Coby: The Starting Point of All New Products
Written: Jul 27 '04
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Pros: Cheap, Backlight, WMA, HOLD, Voice Recorder, Expandable, Lightweight, Power Save
Cons: Cheap, Average Resistance, Plain design, low volume, crappy headphones, USB 1.0, menu, no bass
The Bottom Line: Great first mp3 player. Can add a nice bit of CD collection, and features like hold, backlight and voice recorder. Buy it first to test the mp3 craze.
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| chrisbilal's Full Review: Coby MPC440 (128 MB) MP3 Player |
In need of trying something new and tired of carrying a bulky 6 pound cd player around and a small collection of cd's. I began to look for other alternatives that were going to be less of a hassle to me. It me sound like I have just been introduced to the world of technology, but I am already a member, I just neglected it. The Ipod, the Iriver, the Nitrus, Zen, and Archos with there gigs of memory seemed like a stretch, especially when I can buy a computer for the same price, so I opted for something else, a flash model with expandable memory.
I bought the Coby after shopping for CD's at the local Sam Goody. It had 128 flash memory (though memory varies slightly, its usually like 121), had a voice recorder, and a backlight and was extra small with included headphones and USB (1.0). That would be enough for me.
I purchased it and immediately downloaded Windows Media 9. The player is supposed to hold 30 mp3 and 60 wma's with the onboard 128 megs. If you add memory in 128 increments than it doubles. So I opted for WMA's over MP3's naturally because I am not an audiophile (meaning wma's sound equal to or better than mp3's but consume less disk space). So if you do the math, this player can be expanded to 640 megs of memory for about an extra 175 dollars meaning that the player can hold about 300 (wma) songs.
Player capacity varies greatly because it all depends on how long the song is. My wma's are usually about 3-4 mins long and are about 2 mb each. I have some songs that are like club mixes that are like 1 min and are only kilobytes. As supposed to an mp3 which is about 4 to 5mb on average. I download mp3's and then convert them to wma's and copy them from 128 kbps to 64 kbps cutting the size and supposedly the sound quality in half, but I cannot tell the difference. For newbies who don’t download, you can just copy your CD's to your hard drive and then copy them to the player which I usually do. Lets get to the specs of the product.
SIZE
The player is really small and tiny and you can forget that you have it if you don't have the huge and cumbersome headphones that they include with it. You can stick it in your shirt pocket or in your pants pocket and live life normally.
HEADPHONES:
The headphones are the typical around the ear 2 pounders that are very uncomfortable and compared with the maximum sound level of the unit, don’t offer much sound quality. I upgraded the phones to a more comfortable, noise canceling Jensen set (US$50) that did the low maximum sound quality level some justice.
SOUND:
Sound depends on the bit rate of the song i.e. 64-96 kbps (WMA) or 128-256 kbps (MP3), the headphones, equalizer settings, and environment. With all the settings I just mentioned at best, the player's sound is not that great. Its average but could be much much better. I suggest noise canceling headphones with separate volume controls or earphones with volume controls. The equalizer allows you to choose from Jazz, Rock, and Classic. Classic is the best and loudest, and that’s what I recommend. Crank the volume for best experience. Note: I noticed that when you turn the player on there is a graphic space that says x-bass, but it also says fm, and this model doesn't have a radio, so I guess the other model has the bass and plays AAC format music (like the IPOD).
VERSATILITY:
Unfortunately after a couple of drops, the case has been scratched. Also has light plastic casing, which can either be a good thing or bad thing.
DESIGN:
A plain gray/silver design that is not an attention getter like an IPOD, I usually end up defending the player saying that is not a radio, its an MP3. Id love to paint it or decal it or something.
FEATURES:
The backlight and voice recorder are a plus and I love the HOLD function that most mp3 players don’t have.
-The backlight is kind of week though because it only has two bulbs on the left and right so it isn’t that bright but its manageable.
-The hold button is really great for jogging and walking. I have never once inadvertently skipped a song.
VOICE RECORDER:
The packaging boasts 8 hours but with expandable memory that might be 40. It's great it picks up the most faint sounds and records a big area of space. I use it for voice memos and send some of them as emails that co-workers play on their computers as instructions with Windows Media 9.
SOFTWARE:
I haven’t figured out what the software is for. When you connect it to the USB it recognizes it a disk drive and you can just drop and drag the music or copy it into the drive. I just use Windows Media Player 9; use the copy music from cd function. Add that music to the Library, use the copy music to device function and select the F drive the I drive is the expandable memory i.e. your extra sd card. And then the music goes on the player. It usually takes about a minute per song after I switch the bit rate or 30 seconds if I keep the bit rate the same. If you download music online just go to the Library, click add, click add file select the music file and then copy it to device. The only gripe is that the device is plug and play so you might have to restart the computer for the Media Player to recognize the player’s drives. Meaning if you want to download, have it connected and turned on when you turn the computer on. I fixed that problem though by, locking the computer and then unlocking it, and then it recognizes it. So don’t worry about the CD. Windows Media Player will do the trick.
DELETING:
You can delete files right from the player which is cool.
INTERFACE:
The only thing I don’t like about the player is its confusing memory which I dare not go into detail into except that it has repeat, shuffle, backlight, a power saving timer (cool) erase menu, voice menu, and about menu.
ABOUT MENU
I don’t like the about menu because it doesn’t tell you how much memory you have left only how much memory on board which is kind of dumb.
DISPLAY
Two line display.
Top line- track number, artist, song, and album.
Bottom line- elapsed time/track time
I wonder if you can do lyrics.
BATTERY:
About 8 hours on 1 AA.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
You call a number, you get someone (there is no menu or background music COOL), which I guess is like four fresh from college guys and a girl that have the player. Pretty cool though I have heard they are kind of slow and sometimes don’t know what they are talking about.
All in all its a great starter player but you are going to have to upgrade with even a bigger player in the gigabyte range that plays more than music and more formats or a mini disc player which seems like it holds what this player holds on one disc.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 80
Recommended for: Athletes - Lightweight and Portable, Perfect for the Gym
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Epinions.com ID:
chrisbilal
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Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 0 members
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