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Friday, September 09, 2011

croma mp4 player with touch screen - 16GB

As described in a recent blog post, I'd thought of buying an mp3 player ASAP! I usually do at least SOME research before buying anything. This time, I didn't have that privilege. Just had to go to the nearest electronic store & buy something!

First we saw was croma store, on Indiranagar 100 ft road. Went in, saw Apple iPods - iPod shuffle, iPod classic, etc. And few others - croma mp3/mp4 players, Sony ones, etc.

Considered iPod shuffle since it was tiny. But its capacity was also tiny - just 2GB?! I easily get bored listening to the same song more than twice same day. Needed something above 8GB, so that more songs can be stuffed in & repetitions are minimized.

I liked iPod classic, because its memory size was 160GB. Everything else had just 16GB, 2GB, 32GB, etc. However, it seemed very outdated and lacked several features offered by other players. Also seemed quite expensive.

A big turnoff about Apple players was the necessity of iTunes. So looked for other options. Only good ones were by Sony and croma's own. Sony ones didn't seem that great.

Finally, shortlisted to 2 models from croma itself. One was approx. Rs. 9000, the other Rs. 6000. Features weren't that different. Just the screen size. I'd wanted just a simple mp3 player. So went for the cheaper version, "croma mp4 player with touch screen - 16GB", model: CRER1049.

Overall experience so far...

Pros/Positives:
1. Plain & simple mp3 player
2. Also plays videos, can read *.txt files too, FM, view pics & can also be used as voice recorder
3. Has a g-sensor. Implies it'll re-align the videos/pics based on how you hold it. Also you can give it a jerk & it'll jump to the next/previous item on the playlist. You can disable this, for example when traveling on a bumpy ride, by setting a timer. It's not easy to find in the settings, need to hunt around a bit.
4. Has a microSD card slot, that can help expand by an additional 4GB.
5. Free earphones from croma, MRP Rs. 700

Cons/Negatives:
1. Not great battery life. Although the guy in shop mentioned it has 24hrs playback time, it doesn't even play half of that time! I'd be surprised if it even would last 8 hrs. Haven't tried, but I think it'd just barely make it. Also got to switch it off when not in use. Otherwise it'll drain out as if it's playing something!
2. Very small screen size of 7cm (2.8 inch) isn't that great for movies, viewing pics, etc. Lots of real estate wasted too, i.e., the screen could've been much larger. Feels like you're holding a small metal brick. I've seen people mistake it for a mobile sometimes!
3. Touch screen is TFT/LCD. Implies it doesn't respond that well to touch. Got to press hard, use fingernails, or try several times, make sure you're pressing the correct point on the tiny screen, etc. You'll get used to it after a while.
4. Earphones aren't that great.
    a) They have a metal finish, implying if you turn up the volume a bit too high, or connect to a laptop that leaks some current. You'll feel a tinge of shock in the parts of the ear where it touches - very uncomfortable feeling!
    b) Bass output is horrible. Even after setting the equalizer to Bass! Tested with headphones that don't have this issue, just to make sure it's not the player's problem.
5. Can't edit playlist at all, i.e., can't remove files, can't set any order, etc.
6. Videos:
    a) Get stretched to the resolution of the player's screen size, full size. So, you'd almost always see the videos stretched horizontally/vertically, since it's rare to get videos that'd match the resolution of the player's screen.
    b) Supports only upto 480p. Nothing beyond that. So forget about HD, i.e., 720p or 1080p. And even x264. And also limited support for formats. Maybe I'm asking a bit too much here, but I'd count it as a negative!
7. Some songs just don't play. They're fine when playing on laptop. Not sure whether it's an issue with the file itself or the player.
8. Text files:
    8.1 Some text files are truncated too. For example, a 300KB file can't just be 2 pages, when a 250KB file is a few hundreds of pages.
    8.2 Can't really change the font - can set to some predefined colors and a few minor inconsequential tweaks.
9. Non-standard port for charging/transfer, so got to use what's provided & carry the cable along when travelling. I was hoping it'd have a mini usb port so that I could use the same cable I use for my phone.
10. Absolutely no reviews or specs of this player online!
11. Just 4GB expandable memory?! You gotta be kidding me.


But then, I remembered the [V] Bai's quote: Itne paise mein itna ich milega!

For Rs. 6k, what do you expect anyway.

Overall, even with such a long list of negatives, it's a decent buy. However, this market still got to evolve. Hopefully it will. Someday.

P.S. Those who wish to write ugly comments, read this

1 comment:

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