Customer Reviews

Coby 4 GB USB-Stick MP3 Player with LCD and FM Radio (Black)

5 star:		(124)
4 star:		(85)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(26)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

This little thing does everything it's supposed to. It's easy to load with music via drag & drop. I found the easiest way to transfer music was to leave it in MTP mode, format the drive, and just drag and drop my music onto it. There are some files on it from the factory, some podcast program also, I don't need that stuff so a format worked the best for me. MTP mode lets you just pull it out and go, without having to do the "safely remove hardware" method. (windows XP)

The battery life is what it is. I used it for about 13hrs before needing to change batteries. I will be looking into a rechargeable battery for it soon.

It's not as smooth and slick looking as the image shown here. It looks a little cheaper and bulkier in person. There is no mic either, as shown in this image. It has a little hole for it, but no mic.

The FM tuner worked just fine, and has a lot of available presets (31).

Instructions are very detailed and easy to understand.

The included earphones are not comfortable, they are the hard disc type.

I bought this with the Coby CVE92 Isolation Stereo Earphones Isolation Stereo Earphones which together make for a great inexpensive MP3 player.

EDIT: I'm sorry to say that this has died after only 3 months of light use. The display started giving a garbled, completely random look, and none of the buttons worked. I was able to connect it to the PC and get all my music from it, but it was useless as an MP3/FM player. I returned it (after the 3 month limit) and lost $8 for a "restocking fee". I can't find anything similar in size and function, so I ordered another one to try again. The price went down $8+ since the original order, so I actually spent less this time than on the first order. We'll see how long the new one lasts....

The sound quality is good--excellent if you give extra points for the low price. It was easy and reasonably quick to load MP3 files from my PC to the Coby MP305 once I figured out how to get into the correct USB mode. I am also impressed that this unit includes an excellent FM radio--my $300 iPod doesn't have a radio

I like everything about this device higher except for the confusing and limiting user interface. You can set up separate folders for each album or artist, but navigating from one album to another or from one artist to another is quirky at best. If you are looking for an excellent value on a shuffle-mode MP3 player, look no further, but if you want to be able to select specific songs, this may not be the model for you.

Good:
- cheap
- excellent sound quality (for my untrained ear, at least)
- plays by folder, simple drag-and-drop interface. Just drag the folder with MP3s onto the player and the folder's name will be listed in the player's menu
- ability to delete files on the player itself
- FM radio
- pretty small
- AAA battery source - no need for a charger
- standard USB connector
- standard male-female USB extender cable included
- serves as a USB thumb drive

Bad:
- in a folder mode in order to switch to a diffrent folder you have to scroll through all files one by one to go to the top, you can not just jump to the top in one keystroke. So do not put a lot of music files in one folder.
- cheap plastic body
- no silicone case available
- removable cap will in all probability be lost
- only 8 hours battery life, so rechargeable AAA batteries might need to be used
- only 4GB and no extension memory slot
- headphones probably would not satisfy most users
- tuner is not the best
- COBY products do not have a bullet-proof reliability record

Can not provide any info on tag IDs, I-Tune compatibility. etc. Specifically was looking for a player without all this nonsense, just with simple drag-and-drop interface. This is one of very few. I do not think you can find a cheaper 4GB player with all these features. Price is so low so it makes it almost disposable. Loss would not put an owner in the poor house.

Here's what I wanted: SMALL and LIGHT, with good capacity, long battery life, inexpensive, and EASY to use (in my way).

I love this thing! It is tiny & weightless. I've got 200+ songs on it with room for more. One AAA seems to last forever. It costs less than the other brands. I keep it in shuffle mode, so I just push the button: once for "on", once for "music", once for "play", and I'm rocking!

I don't use the FM tuner, voice recorder, or use it as a flash drive, so I can't address those functions. For me - it is great!

The one drawback is that the earbuds that came with it were mediocre. I replaced those, and now I have no complaints!

Update (~18 months later): I now have 347 songs, with still room for more -- it looks like about 370 will be the limit. I have now worn out my new earbuds, but the player is still playing!!!

I purchased this MP3 player for its price. I normally listen to audiobooks while workingout in the gym so I am not that concerned about sound quality. I was disappointed by this player. It continued to glitch and lock up on my while playing tracks. I tried to re-copy files and nothing seemed to work. I decided to return this player and find another brand. I give it two stars for ease of use and size.

