 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Computer Specials |
X-Micro EVA MP3 Player (256mb) (cont.)Interface: The EVA turns on by holding the Play/Pause button for ~3 seconds. Once on, the mp3 player will go to the music screen with the first song on the on the player queued up. The music screen has three lines. The top line displays the elapsed playing time followed by the status symbol (play, pause, or stop) and the file format. The second line displays the number of the song out of the total number of songs on the player. The third line displays the name of the song or if no ID3 information is present, the file name, scrolling when needed.
One blemish I noticed in the EVA's design is the volume button orientation. The volume buttons below the screen have the + on the left and – on the right. When you change the volume, a full screen volume graph appears but the screen shows the volume level increase from left to right. This takes a while to get use to, if ever.
The jog dial above the screen is used to move through the songs stored in the player as well as fast forward and rewind. Depressing the jog dial brings up the mode menu in which there are 6 items displayed on screen two at a time. These items are: Music, Voice, Settings, Delete, Memory Info, and Record. Music is the main music playing mode. Settings is where the various settings of the EVA can be adjusted.
Selecting the Record mode will put the EVA in voice recording mode. All recordings are saved as .wav files. The only recording option, which is found in Settings, is adjusting the sampling frequency (from 8000 to 48000Hz). Selecting the Voice mode will bring up a play mode featuring only the recorded .wav files. Delete mode lets you delete any audio files on the player, both Music and Voice, one at a time. Finally, the Memory Info displays amount of free and total memory. In every screen, there is a small battery meter in the top left corner. The EVA turns off by holding the play/pause button for ~2 seconds.
Performance: Sound quality from the EVA is superb with my reference headphones, the AKG 301 XTRA. The player features 6 equalizer settings, which can be found in the Settings menu. One setting, Rock, has a huge and pleasing impact on the sound of the music. Sound quality through the included earphones was surprisingly good. Overall sound was great with just a smidgen of tinning-ness. Though the screen is quite small, I found the text to be visibly clear up to 2 feet. In addition, the blue backlight works really well. Using one 650mAh Ni-HH, the EVA ran continuously for just over 11 hours. X-Micro mentions that the EVA is a USB 2.0 full speed device. This is simply a deceiving way of saying USB 1.1. Transferring 240mb of mp3s to the player took 10 minutes and 10 seconds which comes out to 393kbytes/s or 3.15mbits/s. Lastly, the EVA does not have any resume modes. This means every time you turn on the player, it will always jump back to the first song on the player. Conclusion: The EVA is a player with simplicity in mind. Having a built-in USB plug makes it super easy to connect the EVA to a computer. With most operating systems, no drivers are needed. In addition, the player can double as a USB drive. For those who know next to nothing about moving files from drive to drive, the player includes a simple program for transferring music. Sound quality is very good with the included earphones and gets better with a pair of high quality headphones. The EVA does have a few faults. With only USB 1.1 (USB 2.0 full speed) support, transfer speeds are severely limited. Also, the conflicting volume buttons orientation and on screen display will almost always catch you off guard. Overall though, the X-Micro EVA with its unique earphone/neck strap is a well designed and an easy to use mp3 player that is perfect for active users. Pros:
Cons:
Ratings:
(Ratings Possible: Terrible, Very Bad, Bad, Fair, Good, Very Good, Excellent) |
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|