Customer Reviews

TrekStor i.Beat xtension 1 GB MP3 Player with FM Radio (Black)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

First, this MP3 player is USB mass storage class compliant. So you plug it in and drag and drop your music files like any other device. This means you can use it as a thumb drive as well and store whatever you like. It will just play the mp3s and leave the rest be. It keeps the files in the folders you put them in and allows you to pick the folder you want to play. This makes it easy to keep things organized if you don't want to set up the ID3 tags. Navigating the folders isn't complicated once you get the hang of what button does what.

I've had other mp3 players that conflicted with my mouse when I plugged them in but this had no problems. Also, it plugs in straight without any cables to connect it up. There's a cover for the USB connector which fits on snugly. You remove this also to change the AAA battery. Another nice aspect as you can bring extras with you.

The other big thing is that in addition to the internal memory, you can plug an SD card in. This means you can bring as many as you want and just swap. I tried out both a 2GB SD card and an 8GB SDHC card and both worked fine! Since I already had the 8GB card for my camera I got a 9 GB capacity mp3 player for quite a nice price!

When you slide the SD card in, it switches to it immediately and starts to play. You can switch back though fairly quickly. There's a short delay but its not like with other mp3 players when you add new songs and you have to wait a minute or so before it will play. When you plug it into your computer it shows up as TWO drives: one for the internal memory and one for the SD card (whether you have one installed or not). You can thus use this to transfer your SD card data to your computer without the need for any wires if you wanted. I will say that the SD card does stick out a tiny bit so it could catch on something but I don't think its that big a deal.

Over the years I've had several mp3 players but this is by far the best.

Exchanged a COBY at $35 for this at at $49.99 at J and R and after a few hitches everything checks out very well. Sound is very good and the phones provided are excellent. The Trekstor 2GB can be booted with an SD Card in the slot provided in the side.

The Trekstor iBeat Extension is a class above the COBY for only $15 more - 2 GB instead of 1GB, SD Card slot, and the mike and voice recording very good. The FM seems good too.

Two tiny problems though. The Mike hole is too small and on the side not front so it does not record the person opposite you very well unless aimed intentionally at them. And, the FM seems so far not to be able to distinguish between 89.9 (WKCR) and 90.0 MHz (WKCR with occasional hisses), though perhaps I will find out how to correct this.

The TrekStor is German but made in China and the pleasing texture of the surface material is suede. Good appearance except for two slightly cheap looking metal controls. The earphones are excellent. They also provide a neck strap.

This is quality for a bargain price if it continues to perform well. Smaller and less liable to be snatched than an iPod. Was going to buy a Sandisk but would have been without a card slot if I had. The mike is muffled if not pointed at the source which is a big drawback since casual recording from it hanging around your neck looks as if it will not work very well.

Update after three months: Works fine as an MP3 player, except for oddity that sometimes it just stops in midstream even with a newish battery, so you just have to take the battery out briefly and replace, then it works OK. Nice surface feel and black satin looks still please. With unlimited expansion through SD cards it seems to be a very good answer to the MP3 expansion problem for a low price. But whether it will mike any good recordings remains unknown, since the menu offers difficulties of navigation and the mike trouble with orientation that I cant be bothered to deal with.

This is an excellent low-cost MP3 player which will satisfy all "regular" users. The screen is a little small and if, like me, your eyesight isn't what it used to be, it could be a little strain to read it.

The user's guide could go a little more in the details, mainly regarding the explaination for all the -tiny- symbols on screen but if you have been using a tape, cd or whatever of anykind in the last 10 years, you'll figure them out very quickly.

My requirements when searching for a player were:

-Lightweight

-No cable to connect on computer

-Comfortable memory, expandable if possible

-FM radio

-Price max $60.00

It took me a couple of days of search on line but I am not disappointed.

On the service side, JR Electronics (it came from them) sent it the day after in a BIG box with impressive padding. A big ++ for them.