Overall, it is an okay product. It's not the most user friendly but it plays music and 2GB is a decent amount. For the price (I think I paid $20) it's been worth it. It plays music and has a built in FM tuner.

I wasn't expecting lightening fast transitions or effortless functioning. There are times that it takes much longer than I think it should to transition. The menu of music is difficult to understand on the player itself. I find that I have to scroll through all the songs to find what I want to listen to. Listening to books has been a challenge - the player will stop randomly, sometimes it skips. Music has not been a problem, perhaps it is the shorter length.

I bought this a few days ago, and its been awesome. I'm gonna go through some features then advice:

pros---1.only 4Gb player less thatn $30 that I've ever seen
2.looks sleek
3. plays very fast; my brother has a $100 rca opal that takes literally 5 minutes to "build database" every time it is turned on, but this player takes about 2 seconds.
4. I got a 50 songs and 1 audiobook free from Coby, and another 50 from Amazon
5. The earphones do sound just a little tinny, but overall they're great. They fall out my ears, but all earphones fall out of my ears so that might just be something that has to do with me.
6. Comes with a 3-foot-long usb extension cable, a battery that's lasted about 8 hours, and the earphones as I said earlier
7. The sound quality is GREAT: even on low volume I can distinctively hear the music with no distortion whatsoever
8. The radio is great, I even pick up stations that I didn't know were there, 18 in total, and they sound CRYSTAL CLEAR. I live in houston btw
9. I got free shipping, and it only took 2 days to get here instead of the estimated 4 days.
10. It holds 1000 mp3s at the standard 128kbps and 2000 wmas at 64kbps
11. It doubles as a flash drive
12. It syncs about 20 songs/minute

cons--
1. Although its cleverly designed visually, the box is annoying to open
2. If you just sync it with your library on Windows Media Player, it arranges the folders according to artist, then album and likes to group the artist's songs together; there's no real order Also, the artists aren't even in alphabetical order so its very hard to navigate.
3. Battery life is relatively low-8 hours.

Overall, this thing is excellent in general, especially for $30. When you add music, I recommend that you open the folder where your songs are, make some folders by genre and artist on your mp3 player, and then just transfer the songs that way. Be careful because after you transfer the files you can't put it in alphabetical order so do that first. Hold "shift" or "ctrl" to select multiple files at a time.

First let me say I am a 57 Year old man who has some health problems and was told by my Doctor to start walking... I was walking with my CD player and that was a Pain (big and bulkie) So someone told me to get a MP3 player, I know nothing about them but thought what the hell, Well Let me tell you After I got it and learned how to put songs in I am Thrilled! This item was around $20.00 and worth every penny, It was easy to learn how to use, And I just Love it! I would recommend this to anyone who is tired of a cd player in hand, This goes right in your pocket and the sound is Great! I didn't care too much for the headphones that came with the player so I went to Best Buy and bought a pair for $10.00 and they sound beautiful!

The player works fine for music, but I primarily bought it to listen to audio books. It freezes up and you have to sometimes take out the battery to get it going again. Also, the fast forward function isn't very fast. I guess it's worth the price.

i like my coby mp305-2g. it is pretty basic, but has some nice features. You can set the screen back-light color from 7 colors. You plug it in your laptop or pc and use explorer to copy and paste your mp3s, folders etc to the unit.
It seems playlists are not supported, but it will play all mp3s in a folder- or all mp3s loaded on the unit.
Not having a playlist feature is something some people might not like.
You can play all mp3s in a folder in order, random, random repeat, all repeat. You can even play all mp3s in every folder in order, random, and random repeat.
A single seasoned AAA rechargeable battery lasts 5-6 hours for me, and new non-rechargeable batteries last a bit longer. I prefer AAA batteries versus built-in batteries since I travel.
The menu is simple to navigate. There is an equalizer with the usual music type presets, you can delete files from the menu.
I don't use the FM radio, but there is one on the unit.
I usually just load all my songs onto one folder, hit random repeat, put it in my pocket, and let it run- so this player works for me.
I don't baby it, i throw it in my backpack and around the car. The sound is great, and with ear buds, can make your ears ring. Max volume with large studio headphones is loud but not deafening.