My in-laws were kind enough to pick one of these up for me for my recent birthday. I hemmed and hawed for awhile about whether I wanted this particular model or if I wanted an iPod Shuffle, but after looking at how I was going to use it, and the things I might want to with the player, I think this was the correct choice.



As you can see from the product page, the player comes in a variety of capacities and colors. I went with the 512MB, in simple black. 512MB isn't the storage you get with a full-blown 20 or 40GB iPod, but it also isn't the price either. Again, for what I want an MP3 player to do, this capacity will be more than enough. The other things that attracted me were the voice recorder, FM reception, and WMA support.

Now, the thing to keep in mind, as I said, is to evaluate what you're going to do with any piece of technology before you make a purchasing decision. If you love iTunes, and want an MP3 player to be compatible with your iTunes-purchased music, you DO NOT want to pick up a Muvo. It doesn't work with iTunes. In comparison, if you're loving Yahoo music or Walmart's music downloads that are in WMA format, an iPod isn't going to help you out much. It doesn't work with WMA music downloads.

Now what I was looking for in an MP3 player, was the ability to play MP3's, mostly music I've ripped from my own CD's, podcasts that are also mostly in MP3 format, and if I get into buying on-line music, I'm 98% sure I will be using Yahoo instead of iTunes. I don't have a very long commute to work, so mostly I'd be using it when I'm traveling, walking, or maybe if I get off my lazy ass and get my bike fixed, biking. I might also use it to make quick little MP3 recordings for my own use, or to share something to a blog.

The Muvo Micro N200 allows me to do all of this, and more. It even allows me to rip music straight from a CD player to the Muvo. (Although in my own tests, the track recognition they brag about on the site wasn't exactly solid.) It's small enough that I can listen to music or podcasts without having any sort of bulky player attached to me as you can see from the picture. It uses AAA batteries, which means I can find a battery for it anywhere even when my AAA rechargeable batteries aren't available to me. It plugs into any USB port and shows up as another drive on my computer that I can drop files into without any additional software, although the install CD comes with media management software. (The install also adds AOL icons to your desktop and Favorites, which is one thing that really annoys me!)

The player even comes with one AAA battery, headphones, as well as a line-in and USB cords included, which I was pleasantly surprised to see. I did go out and pick up some rechargeable AAA batteries, because I've found that using rechargeable batteries for my digital cameras saves a whole lot of time and money buying new batteries all the time, but other than that, it worked right out of the box. Battery life isn't half-bad either, at least in the limited amount of time I'm playing music, long hours spent listening to music might tell a different story. The FM receiver allows you to set preset stations, or perform a scan and it will set presets for you from existing stations that it finds.

All in all, it doesn't have the "bling" factor that a full-blown iPod does, but for the price, this is a nice, feature-packed gadget and a great way to check out the latest BAP podcast while you're at the gym.



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Posted by Mike McBride on Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 2:54 PM | Permalink