Customer Reviews

COBY MP-C741 MP3 Player w/256 MB Flash Memory & FM Radio

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I just got the COBY MP-C741 and have used it for a couple of days and I must say that I am impressed by it considering its price.

The package includes the player, headphones, a battery, the manual, a USB to mini USB adapter cable and a mini CD which includes its drivers. It is plug and play in Windows ME/2000/XP and Mac OS X so no drivers are needed, the included mini CD only has the drivers needed for Windows 98.

It has 256MB of integrated flash memory which can store up to 60 songs (at 4 minutes per song) at 128kbps and also plays WMA files (doubles the song capacity at 64kbps). It has an integrated mini USB 2.0 connection for fast downloads, it also supports creating folders as well as drag and drop. It also has a SD/MMC card slot in the battery cover for expanding its memory capacity to up to 768MB by using 512MB SD/MMC cards which can be swapped or changed to add more music.

It also features a navigation option to navigate and find files, the LCD is screen is backlit and can be programmed to display ID tags, file info or lyrics if available on the file. It also has some preset equalizer settings to improve the sound coming out of the player.

It can also function as a portable storage unit and it is not necessary to have a battery installed on it for using this function since it will feed on the USB port allowing you to take large files by putting them either on the integrated flash RAM or an installed SD/MMC card. Since it supports SD/MMC cards it can also be used as a portable card reader as well.

It lasted a whole two days with the included alcaline battery. It runs on a single AAA battery and you can also use AAA rechargeable batteries. The included heaphones while not the greatest they do a good job, you can also connect your own headphones to it if you wish since it has a standard headphone port.

It also has an integrated FM radio with good reception and also lets you store preset stations. The recording function allows to either record from radio or the integrated microphone, the recorded sound is quite clear (when using the medium or better settings) and can be reproduced by either the MP3 player or a computer (uses IMA-ADCPM encoding) and can store up to 16 hours of recorded sound using the best settings in the integrated flash memory.

The case is made of plastic so it has normal resistance and could be prone to scratches (no paint comes off) if not treated properly so I recommend that you get a carrying bag or case for it to keep at its best.

So far, I have no complains about this player or find any cons to its functionality.

Of course, there are a whole lot more options out there when it comes to MP3 players and it all depends on your needs for an MP3 player, the advantage of flash based drives is that they don't skip if moved around constantly (for example while jogging) or have a hard drive that could go bye-bye if dropped.

If you do not need to look at videos or pictures on your player or need to carry several gigabytes of music around, don't like MP3/WMA formats or are pretty annoyed by minuscule scratches (when maltreated) or that it won't make you a latte capuccino, this player is a viable choice.

With MP3/WMA playing capabilities, voice/FM radio recording, FM radio, plug-and-play, drag and drop, mass storage and SD/MMC card reading/memory expansion capabilities you will be hard pressed to find a device that will do all of this while costing around [...].

Hope this is helpful.

I just bought a coby c741 mp3 player and it works beautifully! The device was instantly recognized by my computer (win xp) and I was able to put music on it very easily. I previously owned an Iomega hip-zip mp3 player (which kept overheating), and a Sony minidisc player (the software that controlled the minidisk was a nightmare). In comparison, this Coby mp3 player is Much easier to use. It has superior battery life (30 hrs) to many of the other mp3 players that i have researched. The screen is very easy to read and the FM tuner seems to work well aslo. The small size of the control button on the front and the cheaper construction of the plastic shell arent a big problem. Overall a geat little player!

I got this for myself for my birthday last year. I bought it for $70 at a store, it was my first mp3 player. It's a cute little gadget, tiny, easy to hold but it feels cheap. This mp3 is only good for people who havent had one already. It's perfect for children because it's so easy to use. It can hold a decent amount of songs but if youre a music pro this is not your machine. You can chage the equalizer, randomize and the recording capabilities are pretty decent. You need better headphones that the ones it comes with though because those dont go too high. Good machine by only for the basics.

I was just looking for something to listen to music to while I worked out. This player is very basic, but for the money does exactl what it says. It holds enough songs to get me through a 2 1/2 hour routine. Sounds pretty good and is very easy to work. Couple of drawbacks: The headphones that come with it has a very short cord and the battery runs down pretty fast (usually replace it about once a week, so I guess it can run for about 10 hours total before it needs a new battery). Other than that it looks pretty cool and is very small (fits in my pocket while I walk around).

The Coby MP-C741 I bought won't work. Sometimes it plays one song o.k., but when it switches to the next song, it always switches to fast forward mode, and then there is no sound. If I fast backward the song, it starts playing, only to start the next song in fast forward mode.

Also it has started just freezing up at after 12 minutes ....

I'm very disapointed with this product.

Bought this for my Girlfriend to use at work. I gave it two stars because it's functional, and it looks good (she really likes it). Memory expansion is a plus. FM works fine, decent reception. The third star is because its relatively simple to use/figure out. Documentation is minimal, transfer connection was picky using the cable. Memory card works fine (Corsair 512mb), and is fairly straight forward....almost.

Would have gotten more stars if not for:
Battery indicator flashes empty at about 2 hours use...but will run for another 10-12 hours.
Files are stored in 4 unnamed folders under the menu, different for recordings, voice memos, files on the player, and files on the card, but with no labels, its certainly not straight forward.
Headphones that come with it are garbage...the $3.99 gas station special is just as good/better.
If it could handle a larger memory card (1-2GB) that would earn a star alone....says it only supports up to 768 total (untested by me).
Coby support (website) is terrible. But hey, what do you expect for $35?

Cute device. Plugged it into XP computer, found the device, assigned it to drive G. Tried to look at G, said Insert disk for drive G.

Technical support line busy. Finally got through, talked to someone for 2 minutes, they put me on hold and then hung up.

I am returning it tomorrow.

If I could give this device a review of less than one star I would. An MP3 player is nothing more than a usb memory stick with a player wrapped around it. It should just work. However I've run into the following while attempting to set it up.

1. Unrecognized device. Uninstall USB device and try again...
2. Device malfunctioned. Uninstall broken device from device manager and try again.
3. Recognized device but says there are two removable disks that are both zero bytes in size.
4. Links in tech support page all give 404 errors
5. Device driver download from coby, only downloads a font file. No driver.

It's too late in the evening to call support, it was a christmas gift for my son from out of state. No reciept, can't return.

It might make a good item to throw at the neighbors cats when they get in my yard.

Other companies have figured out how to make a portable music player "just work" with my computer, why can't these guys?

My time is much more valuable than the time I spent to not get it working.

after few months it just stopped working.

also, it is not rechargable, and need to replace batery every 1-2 weeks

My daughter, who is seven, lost her previous mp3 player so we got her this one. She has been using it for 5 days, and it has been working great so far. It is VERY easy to transfer songs (drag and drop), and I am using Windows 7. It sounds pretty good, and does it's job, that is all we were looking for. This is great for someone who is looking for a very simple mp3, and my daughter loves the screen! Thanks Coby!