The MP3 power-users will probably want to go with a bigger -more expensive- one but, for myself, I see no need at all to do so and expect to keep this one for a long time.

I bought this wanting an inexpensive (5 stars for that) mp3 player. I'm returning it for a more expensive Creative Muvo, (which this was meant to replace after I broke the Muvo.)

Pros: features; mp3's, voice recordings for lectures (although I didn't try out this feature), fm radio, additional storage capacity with memory card.

Cons: battery runs out when the unit is off, even when the "hold" button is activated. There's also a delay when you press a button before the screen shows your selection, so you don't know if the screen isn't changing because you didn't press the button hard enough, if you press it a second time, the first hit is registered along with the next and you end up passing your desired selection. For a crowded train or walking around town, having to stop, stare at the screen, press the button, wait for it to register, press again and wait again to scroll to your song or folder, is not worth the trouble.

If you're not "on the go", this is a fine product.

Thanks for all the positive reviews. I agreed with them.

I am able to use the Transcend 16GB SDHC fully loaded with music, audio book, and Old Time Radio (free from Archive.org). The file transferring speed is almost as fast as the card reader. Unlike my other Creative Zen, music shuffling works in both main storage and SD/SDHC.

The sound is soft with the shipped version of firmware. It can be fixed with an email requesting for the previous version. The response from the seller is very quick. However both versions should not give you problem as long as you listen it with a headset. (I used a portable speaker most of the time)

This inexpensive unit, TrekStor Xtension, works well with audio book, podcast, and OTR files also. It does resume play after power off, it supports hierarchical file structure (Windows file structure). The files will be played sequentially starting with the innermost files. So if "Short History of everything" is arranged by track#, Disc#, and Book name (three folders example), it will start playing with track01/disc01 followed by track02/disc01, ... Such arrangement will allow very very fast folder searching with three key pressed - 'menu', 'yellow button', and 'menu'. Of course, up and down keys.

I hope the information will help someone who is looking for an expansive, AAA battery mp3 player to listen to audio books and NPR weekly podcast.

I bought 3 of them. I'm using one and keeping the others as spares.

Why did I buy 3 you may ask? Because I was looking for something that was able to use a AA or AAA battery, and had a card slot for expandable storage.

If you have been looking for mp3 players- you know that not many- if any at all- offer these features anymore. I didn't want a video player- all I wanted was a simple mp3 audio player.

Planned obsolescence has dictated that mp3 players come with built in non replaceable batteries nowadays. That means when the battery runs out of juice, you have to stop using the device and recharge it, instead of just being able to pop in a fresh battery.

Most also use lithium polymer batteries- NOT lithium ion. Lithium polymer batteries have a much shorter lifespan, and when they die you have to throw the whole device away.

This is bad for the environment, and for your pocketbook as well.

Navigating the directories takes a bit of getting used to. I suggest you keep the manual handy.

Ok, to be fair- the other complaints about low volume are correct. The device does suffer from a low volume problem. I usually use it at night in bed to listen to audio books, and I have it as loud as it can go. I imagine that in a noisy environment it would be almost impossible to hear. There are tiny battery operated inline amplifiers that might help with this problem.

Also- you might want to google for a freeware program called "mp3 gain". It will boost and/or normalize mp3 files and make them easier to hear. It's very fast, simple, and free.

So I deduct a star for the low volume, but I still give the device 4 stars, because it was exactly what I was looking for.

I like the small size of this MP3 player and the unlimited storage from SD cards. Radio reception is only OK, picks up only strong stations. Only tried the voice recorder once and it worked. But the playback is too soft. I listen mostly to classical music and even with volume cranked to the max it's impossible to hear the quiet passages. I suppose I could get an amp, but then that's 2 things to carry.

2 other gripes: The LCD display is hard to read. It slowly scrolls the song titles letter by letter which I find really annoying and the contrast is poor. And it's tedious to pick songs from the menu. Not like an iPod, where you can zip through a long list of songs and find the one you want. This one makes you click a button to go down one, then wait for about a second before you can click again.

