Kingston K-PEX Portable Media Player (2GB)

Summary: Full Review, though I leave out the minor details. Read CNET's review first, if you havent. Then read mine. Mine has some things that CNET either did not find faulty or did not notice.

I got a 2gb one for 139.95, before the prices went up. Even though it went up, this mp3 player is still good for the price. By the way, I can't say this is a good job for kingston, considering that it wasn't the original company that made it. The original company that made this mp3 player is a Korean company called Cenix. But that is not a big issue. Kingston is the American version.

Ok, first off, the design. The player is designed like a portable game player. It is only a little bigger than the Nano, but definitely thicker. It kind of resembles the Game Boy Micro in some ways. The buttons are placed far enough from each other so those with bigger fingers don't have to worry about pressing another button by accident. The 2-inch screen displays everything clearly. On top are the headphone and line-in jacks, and the mode/repeat/record buttons. On the bottom are the hold and volume rocker buttons. The bottom volume buttons are not really necessary, since the up/down arrow keys can be used to adjust the volume instead. But when you're in the menu or playing a game and want to decrease/increase the volume, the volume rocker is there for you to make the adjustments. The material used to build this is not the best, really. The black part of it and the screen is extremely vulnerable to fingerprints, and this player did not come with a screen protector. Using the rubber case is suggested, though it does make the player look considerably bigger. Now, the problem I find to be very annoying is the fact that the headphone jack is on the top-left side of the mp3 player while the neckstrap hole is on the bottom right side of it. Because of that, when I used the neckstrap, while walking, the mp3 player tends to turn, causing the headphone wire to wrap around the neckstrap sometimes and create a small wire "mess". Honestly, I can live with this, but it's just annoying. Also, the neckstrap is not the typical kind where you can unhook by pressing the two side buttons or something. Instead, you have to unsrew it which really takes time to do. However, it is safer that way-a person cannot come up to you and try to snatch the K-PEX off and run away with it-its screwed on, not just attached. The built-in speaker on the back is a nice small touch. It is loud enough in most situations, and produces great quality.

The user interface is pretty decent. In the menu, you can scroll through the different functions you want, and some of them have option settings right underneath. It is not really that hard to figure out how to use this thing. But the more advanced controls are hidden, so i highly suggest reading the manual-it explains EVERYTHING. For example, only after reading the manual will you find out how to set your own wallpaper as the background. Speaking of which, beware-although the color of the song and title text can be changed, the time on the top left corner of the screen cannot. Therefore, make sure you pick wallpapers that are bright on top, unless you do not need to see the clock. Most people have watches, so its not a major problem. This is my biggest problem with the K-PEX of all-IT CANT CHARGE ON A REGULAR HOME ADAPTOR. You must charge the mp3 player with a computer. That is pretty bad when you go on a vacation and watch movies along the way without a way to charge it(for those who are laptop-less) and use it either during the vacation or on the way back from vacation.

Now, the K-PEX, despite its (somewhat) small size, carries a bundle. It can do almost everything you can imagine-it can play music, video, games, FM radio, view images and text files, and voice record or record from another source. It can't record video and FM radio. You can also use the USB-host feature to add pictures from your digital camera or pictures, text, and music from your non-passworded USB flash drive. For the video, you must convert your video file into kingston's own video extension. It is a little work, but it is actually good. Converting the file makes the resolution smaller, making the file itself a smaller size. In other words, the conversion process helps you save on memory space. The 2 included games are not graphically impressive, but they're still actually very addicting (at least i find them to be, especially the Armor game). A minor note-when changing the volume in a game, the volume goes up and down in increments of 5, not 1.

Performance-the K-PEX ran smoothly most of the time. Startup time takes too long when compared to that of other mp3 players. I got around 25 seconds. The menu lags a little, though it is not all too noticeable. If you try scrolling through the menu very quickly, it may not pick it up and go that fast. The volume is not all too loud-I use around 25-31 on the average with headphones and around 35 for speaker out of 40. They should make the volume louder. Like CNET said, there is an audible pop when you jump into the song/file list while listening to music, but I didnt notice the other bug. It hasn't happened to me yet, at least. I do recommend a firmware upgrade. It is on Kingston's website. It fixes a constant freezing problem. Before i upgraded, it froze on me a few times. After the upgrade, it was fine. It hasnt frozen on me since.

The pictures were very clear and sharp. However, if the pictures are REALLY big, like, lets say, wallpaper size, like(but not limited to) 1600x1200, a few of the images may come out to be too sharp, so i recommend reducing the size down with a program. Try it out first-put the regular size ones in, and see which ones need resizing. The video quality was better than i expected. Watching movies on that 2-inch screen was not as tiring and eye-straining as i thought it would be. In fact, i was actually able to see the subtitles in the movies without straining! By the way, video may take a little time to load before playing, especially if its a big file (like a movie, lets say), so dont start thinking that it froze on you.

Last, but not least, the sound quality is excellent. The different equalizer presets sound good with their respective song genres. The custom equalizer was hard to manage at first, considering the "tuning" is more precise than that of the average mp3 player (which is a good thing!). I eventually managed it, and the sound quality now is even better. The headphones it came with is surprisingly decent too. Like CNET, i got around 15 hours on a single charge for continuous mp3 playback.

Overall, the K-PEX is definitely worth getting when you want an all-in-one mp3 player with good features, excellent sound quality, and a good price.