 (H) mm; Weight: 60 gm
Contact : Redington (India) Limited
Phone : +91-9380303950
E-mail : hemachandran.m@redington.co.in
Web site : http://ap.viewsonic.com/in
Price : Rs 70,000
Creative Zen Stone Plus 2GB
A Pebbleful Of Music!
With Apple launching a whole new range of iPods recently, including the iPod Touch, can Creative afford to be far behind? Not one to be caught shuffling around (pun intended), Creative has launched the Zen Stone Plus series.
With a player so tiny, we’d expected the Zen Stone to felt flimsy, but surprisingly it didn’t. There’s a small circular blue OLED screen—nothing special—and a Play button surrounded by a circular button that houses four controls—track shuffle and volume up / down. There’s a tiny button on the top of the player that has controls for the Menu and play / pause functions.
Available in 2 GB only, the Zen Stone features FM radio and supports up to 32 presets, inbuilt audio recording, and a stopwatch function—not bad for such a small device. Unlike iPods, there are no drivers required to connect it to your PC—just drag and drop, which is a huge relief.
Contact : IDLDPL
Phone : 011-46096400
E-mail : contactus@idldpl.com
Web site : http://in.creative.com
Price : Rs 4,399
Supercomp Music Station SES 668
May Not Be Music To Your Ears
The SES668 Music Station is essentially an iPod dock with killer looks. The dome-shaped design looks good and the use of silver highlight on a jet black body adds that extra style—something missing on most cheap docks.
On the top of the speaker sits the dock receptacle. The receptacle accepts multiple base connectors thus allowing the use of almost all generation of iPods, expect for the newer wider body Nano. The base connector is large enough to hold most iPods in place.
On the four corners of the squares, are the buttons for powering on and volume control, and one is a dummy button. The buttons are hard to press with distinct clicks, however one can keep them pressed to increase / decrease the volume. The volume control isn’t smooth and boosts in huge steps.
Specifications
USB charging, USB data transfer, Auxiliary input, mobile phone compatibility and CD/DVD player.
Contact : Supertron Electronics Ltd.
Phone : +91-22-23881397
E-mail : info@supertronindia.com
Web site : www.supertronindia.com
Price : Rs 1,350
SanDisk Sansa View
A Sleek Vision
The View is SanDisk’s attempt at a video oriented PMP and features a slightly larger screen than their mainstream E200 series. It’s also a slightly longer device, and gives up the metal back for a matt finished black rear that adds a touch of class to an already up-market looking device. The ribbed click wheel also goes in favour of a smooth finish with a smooth moving click wheel. The menu system remains the same, but we found exploration a little better, courtesy the new smooth action wheel. Expansion is via MicroSD now. Should for some reason 16 GB onboard be insufficient, and given the fact that 8 GB MicroSD cards are slowly making their way to the market space, is never going to be a constraint.
Specifications
16 GB Flash, MicroSD expandable, 2.4-inch LCD, FM radio, Voice recording, H.264 video playback
Contact : Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd
Phone : +91-22-67090909
E-mail : sandisk@rptechindia.com
Web site : www.rptechindia.com
Price : Rs 12,790
Samsung YP-S2 2 GB MP3 player
review
by Team Digit / Oct 01,2008 / Tags: MAIT,
41
A Pebble With Earphones
The all new Samsung YP-S2 is a 2 GB MP3 player that is possibly one of the smallest we’ve seen. The design resembles ice.
The player has a few buttons on the underside that are used to control the player. There is no display to indicate track number or any other information. The only indication is through a flashing light on the top of the player.
Most of the confusion that new users will find will be due of the lack of a display. Modes are changed by holding down certain buttons, and the display light changes accordingly. Users will need to first look closely through the PDF manual to understand all of these controls.
The music quality through the supplied earplugs is alright, and there is nothing unexpected from it when played using other earphones. Even though this is such a tiny player, it can easily drive full-sized headphones just fine.
Contact
Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd.
Phone: 011-41511234
E-mail: jitender.c@samsung.com
Web site: www.samsung.com/in
Price: Rs 2,750
