Creative MuVo Micro N200 512 MB Dark Blue ( 70PF121200010 )

Rating:
Summary: great
Review: excellent mp3 player. extra small and light. just drag mp3's over with or without folders. i like that it uses AAA batteries. one problem i had is it stopped responding, but after firmware update it works perfectly.

Rating:
Summary: No more cassette tapes!
Review: I bought the MuVo N200 for one thing: to digitally record hours of radio. It's the best-priced gadget I've found for the task. No, it doesn't have an AM tuner, but it has line-in. Now I can collect and archive various radio broadcasts without the time limits or analog conversions of cassette tapes. The memory will hold 12+ hours of 96-bit MP3 recordings, and the battery is said to last about that long, so I could record all night if I needed to.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Value
Review: I got this MP3 player for Christmas and have been using it ever since. It was recomended to me as an alternative to a RIO MP3 player because of the storage space to cost ratio. You can store a whole lot of data in 512MB and I have yet to even come close.

This item is about the size and weight of a disposable cigarette lighter. It fits easily into a pocket, but can also be worn on the provided arm band or clipped onto a lanyard. Battery life is long and only one AAA battery is used to power the player.

Its small size makes it unobtrusive during a heavy workout and the arm band's material doesn't slip off your arm when you start to sweat.

One of the nicest features is the fact that you don't need any software to use this product. It comes with a disk, but it's installation is optional. The player plugs into a USB port and files are transfered by dragging and dropping them into the player. You can easily set up folders within the player so that you listen to only the songs you want, rather than every song stored on the player.

The sound quality is good and I haven't had a problem with the backlight creating a buzzing noise (although others have).

I do have a couple small problems with the player. The first is that it doesn't come with a good instruction manual. The instructions are very short and vague. I figured most of the features out on my own using trial and error. The recording feature isn't very good, luckily I wouldn't use it for recording stuff anyway. The built in microphone isn't strong and putting your mouth close to the mic means you end up hearing more breathing than anything else. Songs within folders can not be put in an order other than alphabetical (that I know of). Play options are alphabetical or random. You can't set an order of your own. Also, the display doesn't give enough information about the song.

Like many other portable music systems, the headphones that come with the player aren't great. They don't stay on when working out, so I had to buy better ones for that purpose.

In the end, the player is a great deal. It has tons of storage space, compact and well put together and is ideal for someone with an active lifestyle.

Rating:
Summary: great mp3, by far my best
Review: I researched endlessly before I concluded that the Muvo N200 was the player for me. I needed a player to listen to in the gym when weightlifting and cycling/running the treadmill.

I cannot tell you how happy I am with this purchase so far. Creative really hit the bullseye with this player.

It includes a belt clip which, coupled with the armband which works perfectly for my needs.

PROS:
* The battery life is long
* Cool black color w/ blue screen
* Incredible features for the size (FM radio/line in/microphone)
* Works as portable HD. No software needed.

CONS:
* There is an annoying "buzzing" sound on all of these players when the screen comes up. It goes off wi

NEUTRAL:
* Included headphones sucks; I expected this, so it's not a con for me. They're also ivory color, so they don't.

RECOMMENDATIONS:
* Get the Sennheiser MX400s (or MX500s with the volume color) with the N200. It sounds mountains better than Creative's included headphones.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
* There is NO included neck strap with this model. Amazon's description is wrong.

Rating:
Summary: Great for audio books
Review: I was looking for a flash mp3 player that would work well for audio books. I had briefly thought of buying the new Apple Shuffle, but realized that it really wouldn't suit my purposes well (who'd want to accidentally hit the "Shuffle" button in the middle of War and Peace?).

This one is excellent. I signed up for Audible, and downloaded a couple of books. The cool thing is that if you start to listen to one track, and then flip to a different one, it remembers where you were on the first track -- very cool. I was able to listen to my Wodehouse book, and pass it on to my bored 8-old to listen to an interview with Lemony Snicket, then flip back and pick up my book right where I was.

It's very small, and the nice holster clips easily onto my jeans pocket. With 512MB, it has plenty of space -- I've already put about 9 hours worth of material on it, and barely made a dent in the available space.

The only complaint I have is that while it has a place to slip on a lanyard, it does not come with one. A fairly minor complaint. All in all -- a great player.

Rating:
Summary: It broke the day after i bought it!
Review: It was working great...except for the buzz when the backlight was on, until the next day when the thing wouldnt turn on. I dont know if its just me who has bad luck with creative stuff, but I had trouble with my last creative muvo too and had to send it back for repair multiple times. I ended up buying the sony nw-e75 which has less memory and fewer functions, but I know Sony is reliable. Plus, the sony has much much better sound quality, in my opinion. I guess if you're looking for a mediocre mp3 player with lots of interesting functions for a good price this one's perfect, but I for one wouldnt trust it to work for a very long time.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite out of 7 mp3 players
Review: The 512 MB MuVo N200 is my 7th mp3 player of a fleet which includes 3 pre-iPod devices, an iPod 2nd generation, a Mini iPod, and the new Dell DJ. I really love the Mini and the Dell DJ, but the MuVo N200 approaches perfection. It is small, but not too small (to get lost). It works flawlessly with audible.com (my #1 use) unlike the iPod which continually shut down and started the book over-and-over. I use the MuVo while running or working out. I have nothing negative to say about this device. I can't even reproduce the buzzing noise others have noted when the backlighting is turned on. And speaking of lights, the bright lights of the marketing blitz for the iPod shuffle could cast this device into the shadows. Don't be fooled by massive marketing and fawning reviews - you can have it all - small size AND a screen (and an FM radio, digital recorder, and accessories). And did I mention real buttons? (Can anyone imagine virtual buttons on clothing or a Click Wheel for a zipper? Give me the real thing.)

