However, the overall product package is quite weak. For one thing, the device is alarmingly expensive, with a suggested retail price of $164.95. This is roughly $15 more than Apple's superlightweight 1GB iPod Shuffle, which offers consumers eight times more storage capacity and a similar feature set--a much better deal if you don't mind headphone wires. In addition, the JVC's quirky Voice Guidance navigation system is bizarre and awkward. Although JVC had the right idea doing away with an LCD in favor of an audible listing of menu and navigation items (in three languages and using a soothing female voice that says, for example, "Menu"), even the most knowledgeable users can get trapped between the various settings of the Voice Guidance system, assuming they can actually find the correct button among the array of tiny knobs on the right earphone. The controls here include forward and reverse keys, volume controls, and the mode button. Once you acclimate to the navigation system, you should be able to create and save up to three playlists without having to look at an LCD--a fine trick.
The device sucks its battery life from the computer during its slow and antiquated USB 1.1 file transfers of 0.6MB per second. The JVC XA-A50CL is a universal mass-storage device, so file transfer is a drag-and-drop process--though you must use Windows Media Player for purchased DRM-protected WMA files. Transfers won't take too long, however, because the puny, 128MB built-in flash can hold, at most, 30 MP3s at a bit rate of 128Kbps.
