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Entered CNET Catalog: 02/05/2004
SKU: 122-101-001
Manufacturer: Meritline.com
Manufacturer description
Meritline is the major provider of quality media, hardware and electronic products. Meritline continues to grow and improve in every possible way and will do so for many years to come. The result is reflected in the prices and quality of Meritline products. PRODUCT FEATURES: Contains all the LCD watch functions; With elastic 5 pin mini USB port; With high-speed 2.5Mbt/s USB port, down load/up load available; Multifunction play/re-play, with MP3, WMA, ADPCM format; Multiple EQ adjust/repeat/re-play; Digital recording for 8/16 hours; With mobile storage flash memory; Soft weave up-grade available; Build-in re-chargeable Ni-MH battery; Chargeable from AC transformer; With stand shock, moisture and extreme temp.Product summary
The good: Plays MP3 and WAV audio files; makes voice recordings; functions as a watch.
The bad: Nerdy-looking; expensive; does not support USB 2.0.
The bottom line: Meritline's Musix bundles together a handful of functions in one device and does none of them particularly well.
Editors' review
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 04/02/2004
The watch is quite large--a hefty 0.75 inches thick, with a face nearly 2 inches in diameter. The adjustable band can fit a large wrist or a small one. The Musix has a high-tech, somewhat nerdy look. Made of black plastic, it has a silver-colored faceplate with an LCD big enough to display scrolling song names. There's a mini-USB port on one side of the watch and a tiny microphone on the other. The Musix has four buttons: one to switch between time and music modes, one to play and pause music, one to control the volume, and one to advance tracks. The interface is not particularly intuitive--it's hard to tell what mode you're in. The watch comes with a decent user manual, a driver-installation disc, a battery charger that plugs into the mini-USB port, a mini-USB interface cable, and a pair of no–frills, earbud-style headphones that plug into the mini-USB port.
The Musix is powered by a rechargeable battery that takes three hours to charge for about five hours of continuous use. (The initial charge takes about six hours.) You'll have to install the driver software before you can transfer files to the watch. The LCD shows a "ready" message when the Musix is connected to the computer and "send" when the PC writes files to the watch. We transferred files back and forth to the Musix without a hitch. Both MP3 and WMA files played seamlessly and with decent sound quality. At this time, the Musix is available with only a USB 1.1 connection, but Meritline plans to release a USB 2.0 version in the spring.
The Musix has a 128MB storage capacity and costs about $140--a price more in line with dedicated flash-based MP3 players.
Return to CNET's USB flash drive roundup.