Rating:
Summary: Great player, it's light, works well, has great battery life
Review: This is the player I ended up getting after doing a lot of research. I figured that 512mb was enough, and although 1gb would be nice, it wasn't worth the additionall cost. I wanted a player that had a radio in case I got sick of what was loaded into the player. The radio has great reception, but you seem to have to hold it away from your body for weaker stations to come in. It comes with a little rubbery case that has the belt clip on it if you want to clip it to something (like the included armband or your belt). It also has a spot to attach a neclace on the player itself. See my "customer pictures" at the link at the top of the page if you're curious what everything that comes with it looks like. One of the things about all these mp3 players is that unless you go to a store, it's hard to tell what they look like from the one angle they show you. It's very light (about 1oz WITH the battery inside, 1.5 oz with battery and little rubbery case). I got rechargeable batteries for mine and I've been using it for about 3 weeks, 3 hours per week and it's still going with more than half the battery power showing on the battery indicator. It is easy to navigate the music on the player too. You can skip through tracks or go up a level to skip through folders if you have your music organized in folders. The player remembers where you were even if you switch to listen to the radio for a while and then go back to mp3 (especially nice for books on tape/cd). This seemed to me to be the best flash based player. The only other contender was the Sandisk one, but this has one feature that the Sandisk doesn't have; input so you can record from your stereo or an external microphone. It's easy to use, sounds great. Also, although Creative doesn't list it as Mac compatible, it is. If you plug it into a mac, the player shows up on the desktop as a drive and you can drag mp3 files onto it and they copy to the player perfectly. The only complaint I have is the same one that everyone does, when you push the buttons the backlight comes on for a few seconds and during the time the light is on there is a buzz. Not a big deal, but has to be said. Here are the features that drove me to buy this:
<ul>
<li>Plays mp3 of course
<li>Small and light
<li>FM tuner
<li>record from FM tuner, built in mic or line input
<li>takes one AAA battery (light, easy to find, cheap rechargeables avail)
<li>came with a belt clip
<li>has a display screen (unlike the flash based ipod)

Rating:
Summary: More like 4 and a half stars
Review: This isn't the perfect Mp3 player, but it's pretty good, especially when you consider the price. Overall, this player has more good features than it does bad. It also has a number of features I doubt I'll ever use.

The Good:
- Size - at 512 meg, it's not meant to hold your entire CD library. It's a great player to take jogging. It holds roughly seven or eight full albums. (maybe more depending on the quality of the mp3s)
- File transfer - it's a flash storage device. So to get songs onto your mp3 player simply drag and drop the files from your computer.
- Size/weight - the thing is less than an ounce. (Try holding two AAA batteries, that's how much it weighs with its battery). It's about the size of a lighter.
- Strap and holder - comes with it's own velcro strap and rubbery holder. I-pod charges another 20 bucks for theirs. This player comes with a strap free. Free!!
- Battery - while on the Ipod subject, this player uses one AAA battery. I'm not sure how long it lasts, because mine still has juice, so at least several hours on one battery. So, unlike the Ipod that has an internal battery and costs oodles of cash to replace, this comes with a AAA battery that's cheap and easy to replace (and it only needs replacing on rare occasions).
- Sound Quality - uhhh...it's good and stuff
- Price - Quite a lot of bang for the buck. I've seen players with half the storage sell for the same price. Again: this player will not hold your entire mp3 library, if that's what you want, this player's not for you.
- System compatability - some mp3 players (Ipod again), only work on Windows XP or 2000. This one will work with Windows '98.

The Bad
- Rubber USB port cover - it's flimsy and I just know it's going to fall off. I don't think that'll affect the player, but I'd rather have a cover that worked and didn't fall apart.
- backlight noise - with low volume (25/40), there's a perceptible buzzing noise whenever the backlight is on. Of course, you can turn the backlight off, and it's completely unnoticable when the volume is turned up (mine' usually at 30 or so when jogging).
- Track playing problems - a couple of tracks skip on this player, and other times whole albums would not play unless I transferred each individual track (instead of just dragging the entire album file).
- Ear buds - these furry things annoy me. They're okay for sound quality, but they're a bit uncomfortable. Ipod's are much better. I already had earphones for my old mp3 player, and I use them instead of the ones that came with this one.

Stuff I probably won't ever use
- FM Radio - if I wanted an FM radio, I wouldn't have blown $120 bucks on an mp3 player!
- file management software - even though you don't need it (see file transfer above), the player comes with its own mp3 management software. Actually, I've used this some, and it's better than some (Rio, musicmatch); but it's still pretty useless.
- microphone - The quality is OK, but why would anyone ever want to record their own voice into an mp3 player? Maybe I'm just narrowminded...
- Mp3 ripper - this player comes with its own line that you can connect to a CD player to rip mp3's directly onto your player. If you're looking at mp3 players, odds are, most of your CDs are already ripped.

I have to say, overall I'm pleased with my purchase. It's not perfect, but at the price it performs very well and avoids a lot of the pitfalls of other mp3 players. No it's not a 40 gig player that stores ALL your songs you ever heard. It is a good value, and the perfect player to take to the gym.