I4U News

Overview
Today I am reviewing the Truly MP301 MP3 player. I had seen photos of this device on the web a while now, I must say, when I received it, my first thought was “man is this thing small!” In photos, it looks like a PDA, so I figured it would be in that size range, was I mistaken. It is a little over 2 inches long, an inch and a half wide, and maybe a 1/3 of an inch thick (give or take). It also has a 1.5 inch color screen.

When you first turn the MP301 on, you get an initializing screen for a few seconds, then the main menu comes on, with it's 9 icons (3x3 layout) for controlling the various functions, in order they are:

1) Play Music, as it says, this is where you play MP3/WMA files

2) Record, where you go to record using the built-in mic, or the Line in port

3) Radio, for listening to the FM Stereo

4) Photo Browse, for viewing Photos stored on the player, in either .jpg, or .bmp formats (also you can save photos in .lgo format, using the included converter software. Photos can only be 640x480 or lower)

5) Ebook, for reading .txt files or Unicode formatted files, with this small screen it's not very practical, but it does work (tested by copying my resume over to it in .txt format)

6) Game, yes they included 3 puzzle games, Diamond, enter the Dragon, and Push Box, I did try them, but I'm not into puzzles games much, I never figured out Diamond, but Enter the Dragon, is like the old board game Othello, and push box has you moving boxes around the board to cover certain spaces. While it's cool they included games, I would have rather seen the space used for something else (maybe better recording capabilities? (see below))

7) System Setup, here is where you go to change the settings used for the MP301 (backlight duration, contrast, etc..)

8) Memory management, as it says, this is where you go to manage the files on board, erasing, formatting, or just checking remaining memory

9) Theme Setting, nothing much here, just 9 preset color settings for the screen and icons (would have been nicer if you could really customize the settings)

Usage
With all this device has in it, you would think it would be complicated to use, and at first you would be right, the controls are laid out in a strange fashion, with the buttons laid out along both sides, it takes a little getting used to. Also there are what looks like 2 headphone jacks along the top, one actually is a headphone jack, the other is a multi purpose jack, for USB, Line in, or external mic, and AC charger for the built-in Li-Ion battery. Like I said, the controls aren't very intuitive at first, but you get used to them after a bit.

Ok the main thing is of course, how does it sound? In a word, very nice! Using the included headphones (which are very nice, if not slightly odd looking ear buds, but have excellent sound (and white foam ear pads, which struck me as odd). They are of the necklace variety, meaning they are meant to be worn around your neck, with the MP301 hanging from the necklace. I have seen a few pairs of this style headphone, and while the ones included sound great, they need work in the necklace department. In use the mp301 kept pulling the ear buds until the would have ended up behind my neck. Otherwise I love them.

MP3 playback
In my testing, I use a few different pairs of headphones and they all sounded good on the MP301, I even borrowed an iRiver IFP-880 to compare it to. In most respects the MP301 held it's own. There were some areas that the iRiver was better, but most areas were even at least, or more in the MP301's favor.

The MP301 has 7 EQ settings (6 preset, and one user adjustable with 5 bands, but the user setting is only available for MP3's not WMA's). the sound was clear and strong, with no noticeable background noise, and the EQ settings were each noticeably different, the only place the iRiver has the advantage was that the iRiver had a 3d audio setting, the MP301 does not. The MP301 played just about every MP3/WMA I threw at it, except for protected files, it won't play those.

Recording
Ok, this is one area where the iRiver is a better unit, the MP301 gives you 3 quality settings for recording from line in or mic, on the device they come up as low, med and high. In reality they are 32 Kbps and 24000 Hz, 128 Kbps, and 192 Kbps , both at 44100 Hz, (however, recording the radio used a preset setting of 64 Kbps and 22050 Hz) whereas the iRiver goes from 11 to 320 Kbps, with variable Hz settings.
The recordings I made were all clean sounding (except the 32Kbps, was a bit gritty). You just need to have the source volume up kinda high, otherwise the MP301 records things softly.

