Verizon Wireless
CNET editors' review
- CNET editors' rating: stars Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 11/01/2001
- Updated on: 02/11/2003
The rating and/or Editors' Choice designation for this product has been altered since the review's original publication. The reason for this is simply the general improvement of technology over time. In order to keep our ratings fair and accurate, we sometimes need to downgrade the ratings of older products relative to those of newer products.
Bantam Interactive may not be a big name in portable music, but its Explor BA350 is going to put the company on the map. Combining a compact design with nice cosmetics, 128MB of built-in memory, good performance, and strong battery life, this digital music player has all the makings of a winner.Updated 7/22/02
 Editors' note:
The rating and/or Editors' Choice designation for this product has been altered since the review's original publication. The reason for this is
simply the general improvement of technology over time. In order to keep our ratings fair and accurate, it's sometimes necessary to downgrade the ratings of older products relative to those of newer products. |
Bantam Interactive may not be a big name in portable music, but its Explor BA350 is going to put the company on the map. Combining a compact design with nice cosmetics, 128MB of built-in memory, good performance, and strong battery life, this digital music player has all the makings of a winner.
As noted, the BA350 is fairly slick-looking. Probably the most impressive aspect of its design is that it's nice and thin and isn't too much bigger than a Zippo cigarette lighter. Graphite plastic covers most of the unit's surface, but you can swap the removable panel on the middle of the front with any of the seven included faceplates (blue, magenta, lime, peach, white, aqua, or orange). We found it easy to navigate the menus using a four-directional toggle button, which is very solid to the touch, unlike the buttons on some other players. The display could be bigger, but it shows you everything you need to know and is easy to use, thanks to an intuitive menu structure. Five equalization settings round out the equation.
Solid software, easy installation
On another positive note, we had no problem installing the companion BitExplor software. The instructions are easy to follow, but if you need extra guidance, just turn the unit on and press the play button to hear an audio walkthrough. BitExplor ran smoothly and has a unique three-paned interface: two windows that each toggle between Explorer (browsing for MP3s), Find (searching for MP3s), and Playlist (drag-and-drop playlist creation), and one window on the right that shows the songs on the player.
To transfer songs with BitExplor, just drag and drop files from the left two panes onto the right pane. Once you have your 128MB of MP3s lined up, hit the Synchronize button. If you really want to pack a ton of songs onto the unit, a check box gives you the option of transcoding your MP3s to WMA files at a lower bit rate, but such a conversion slows down file transfers and degrades sound. We preferred leaving the files as MP3s--after all, 128MB is a lot of space for a . In addition, you can add more memory via an expansion slot that accepts MultiMedia Cards. Our only gripe with the software is that when we selected a directory with a massive number of MP3s in it, BitExplor took way too long to list all of the songs. If you buy this player, organize your MP3s into small folders to avoid this problem. Continue reading
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