Customer Reviews

Creative Labs MUVOČ X-Trainer 512 MB MP3 Player

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my fifth MP3 player. My others are a Nomad, a couple of car MP3 players, and a portable CD MP3 player. I bought the Muvo2 because the plastic around the Nomad eventually stressed and broke apart. I was shocked at how much better the sound quality of the Muvo2 is over the Nomad. From my experience with the Nomad and the other players, I had thought that MP3 inherently sounded terrible, but now I know better. In addition, the battery life is really quite impressive as well. That's the good news. The bad: can you tell how small the buttons are? Isn't this player meant for use while exercising? In particular, the main button there is really a toggle with four positions. It's impossible to manipulate with gloves on, such as cold weather jogging gloves or full-fingered gloves that you might use for lifting weights. It might be troublesome even without gloves for those with big fingers. The other problem with it is that the display is tiny, so you really can't read the display when it is strapped to your arm without looking like you're tying to sniff your armpit. Nonethelss, I like it overall, and I would buy it again.

I owned several memory-, CD-, and HD-based MP3/WMAplayers and honestly I don't know why I get this Muvo2 player. There are simply too many thing that I don't like about this player

1. The control is way too small (less than 1/2" in diameter with 5 functions)

2. The navigation sucks -
a. You can't choose a song directly w/o playing a folder and then advance to the song you want.
b. You can't back out of a folder w/o going through menu | folder option | 1st folder | next/prev folder...
c. Only 2/3 functions of the tiny control wheel is available for navigation.

3. They want you to buy additional battery for $50 instead of using standard batteries.

4. The control wheel and play buttons are completely hidden when the unit is in the case so you have to take the unit out before you can control it.

5. The USB 2.0 and USB charging support are nice. However, you can't use the player in the USB charging mode.

The guy comparing this to an iPod is clueless. For a solid-state player that you don't have to worry about wearing out under extreme jostling (I've RMA'd my iPod twice; for every "I jog with my iPod" story there are 3 of me), this is the ultimate. Besides having a player you can actually do something besides ride the bus with and expect it to last a few years, this player also has plug-and-play ability, which cannot be overstated.

Plug it in to any Win-XP (2000 also?) computer (no installation necessary) and drag the mp3/wma files over to drive E (or whatever drive it shows up as). Need to move a Word file somewhere to print it or share with a friend? Copy it over, it's just like a portable HD or giant floppy. Like your friends mp3s or vice-versa? Just plug into his computer and copy off or onto your Muvo. No need to install a bunch of proprietary software just to load your player. And USB 2.0 means the copies are nearly as fast as copying to another folder on your HD.

This is the ultimate mp3 player I've seen for active people who need something besides a HD-based player. For that matter, people who realise that even a well-treated HD player like the iPod is not likely to last more than 4-5 years can look at this as a long-term investment.

It's a bit expensive, but the only downsides I have seen so far is that the buttons are a little small for people with large fingers and it only offers FM radio with a $60 remote which requires a firmware upgrade that hasn't been released yet. And the lcd is a little small, but it shows what you need to see I guess.

Besides all that, if you want to jump on the iPod bandwagon then knock yourself out. If you want a super-slick PnP solid-state player, you can't do much better than this.

I received the X-Trainer a week ago and, so far, so good.

I purchased this device to use while exercising, not to store my entire music collection. The 512MB flash memory gives me enough space for 5 or 6 albums recorded at 128kbps, which provides fine fidelity. If you want a large storage volume and are not worried about moving parts, take your chances with a hard-disk drive unit.

The earphones are functional if not particularly comfortable. The sports armband is secure and the lithium battery arrived charged and ready to use. The control buttons are simple and easy to use and the LCD display is easily read even with my tired, old eyes. The software provided works well with my Windows XP operating system and moving files back and forth is very simple.

My only complaint is that the X-Trainer wants to replay album tracks by the title of the song rather than the track number. I'm sure there must be a simple solution for this problem but the instruction manual, provided on the CD, is not very helpful. I've tried to find a solution to this small annoyance but to no avail. A simple if cumbersome work-around is to manually retitle each track using an alpha prefix (a_NAME, b_NAME, c_NAME, etc.) in order to hear tracks in the order I want.

Apart from this one small problem, I give the X-Trainer a strong recommendation to musically-inclined exercise buffs!

I just received my unit today and I am very satisfied with the purchase. The muvo2 sounds better than my previous iAudio unit, which in turn sounded better than an iriver unit I purchased (and then returned). The best part is the easy file transfer to/from the unit. It shows up as a removable drive (in windows anyways) and transfer has been flawless. Much better than the iriver, which bombed fairly frequently during downloads.

The only downside to this unit is the tiny navigation buttons (otherwise it would be 5 stars). They are pretty tough to use while jogging, etc. Other than that, this is a very nice MP3 player. Oh yeah, and get some decent earphones. I recommend the koss sport clips for running, and the Etymotic phones for serious listening.

I picked this for no moving parts, and easy interface with windows XP. So far, So Good, we use it while out on the ATV's. Ease of use for us is just fine, yea, wish it had more memory, Yea, regular batteries would be nice, but ease of getting MP3's onto it is great, hit play, and enjoy....

This was my first MP3 player purchase. I have waited until there was a flash-memory-based product with sufficient capacity to be worth my effort. While the Creative MUVO2 X-Trainer has several attractive features (intuitive/no-hassel interface as add-on hard drive via USB2.0 or USB1.1 connection, mega-battery life - over 24 hours continuous play,noise-free operation - no moving parts, skip free playback - no moving parts, and armband/waistclip, seemless integration with Creative PlayCenter software), it falls short on some critical features:

* Unable to play ".WAV" files without errors
* Playback buttons not very user-friendly - especially compared to other products on the market.
* No FM radio
* No record function/input (microphone)
* Memory only 512 MB & can't upgrade with flash memory cards. Creative either needs to increase memory to 2 gigs (NOT HD), enhance usability/design and increase features.

By the time they re-launch their products, we will be demanding miniature MPEG4/JPEG/MP3/FM... with easy-to-use wireless interfaces on flash memory and infinite battery life for under $300. Viva la consumer :P

Overall opinion:
Would I buy it again? Definitely! Fantastic little player. Best solid state on the market currently.

Pros:
Great clarity, good solid feel, fantastic design (clean and simple), Excellent capacity options considering other players on the market average around 64-256mb), solid state memory definitely a plus. Can recharge through USB or DC adaptor. USB2.0 for fast transfers. Backlighting good idea. Fast playing/startup. Good volume (with earphones).

Cons:
Buttons a bit small - can be difficult to operate when exercising. While sound clarity is fantastic, bass is lacking a little. LCD display is really cool, but maybe not 'glance' friendly. Belt-clip accessory is a bit cheap and plastically (wheres the nice leather/vinyl pouch? or at least they could colour code it?) but ultimately very functional and robust. They dont sell it in Australia yet! (took me a month to order from U.S).

pros: usb2 for fast transfers, very good sound quality, ergonomic controls, flash memory is more reliable than harddrive and uses less battery life.

cons: 100-150 song capacity (depending on quality) may not be enough for some people. Susceptible to static electricity -- so far this hasn't caused lasting effects, but it's surprising.

Overall a good piece, superb sound quality... however, stopped working on my way to school, no idea why and can't boot it anymore... Maybe just my bad luck, but I did enjoy it for the 4 days...