Radio
The radio is an FM radio, with 2 frequency settings, US and Japan (changes the range they work at) and it has 30 presets, and can be set using the mp-301 manually, or auto or using the included software on the computer to do it. It has good radio reception, even in my basement apartment, my only gripe is the low recording settings.

Photo Browser
With the photo viewer you can keep a few favorite photos on the MP301, in either .jpg, .bmp, or .lgo (their own format, and you get a program convert to the .lgo format). While the .jpg and .bmp photos take a while to load, the .lgo photos are very fast to load, and look very nice on the screen. You can also view a slideshow of your photos, would have been nice to set them to music (if it does that, I haven't figured it out yet)

Ebook & Games
I'll admit, I haven't tested these functions much beyond seeing how they work. For the most part I didn't like the control layout in the games, and the screen is too tiny for reading ebooks for most uses, though it is nice to have the files you need handy. Also, you can listen to MP3/WMA's or the radio while reading.

Other Testing
I also tested the MP301 with my AudioBug 2, and again, it worked great! (except when there were other stations overrunning the one I was using).
In use the MP301 doesn't support playlists, it stores the files used in folders (starting with a Root folder) and subfolders off these. So in theory you can kinda make playlists, just load the songs into the folders, then you can have it play just that folder. (this is what I do when sleeping, I have songs I like for falling asleep to. I made a folder called Sleep, and I placed these songs in the folder. So when in bed I only hear the songs I wanted to (this needs to be done on the computer, no on-the-fly playlists.

Conclusion
In conclusion I really like the MP301, and have been using it everyday, recharging the battery at night a few hours before bed. There are some things I'd change, but overall it's a nice digital media device. Would be nice to view short videos instead of the built-in games for example. Maybe the next model. Another thing is the carrying case, they give you a small furry black drawstring pouch to keep it (and the earbuds I assume) in. it's nice, but useless if you wanted to use the MP301 jogging. They ought to include a belt clip/carrying case.

Pros and Cons

Good points

1) Very clear sound, also very nice EQ settings, can get quite loud also

2) The battery stays charged a long time, I have yet to wear it down below the ½ way point.

3) Works as a USB 1.1 flash drive, it's a bit slow, but loads the 256MB in decent time though. Allows you to take other kinds of files along with you.

4) Built in Voice recorder is very clear in all 3 settings, also a sensitive mic. Can be used while driving (doesn't pick up too much 'car noise')

5) In regards to the EQ settings, they are all different sounding, and good for the music they are labeled for (though I am trying to figure out what “liv.” (one of the settings) stands for.

Bad points

1) While it has a nice screen, it's hardly used when listening to MP3's, they just show the tag info, volume, and EQ setting, along with a moving bar showing the time left. A lot of the screen is unused, maybe some visualizations? Or a waveform or level meter (like the iRiver manages to get on it's much smaller screen) (they do allow for display of Lyrics with the songs, but you have to make the Lyric files yourself, it works, but it's time consuming)

2) Carry pouch instead of a carry case and belt clip or armband so you can use it while jogging, maybe Truly has a different customer they are aiming for?

3) No user adjustable color settings.

4) USB 1.1 as opposed to USB 2.0, would be nicer for loading or saving 256 MB of music, data.

5) No Ogg Vorbis support, while it's not the most popular encoding format, it's slowly gaining popularity, esp in the open software/Linux crowd.

How to Buy
The Truly MP301 is currently on sale for as low as $133.99.

Specifications
128x160 64K COLOR Display
MP3, WMA support, no DMA
MP3 Encoder (Mic or Line-In)
FM Radio Tuner & Recorder
Store up to 30 radio channels
Photo Viewer (JPG/ BMP/ Truly LGO)
E-Book (ASCII, Unicode, Txt)
Games
Wallpapers
Synchronized Lyric display (LRC)
Segment repeat function [A-B]
weight: 50g with built-in battery
Dimensions: 2.48" x 1.87" x 0.5"