RCA H116 (6GB)

Reviewed by

James Kim

on 06/30/2006

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Page 2

The screen itself doesn't support photos or album art, but it's easy to read the white text against the black background, and it gets the job done. The main menu is simple, with options for music, audiobooks, and My Selections. Music selections are broken down by artists, albums, titles, and genres, and menu items don't speed up as you go, as with the iPod Click Wheel. The menu button takes you to one of three screens: Now Playing, wherever you left off while browsing, and the settings page. Settings include shuffle, repeat, DSP, and profile, as well as another screen where you can customize the menu options, adjust contrast and brightness, and set the player to MTP or UMS. Clicking and holding the play button during playback will add a song to the My Selections playlist, though you can't do the same for albums. The same action allows you to skip chapters within an audiobook.

One minor annoyance about the player is when you activate the volume via the scrollwheel, you'll have to press a button within a couple of seconds to get rid of the volume meter; you'll find yourself hitting buttons twice to get the desired results--or maybe we're just impatient. We've also noticed a consistent one- or two-second pause between or when selecting tracks. Blame that on the hard drive, which makes this player more susceptible to damage than a flash player such as the Creative Zen V Plus.

Audio quality is decent. The same tracks on our Samsung YP-Z5 were slightly crisper and punchier. On our Sony MDR-7506 phones, though, we could barely reach our preferred high volume of listening. The DSP settings include a very heavy Bass, as well as Pop, Rock, Jazz, Flat, and the five-band customizable Graphic. While the players are rated for a reasonable 16 hours of battery life, CNET Labs was able to muster only about 12.5 hours per charge in battery drain tests. Expect that figure to drop a little if you're playing subscription tracks. One note about recharging: You must use USB as there is no AC adapter included. In MTP mode, the player was easily recognized by Windows Media Player 11, and our MTV Urge subscription transfers over USB 2.0 were quick and painless.

Without subscription capabilities, the RCA H100 series is a blast from the past. It's easy to use and is priced for those who don't care about bells and whistles. But for those who are active and in the market for a flash-based player, we recommend the 6GB SanDisk Sansa e270. Though it costs twice as much as the RCA, its multitude of features is worth the price.