BenQ Joybee 102R MP3 Player, 128MB, Orange

Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFUL WONDERFUL
Review: As soon as I first saw this tiny little mp3 player on Amazon, I fell in love with it. Who wouldn't? 128mb, cool colors, headphones that you would wear as a necklace, extremely small (4.1" diameter), and .5 ounces - the perfect gadget for a fashion-loving girl like me.

Well. As soon as I took it out of the box (two days after I ordered it on Amazon, by the way! :) I was disappointed. The player had a cheap feel to it. The headphone port does not allow you to use your own headphones as it is smaller than the standard port. There is no display (which I knew but kept convincing myself that it didn't matter) and therefore had no menu options such as fast forward, delete, etc.

To top things off, the player connected to my computer once, I transferred some music on it, and it never connected again!

Pros: Cute, small, innovative headphone design
Cons: No LCD, no menu functions, cheap-feeling, not durable, cannot use your own headphones or USB connector, etc.

Rating:
Summary: cool and stylish
Review: I bought this a week ago and have been using it daily since. The battery life is nice and long (8hrs), and I love that you don't need another power adaptor to charge it, all you need is a spare USB slot on your computer and it draws power from that. Down side -- the computer must be powered on to charge the thing (unless you have an external usb hub with sep power).
Anyway, overall I love it -- so here's the bottom line:

PROS: Very, very light. Clever in-built neckchain/earpiece means you don't have to find a way to hang this mp3 player on yourself -- it's all there, on one loop of wire.
The quality of the earphones is surprisingly good and the overall sound of the player is exceptional compared with others I have owned.
Nice centrally located light on front so you know when it's recharging (red) or playing (green) in a glance. When walking, you barely feel it, and it does look and feel like a simple pendant -- great for those who don't want their mp3 player to attract them masses of attention due to its ostentatiousness.

CONS: You can't use another pair of headphones without an adaptor (although I am happy with supplied pair). No LCD screen. No pause button (it switches off when you unplug the earphones, and resumes playing where you were in the song when you plug it back in and hit the On button -- but having to do all this just to pause it can be a little annoying).

The software it comes with is very non-intuitive and basically sucks but is workable if you are patient. There's no fast way of reordering songs when you add them to a playlist (it plays them in the order you add them -- period); to test play a song requires more than one mouseclick. And there's no way to easily burn songs from the playlist -- adding songs must be done from a different menu selection. But the worst thing is when I tried to just drag and drop songs on the device and bypass the program, it doesn't play those ones, so I will have to return to the Qmusic software and re-add them through that. Not sure if there was something 'corrupt' about my added mp3s and whether this is typical behaviour or not.

On balance -- think about this, the time you spend downloading songs onto it will be minimal. Most people, once it's done, it's done, so the above quirks are just that. The most time you'll be spending with your player is actually playing it (full marks for its ability and sound there) and recharging it (fast). So in sum: this player IS worth it, I would buy it again, and I don't think anyone else will have much regret either, unless they get a dud right out of the box or something.


Rating:
Summary: Very unique
Review: The look is unique, and it's easy to wear and operate. It's extremely light. But you need to buy an adapter at Radioshack to make other headphones work with it. And it's a bit of a drag not having an LCD screen. But the computer interface is very easy and quick. I think it's cool!