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- My rating: 0 stars
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Innovative product with some huge shortcomings"
Pros: Lets you take XM on the go
Cons: Will only play PREVIOUSLY RECORDED XM on the go, plus other problems
Summary: You have to get used to one big hurdle to like this product: NO, it does NOT receive live XM radio unless connected to the base at home. However this isn't as big a limitation as you would think at first. No matter how much you like XM Radio you no doubt won't like every song your favorite channel plays. (XM Radio itself has HUGE limitations, not the least of which is its practice of infuriating yakking over the beginning and end of most songs, just like 'old fashioned' FM which they claim is so inferior. I digress...).
The trick to success with this product is to get into the habit of setting up your device to record long stretches of XM broadcasts, then to use your PC and the XM/Napster software to get rid of the between-songs yakking and the songs you don't like. (You can also delete songs on the device itself but this gets cumbersome and getting the 'delete' option to appear on the device menu can sometimes be elusive without a restart of the device). As mentioned above, you'll still be left with your favorite songs partially ruined by XM DJs who won't shut up, but this is the ugly side of XM their ads don't tell you about.
Editing your recorded songs is accomplished via the provided software, 'XM + Napster Light.' If you need help, you're on your own as both Napster and Samsung customer service ranges from nonexistent to totally clueless (Napster tried to tell me the XM/Napster software will only manage content you bought from Napster... who would want this thing if that statement were true? It's not true).
One secret neither Napster nor Samsung will tell you is that if you have great difficulty getting your XM/Napster software to recognize and synch up with your Nexus 50, it's probably for two reasons: 1. You must turn on your Nexus and connect it to your PC BEFORE you fire up the Napster software. 2. This can be impossible to do unless you realize the Napster software is set to remain on (even when you think it's off) unless you either modify your program settins to prevent this, or you right click on the Napster tray icon in the lower right of your task bar to turn Napster off before a synch session.
As you can see, Napster can be as infuriating to use as XM, but the Nexus device itself is pretty nice.
One further issue... Nexus will only record XM content at 128 kbps (unless you can find a way to change this, which I haven't). However, you can transfer MP3 or WMA files that have been recorded at 256 kbpx to Nexus and enjoy much higher audio quality. This all means, sadly and oddly, that the content you put on Nexus from other devices will sound much better than the music the Nexus itself records.
All these limitations add up. You are tied to a base station to capture content. There are non-XM internet radio choices that don't have that awful XM-style yakking. You can record internet radio and manage the content with freeware on this site. All this begs the question, why bother with this product at all? I'm still mulling that one over.Updated
I'm in Europe and the charging cradle will not work with AC adapters. Your only option is to recharge it by connecting it to your computer. Another bummer for this product.Updated
Be careful not to confuse (as someone I know did) that the "50" in "Nexus 50" means 50 GB. Far from it. It means theoretically 50 hours of content. Remember, however, this assumes 128 kbps, which to me sounds lousy. I rip/record music at 256 mbps and you can definitely hear the difference. Theoretically the Nexus 50 allows up to 25 hours of non-XM content. If you want to put content on it that's recorded at 256 mbps, however, that 25 hours becomes LESS THAN FIVE. The more I look at this product, the more convinced I am that buying it was a big mistake.
Samsung Nexus 50:
