Customer Reviews

Creative Labs NOMAD MuVoČ 4 GB MP3 Player

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I have had my Muvo 4GB player for 3 weeks now and have been extremely pleased with it. This player fit my very specific needs. I have a large number of files that are MP3 and WMA (the latter purchased online), so I felt it was best to NOT get an iPod.

My previous mp3 player was a MagicStar 256MB, but wanted to upgrade because I found my commute to be longer, spent a lot of time in the car or metro, and became bored with listening to only the same 60 some songs over and over again. Plus, I go to the gym, and specifically wanted something durable and not have to worry about a huge spinning hard-drive. I wanted a player that was light, small, unnoticeable, but could deliver big on functionality. The Muvo definitely hit the spot with its 4GB Toshiba Micro-drive (v compact, durable, and high capacity).

First, this thing is SMALL and LIGHT... it fits perfectly in the closed unused ashtray of my car, keeping it out of site from prying eyes. I compared side-by-side with the new iPod 4GB, and the muvo is SUBSTANTIALLY smaller, lighter and compact. It probably weighs as much as my Siemens C56 cellphone. I currently have 500 songs loaded on there with 3 different playlists, and have used less than 2GB so far.

On the metro and in the gym, I use the included belt holster. Its very well structured and shock-proof, but the only drawback is that the buttons are inaccessible. I can overlook that drawback since I tend to use playlists or continually shuffle my music.

The buttons are small, and people with large fingers may have some difficulty. I have not had any problems manipulating the directional button (vol up/down, prev/next track), nor accessing the menu (push button straight down). A slightly annoying factor is that you need to hold the PLAY/PAUSE button down for 5 seconds straight in order to power on/off.

The menu is small but readable, but I don't really read it all the time since I'm always on the go. The backlight is blue, and ID3 tags for the songs scroll across when playing. The menu includes tools, playlist, playmode (shuffle, repeat, etc), EQ, delete, radio, and microphone. You navigate using the directional button. For my basic needs, I use playlist and shuffle. I delete files using Windows Explorer.

I ditched the included earbuds and use my own Koss Plugs. I did use the included earbuds for the first couple of days and found it to be sub-standard in sound and uncomfortable.

The sound from this unit is great... many different equalizer settings, but I set mine to Rock and don't use the other ones. With the right set of earplugs, the bass is nice and heavy, and the sound is very crisp. I use a cassette adapter in the car with the Muvo, and it sounds just as good. I've noticed a little hissing or distortion, but that's either because of the cassette adapter, not having the player set at the proper volume, or your unit needs is almost out of juice. Just play around with the unit to find the right balance.

The unit comes with a rechargable lithium ion battery. I was spoiled before because my last player was able to recharge via USB port. This battery gets a full charge in about 3 hrs with the included AC-adapter. I haven't really pushed (nor paid attention) to the full claimed 10 hour charge. Let's just say, I recharge every 2-3 days of my everyday activities. I recommend plugging in your unit to the charger when doing large song transfers; those tend to eat a lot of juice. Oh, and the battery COMES OUT, meaning that you can replace or buy an extra one if needed. The iPod batteries are non-removeable.

I use MusicMatch and am able to do file/playlist transfers using the "import to portable" function in MMJB. It takes some getting used to... I initially would set up playlist folders on the Muvo using Windows Explorer, and import my playlists into each discrete folder with the proper m3u file. If I did not set up playlist folders with the m3u files, the unit would randomly read any existing mp3s in its memory regardless of playlist. I've toyed with the included Creative MediaSource software, and it is a little clumsy with too many frames and windows going on. Stick with what you're comfortable with because everything is drag and drop. You could just use Windows Explorer to drag and drop your files and m3u's directly to the Muvo, but if you do a straight drag-and-drop of your music files only, the player will play them alphabetically according to ID3 tag. File transfer by USB 2.0 is SUPER FAST. I was able to transfer my current 2GB of files on there in about 10 mins or so. I wasn't paying attention to exact duration because I was getting ready to leave and needed to do this on the fly before I left! It did the job superbly.

I ran a recovery once on the unit because it froze during a transfer and the drive became undetectable to my notebook. When in doubt, there is a small pinhole in the back of the unit that will reset your unit to original state.

I do recommend that you upgrade to the the firmware: http://www.nomadworld.com/downloads/firmware/
User manuals, support, etc are available on this website.

PROS:
- extremely small and light (moreso than the iPod)
- Great sound
- Huge capacity with a very durable and dependable microdrive (I've dropped this thing a few times with no probs at all)
- Long battery life
- Works with MMJB
- Inexpensive compared to other comparable players
- its not an iPod! Be different!

CONS:
- Small buttons take some getting used to
- Small screen
- does not support AAC files (for iTunes users out there)
- Playlist transfer (.m3u files) is not intuitive unless you play around with it and properly set up the folders just right
- Does not charge via USB (there aren't many out there that do that to begin with, and I was spoiled by my MagicStar)

I am extremely happy with this item and highly recommend it to people always on the go (commuters, gym, school, driving) and for people who are tough on their toys (toss in the bag, car, drop, etc). Great value. I only gave it 4 out of 5 stars for minor quirks.

Recently I was in the market for an mp3 player, and was deciding between an iPod mini, or this muvo2. After much research, I decided on the muvo2 for a few reasons. Firstly, after hearing so many complaints about the iPod's lack of a removable battery, I liked the removable one on this player. Just ask anyone who has owned an iPod for more than a year how much their battery life has diminished. In addition, my friends have both of these players. After comparing the sound quality, I would definitely recommend the muvo2. However, it does not come with this out of the box, and you need to adjust the equalizer. After doing this, the muvo2 sounds far greater than the iPod mini. The only complaint I have, is that at first, its two line screen can make it hard to organize 4 gigabytes of music. Ease of organization is where the iPod excels. However, I've found that after downloading the beta version of Windows Media Player 10, it is much easier to organize music because of the new file system it creates on the player through the synchronization feature. It is still no iPod, but it is definitely adequate. I would suggest ditching the included Media Source software. The bundled earbuds aren't great, but they never are on any player. In all, I love my muvo2 and and am completely satisfied with my decision. And in the end, I especially love how it is about half the size of the iPod mini and comes with a belt clip.

The four stars are strictly for the following:
-4Gb hard drive, which alone is a $300 item in bulk;
-WMA and MP3 playback;
-nice LCD interface;
-USB 2.0 speeds for really fast xfer rates;
-instantaneous recognition by WinXP/2k machines.

Those features above make this an outstanding player, and should make this a 5-star item. However:
-the enclosed headphones are earbuds, I don't like 'em;
-it isn't armored enough for decent shock-resistance (would like to see it rubber-skinned like its cousin the Rio Cali);
-no belt-loop holster or anything like an armband, so exercising with it might be a little challenging;
-FM headphone function is extra (boo!);
-controls are dexterity-building exercises in themselves.

This thing has an LCD screen, so why not use a thumb-wheel with pushbutton ability to handle on/off and playback? Granted, it has a four-way pad and a separate button which should be sufficient, but my banana-sized fingers keep jumping selections to "Menu" instead of scrolling left or right through the playlist.

Here's why this is so critical: this player can hold 500-1000 songs, depending on how dense the encoding is. Navigating through a straight list of 500 or 1000 songs takes awhile. Folders become paramount to organizing songs or artists, just so you can find something you like inside of a minute.

But does it play well? Does it do what it should? Oh yes, most definitely. And having a Li-On battery in it that recharges off the USB port is *exactly* what every player should have (if it used my Nokia 3650's battery I'd have given it the fifth star for the serendipitous convergence).

"Would I buy it again?" Sure, if I could find another one.
"Is it better than the Rio Cali?"

Hmmm... the Cali is definitely nice, armored with an armband I really like, better UI (LCD presents info much faster, is square and shows more at a glance), has FM built-in. But 4Gb makes up a lot of ground on 256Mb, even 768Mb if you pony up some cash for a 512Mb SD Card. Nah, the Muvo2 isn't perfect, but it's capacious, and sometimes that's more important.

Fred

I just got this player a few days ago so hopefully my review isn't too premature. I am overall very happy with this player, though it's a real devil to find at the moment. Anyway, on to the review.

The bad:

* The design, feel and interface is far inferior to the Ipods. There's no comparison. It feels pretty cheapy and the controls are way small.
* You can't get to the buttons through the case. Instead you have to buy the FM remote, which is rather expensive (and you have to do the firmware to get that to work).
* You need to get USB 2 to get the files transfered quickly, if you don't already have it.
* You'll probably want new headphones too.

The good:

> It sounds fantastic. I'm not kidding. It really does sound amazing.
> The microdrive seems sturdier than the larger mp3 hard drives.
> It's really small.
> It can do wma's which is a great benefit.
> With USB 2, it's fast as hell.
> I have XP and the installation/setup couldn't be easier.
> The removable battery is great (I got a cheap one on Ebay).

All in all, I'd say it beats the Ipod mini, which is the chief competitor. To me, it came down to WMAs, the battery and sound quality over the interface. If you care more about the interface, you should get the Ipod.

Been trying to get this at amazon for a while since it comes in and out of stock very quickly. Lucky this time I was able to get it in mid-May and was delivered within 6 days via super saver shipping.

I bought this MP3 for myself not to resell it. Since this is my first MP3 player I have nothing to compare it to, but from using it the past two weeks I can say I'm very satisfied with it. I have about a Gig of music and audio books on it already.

Getting the Mp3s to the Muvo are so easy, just drag and drop and there you have it, you don't need their software if you WinXP as your OS. The battery life is awsome I have yet to see it drop even one bar during the time I have used it. I would have liked the case to have been aluminum instead of the cheap plastic.

Pros:
- long battery life
- small form factor
- 4GB memory
- great sound from the supplied headphones

Cons:
- small screen, they could have made it a little bigger
- carrying case covers the controls for the player, must take out the Muvo to use them
- out of stock often
- buyers that mistakenly buy this for $50 then complain they got ripped off because the 4GB drive is missing. READ THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PRODUCT YOU'RE BUYING!

Nice product and get it while you can before it goes out of stock again.

My first impression of this unit was WOW, it's LITTLE!

That's a good thing; the Muvo is small enough to fit (very comfortably) in your front jeans pocket; it's about the size of half of a bar of soap, and thinner, too.

Volume is pretty good, and so is sound quality, though a simpler "bass boost" without having to fudge about with an equalizer would have been nice. Battery life also appears to be pretty good. The unit is as silent as can be in operation, even though there's a hard drive inside.

Kudos: uses compactflash storage (even though you have to open the unit and void the warranty to get at it), so theoretically if 8GB or 16GB compactflash cards ever become available, the unit should be easy to upgrade. The USB 2.0 is a nice touch, as is the fact that the unit works just like a USB hard drive; plug it in and copy files as fast as you can.

Complaints: the navigation system isn't terribly convenient, and the screen and controls are almost painfully small. No remote is included; it's optional. Given the size, I suppose it couldn't be any other way, but the unit doesn't feel altogether very "robust" -- if you accidentally sat on it, it would definitely need replacing.

All in all, a solid four stars out of five.

This unit is all you need out of a portable mp3 player. What truly sets this unit apart from the rest of the high-storage market is the battery. The shelf life of an average ipod is two years -- integrated non-replaceable battery. With the muvo you can buy extra batteries; if you take care of the device it should last a a few years. I don't have proof of course, I just bought mine two months ago, but I have been enjoying high-end sound quality and a good variety of tunes everywhere I go for that entire period. Great price, great design, great software, et al. I can't thank the wizards at creative enough for giving me a viable option to a flash mp3 or <shudder> an ipod which would have cost and extra $200 (!). For those fetishists who freakishly need 20 to 40 GB of space for their music - and need to have it everywhere with them - go ahead and spend the extra couple hundred, for the rest of the population I recommend this product both for yourself or as a gift etc. Cheers.

I already own a 40 gig Creative Nomad Jukebox (the original Jukebox, which came with a 6 gig drive, but was quite hackable).

That player is perfect for listening when I'm relatively stationary -- in the car, on a plane -- but isn't so good for grabbing and walking around with. I've been considering a flash memory-based player for a while for those situations, but they're TOO limited in capacity and/or price. I also considered just getting a new large-capacity MP3 player, like a Zen, but didn't want to spend that much money and lose the advantages of the Jukebox (yes, they exist).

Enter the perfect compromise -- the Muvo2 4GB. Tiny, good battery life, reasonable price. Not as much capacity as my Jukebox, but plenty of space for a day's worth of music (and then some). The fast USB2.0 interface makes changing the content a snap (I have all 2000+ CDs I own encoded on a media server at home).

Battery life is MUCH better than the Jukebox on a single charge, but the Jukebox takes AA batteries making it very easy to find replacements on long trips. I find the controls perfectly intuitive, although I was helped by having a very well-structured system for folders and filenames on my media server -- one that meshes very well with the Muvo.

When in the car or on the road, my Jukebox contains most of my CDs, and uses standard easy-to-find batteries if I can't conveniently charge the player. When tooling around town for the day, the Muvo contains enough music to keep me entertained while not weighing me down. So each player has its niche role in my life, and each does the job well.

pros:
-sound quality
-battery life
-DRIVERLESS operation!
-when you want to replace it you can sell the drive inside and get your money back
-size and weight
-good alternative to the ipod if you don't want to be like everybody else. it's also $50 cheaper than the ipod mini.
-price

cons:
-small screen (in my opinion this is a very minor problem as an mp3 player is designed for listening and not looking at the lcd)
-small controls may be difficult for some
-carrying case provides a lot of protection but blocks off access to all of the controls!
-this player is very rare i ordered it from walmart.com and it was on backorder for a month.

Overall this player is very good and is a good alternative if you're not willing to get an ipod mini for any reason. My main complaint is that the protective case that comes with the player does not have any openings to allow access to the controls.

I ordered the product in February, a few days after it became available. After doing some research, and considering the fact I don't need all my music on the go, I had 3 options: The iPod Mini, Nitrus 4GB (hmm... lucky I didn't wait:-P) and the Muvo^2.
The iPod Mini has loads of features, but I wanted to buy an MP3 Player.
The Creative has a replaceable battery, which I consider a big plus , and it has a good battery life.
The Muvo^2 doesn't look as cool as the others, but I liked its look , and I don't think the iPod Mini's look is a reason for the price difference.
A good thing about the iPod Mini is its one year warranty (the Muvo^2 has 3 months).

So far I haven't had any problems. A couple of times, after a bad disconnection from the computer, I had to check it for errors (takes less than 30 secs), but overall it works great.
I didn't get much chance to use the software, since I've already got the songs in mp3 format, and I just shuffle the songs so I don't really need the playlist, but it seems fine.
The drag-and-drop is really convenient, and I also use it to transfer data files if neccessary.
The transfer speed is very good too.
The sound quality is really good, like all Creative's products.
There's an optional remote with an FM tuner, but I haven't tried it so can't comment about it.

About the person who wrote the hard-drive isn't in, that's because you bought it used, and the person you bought it from took the hard-drive off. The "real" unit comes with the HD inside:-P

So basically, the player is for people who need a good mp3 player with good battery life and great sound, in a really good price, and don't want to pay extra for (in my opinion useless) additions.