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CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 12/19/2003
- Released on: 04/01/2003
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 The IA's in-line remote holds a nice rubber joystick, and the clip-on earphones are more comfortable than they look. |
The IA features a large 134x64-pixel screen backlit in neon blue. The display shares the player's face with a navigation jog dial, which we found simple, intuitive, and convenient. When the IA is in its case, the front-panel controls are inaccessible, so Frontier duplicated them (minus the screen) on the included in-line remote, an accessory lacking in almost every other flash model out there. Since everything on the remote is smaller, using it was trickier. We occasionally stopped playback by mistake, and the buttons' up and down responses were confusingly reversed in some cases.
You also get earclip-style headphones, which stay firmly in place but may not be to everyone's liking. Fortunately, you can replace them with another pair and still use the remote, thanks to its headphone pass-through connection.
When you connect the IA to your PC via the included USB 1.1 cable, the player appears as a remote storage device. To load your collection, you simply create folders and subfolders on the IA, then drag and drop tracks into them; each can contain up to 70 songs. You can also use the Windows Media Player plug-in or J. River Media Jukebox, both of which are on the bundled CD-ROM. Among the supported formats are MP3 and WMA, but the IA won't accept secure files purchased from online music services.
Like its predecessor, the IA offers a five-band equalizer with five presets and one user-definable setting. There are several playback options, including the ability to repeat one song or all your stored music. You also get a shuffle mode, but you can't limit it to just the tracks in a specific folder, which would have been a nice touch.
The IA's most distinguishing element is its memory slot. The player doesn't have any internal memory; instead, it accepts CompactFlash I or II and Microdrive cards, which are available in capacities of up to 1GB. There's a different IA version for every amount and type of storage space. If you already have extra CompactFlash media (say, from a digital camera), the model that comes with no memory could be a real bargain.
The audio quality of the IA's included clip-on headphones was all right, but we'd recommend swapping them for something better. Once we'd plugged in our replacement, the Sony MDR-7506, playback improved dramatically. At the maximum volume, the sound was quite loud but not distorted, with an excellent signal-to-noise ratio of 95dB.
We were able to move songs to the IA over the included USB 1.1 cable at approximately 0.4MB per second, the speed listed by Frontier Labs. You can fill the CompactFlash card more quickly with a standalone USB 2.0 CompactFlash/Microdrive reader/writer.
The player encodes all voice and radio recordings at a fixed rate of 64Kbps, which works quite well for memos, but don't expect to get high-quality bootlegs of your favorite shows. As for the FM tuner, it's tediously sensitive to position; reception varied greatly while we were just walking around. Choosing tuner presets is also inconvenient. Instead of accessing one directly, you have to cycle through all 20. Recording radio programs and songs as MP3 files is relatively easy, and you can upload them to your computer.
The IA can run on two alkaline or rechargeable AAs, whose CompactFlash and Microdrive life spans are about 13 and 7 hours, respectively; the difference is due to the Microdrive media's moving parts. There is a status indicator but no low-battery warning--the player just shuts off. Also, you'll need your own external charger. Another power option is USB, which will keep file transfers from wearing out your AAs. The IA comes with an AC adapter, too.
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