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- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 6 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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3.0 stars
"Mixed feelings means I'll keep looking for the right player..."
Pros: Video playback is nice, size and weight, 'cool' looking, loads of features and bluetooth, second stereo out for two listeners... it does everything
Cons: Poor interface, feels a bit cheap in the hands, imprecise buttons, skippy sound quality, slowdowns when perusing file list... once again, it has everything :(
Summary: Bought this the other day after checking out the features and playing with it a bit in store (BestBuy canada, $169.00 + tax). It seemed to be quite the deal, with 4M memory, ability to hold audiobooks, a ton of songs, DVD movies, line-in support for recording whatever you want, FM radio, photos, etc etc etc. Playing with it in the store and seeing the video quality had me sold. But then I dropped the cash and actually used it. The experience changed quite a bit.
Now, I haven't had this too long, so I cant give you a full review, but I require two main things in a portable music player - good qualty sound, and a fantastic interface that is easy to navigate. Everything else is fluff in my opinion, so a player shoudl be nice and easy to use and give you good aural feedback that you shouldn't even have to think about. Unfortunately, these are the Insignia's two weakest points.
First, the interface. Navigating the menus is a tad frustrating as there are no transition effects on the menu. You are presented with a nicely laid out screen with a focal point highlighting your selected menu choice. Spread out radially from that point are the other possible menu options. Looks great, until you try and use it. Navigating with the wheel through the menu just doesn't make sense with a person's brain, as the menu 'rotates' in the opposite direction from where you would think. I actually have to think about where I want to go, and then pause and think about which way to move the selector wheel to get to that choice. The menu is all too entirely eager to appease and will zip through the choices as fast as you can spin the wheel. This would be great if there were some transition effects, but all that really happens is your focal point bips and flashes up with the next choice in line, with you having no clue whether it just rotated left or right (mainly due to the similarity in size and colour of the icons themselves). Frustrating, but a minor quibble, as once you are where you want to go, click and you will drill down a level. Actually, in this process you do have the option of clicking directionally left or right to select a menu option, but unfortunately this is a tad marred as well. The selector wheel has tactile 'clicks' to let you know where you are in the selection. Unfortunately there is a bit of play in the wheel, enough to allow the wheel to rotate if you press a selector button (ie. left or right) while applying a smidge of lateral force. This will result in the wheel selecting the next menu choice and then acknowledging your button press, so you will skip two steps rather than one. Finally, you get to where you want to go, and you press the enter key to drill down, and that rogue fiddly wheel slaps you in the face with the same problem, 4 times out of ten zipping to the next menu choice and then selecting it. Quite frustrating. Definitely something you can work with and become accustomed to, but I despise imprecision especially with the myriad of other options out there that seem to do this much better. This is a shame.
Once within the music list then, the supposed core of the player, there are a couple things I dont quite like about the player. First, if you load the player up with music (which should be around 1000 songs - mine is at 967 considering the sample content that was already on the player) scrolling through this list is laborious. I do quite enjoy Apple's smart scroll where it detects you scrolling through the list with speed (say, to access ZZ-Top when you are starting at Abba) and will halt the screen refresh and let you select an alphabet letter. The Insignia forces you to view each song as it scrolls through the screen, and only at a set pace. This is troubling if you happen to like any music beginning with 'M' as that is at the middle of the list and equally laborious whether you scroll up or down. So, there you are spinning your selector wheel, waiting patiently as tracks zip by on the screen at a moderate pace. You see your song go by and halt the selector wheel and try to 'rewind' the list back to get your favourite band or song. But what's this? Hmm. Seems that if you spin the selector wheel faster than the screen can refresh, the Insignia will remember the number of spins that you 'overspun' and insist on carrying out your commands. My first time through this resulted in going through the playlist a full two times after I had stopped asking it to scroll through my playlist. Intolerable. This does mean that you have to spin through your songs at the pace of the player, meaning that you are limiting yourself in essence, and only really highlighting the problem as you scroll through. It gets annoying FAST.
Also note that there is no search feature, and it seems hopeless.
If this wasn't bad enough, my player slows down to a chunky 1/4 speed of normal when accessing the last 150 files in the playlist. I don't know why, and I'd like to think its a bug, but its just another reason to not bother. MP3 players holding large amounts of songs should be able to efficiently browse those available, and not give headaches within minutes of use.
So, my other major gripe is with the sound quality. Sound is crisp enough to be decent, most likely inhibited by the lackluster earbuds included with the player, but its hard to ignore the random pops and misses of the player itself. I thought I had just put bad files onto the player and doublechecked my music selection on my PC, where it turns out everything was fine. Even in just regular play, the Insignia will sporadically start hiccupping and omitting 1/4 second pieces of song from whatever track you are listening to. Again, intolerable, and unexplainable as to why.
Other features of this player I'll have to leave to others. I have no real desire to explore them, as other MP3 players on the market offer much better in both of these key areas.
I give this a 6/10 for the fact that it does pack an impressive list of features, has an excellent video screen, is small and light, and does a reasonable job of playing music and holding a lot of files all for a low price. If you want some of everything and you don't have the highest standards, you can't beat this 4G player for $169.00CDN. But if you have any remote audiophilic blood coursing through your body, you'll be wanting more, and the interface is just not good enough to warrant sticking with. Insignia is great on paper, but unfortunately falls short in the areas that matter. There are better options.
- 1 reply to this review
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You didn't mention the bluetooth, and for $169 CDN, I think that's the non bluetooth version. The bluetooth version seems to have vanished into thin air -- not available. Was it a hoax?
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