I decided to buy an MP3 player for my solo trips, particularly for the winter months with long dark evenings. I wouldn’t normally review items not directly related to walking or backpacking, but I feel it’s a public duty in this case: I’ve added a short review of the iRiver T60 to the Gear & Tech / Equipment subsection of the main site.
This was my first player and I was faced with a bewildering choice, made all the more difficult by a near total lack of experience with portable electronics. I wanted a Flash-memory based player that supported drag-and-drop of music files via USB without additional software, and which had radio reception. That narrowed down the list of contenders and I chose the T60 because of its (claimed) long battery life on a normal AAA.
The whole exercise was a disaster. I bought it online, which turned out to be a grave mistake because I couldn’t try it for myself first. To rub salt into the wound, the shop had an excellent policy whereby I could return it within 10 days if not completely satisfied, but I got sidetracked and didn’t test it for a fortnight so I missed the deadline.
The damned thing has the worst man-machine interface I’ve ever seen and is useless to me for backpacking. One gets older and wiser I suppose, but often poorer in the process.
6 Comments
This may not be a useful comment given that a) you’ve already bought; and b) I’m far from being a technologically adept person - but: I bought a Creative Muvo N200 a few years ago. They now call the same device the Creative Zen Nano (Husband has that model).
It weighs just over 30g with AAA battery but without earphones. I only ever drag and drop using Windows Explorer and that works just fine (and yes, the USB cover comes off easily with just a fingernail). The controls on the device are easy enough that I can use them one-handed whilst running or in a dark sleeping bag without problem. It has a built in radio, but I’ve only used the radio once and can’t remember whether it was any good (it was one of those features that I thought I wanted but haven’t actually used).
The single AAA battery life was claimed to be 16 hours and although I’ve not timed it I’d say that I’m getting something approaching that. During a recent outing, when it was down to one bar (out of three) of battery, I accidentally left it on for 5 hours of the night and it was still going. From my own point of view it’s spot on.
If you can use the controls one-handed, that sounds more like it. Reading some reviews, the Zen Nano appears to be an obsolete model now, although you can still get them at Amazon.
On the newer Creative Zen Stone players which have apparently replaced them, the control on the face looks awfully similar to that nightmarish iRiver joystick!.
I went for the Sandisk e140 last year (MP3/FM radio + SD card slot) and a right little belter its turned out to be. 3rd player I’ve had and by far the best so far.
So if your after a product range recommendation I;d check that one out
I was looking at the Sandisk range the other day, some of them look promising. I might have to get one with a bigger screen than the T60 so I can read the text, which probably means video capability that I don’t need and higher weight. Anyway the choice will be made in a shop!.
I had an iRiver mp3 player and managed to lose it in the vacinity of Kinbreak bothy last year. However. I never really liked it. The sound quality was dodgy in my opinion. Anyway, I now have a Creative Nano N200 thingy which is great. I use this whilst running and walking and it’s always been good (so far!).
Great website by the way.
Dave,
Thanks very much.
So, another vote for the Creative N200 series: these will definitely be on the shortlist to try then. I’ll probably pop up to Manchester in the new year and see if I can find one.