I got this for $12 from J&R and for that price it's quite superb. This product is a very simple music player: just plug it in to your pc (Mac too, but more about that later), drag the music folders to it, and then go listen to them. It's that easy. When I first got the player, the sound was very quiet as stated in other reviews. I work in a library, there was no one here, and I still had to turn the sound all the way up to hear it! But I did the firmware upgrade (easy/5 minutes), and now it's just like any other player volume-wise; perfectly satisfactory. The menus are not intuitive, but not too hard to figure out. I was not looking forward to having to replace the AAA battery all the time, but I've been using it for about 8 hours now with a crappy budget panasonic battery, and it's still playing. I'm sure when I put in a good battery, it will last much longer. The battery icon has shown 0% for a couple hours, but its still going fine. The worst part is the 2-line-high screen. You really have to pay attention to change albums.

Macintosh: I added music to this from my Mac which worked fine, except that Mac has a bunch of hidden files that also get added to the player. The player then gives you a "unreadable format" message everytime it encounters one of those hidden files, which makes navigating a pain. Make sure to delete those hidden files (they start with a .)

Bottom Line: This isn't an iPod or a Zune, but its also not two hundred bucks. If you want something cheap that plays music, this is money well spent. Oh, and get the Trancend 8gb memory card with the free card reader from Blue Proton. Its a good deal, and the free usb-card-reader makes loading up the card with music easy and fast.

I recently purchased this mp3 player from J&R Music and Computer World and they provided an expedient exchange. I will tell you that my intentions for this mp3 player fell short when I received it. I read a review saying that this mp3 player was quiet and that was possibly going to be an issue for me hooking it into my FM modulator for my car. The quieter the player the quieter the music through my car stereo.I received this player and discovered that it was the quietest player I've ever heard (or not heard ;) via- earphones. I still had high hopes for it though and took it straight to my car and plugged it in to my modulator to listen to it through my car stereo .... my fears were true - it was almost useless, I had to have my stereo and this player set to max just to have an equivilent of 50% volume on my car stereo. I would not give up though and stuck my nose to the grind-stone. I immediately contacted the manufacturer about this issue via-email. I got an instant response with an older firmware attached to my email with instructions on how to change the firmware. Note: it is an .exe file and I had to track down a Windows machine to install it (I run Linux >2.6 kernel). Once the firmware updated, I loaded a few tunes on it and tested it out. GOOD NEWS!!!! The earphones just about blasted my ear-drums out! I am not hard of hearing and don't need to have it that loud, but the original firmware that came loaded with it (the newest available) made this mp3 way to quiet. But all is good and I'm anxiously awaiting my 8GB SD card to try it out!!! I would recommend this mp3 player to everyone. You will be very pleased with the quality and available options.

update:

Received my 8GB SDHC card and everything works great! Card is recognized with no problems at all. This is a huge plus when thinking about buying this mp3 player ... lots of other players are not SDHC compliant and will only take the 'SD' card and not the larger capacity 'SDHC' cards. A note on this though ... When transferring music to the SDHC card through the mp3 player, transfer speed is pretty slow about 6 MB/S. Buying an actual SD card reader gave me an additional 2 MB/S for a total of 8 MB/S. The factory (TrekStor) only claims its write speed at 1.1 MB/S, but it is much quicker (on-board memory transfer as well as external). With a fully loaded 8 GB SDHC card shuffle speed and general navigation through the menus on this unit actually slow down. Its a little on the sluggish side when fully loaded, but not enough to really bug you.

This MP3 player is a pretty good deal for the price ($20 in May 2008). It is rather larger than it looks - I expected it to be the size of a typical USB travel drive, but in fact it's around twice as big. It has a good, rubberised outside, and the buttons in general are easy to use and accessible.

I HIGHLY recommend purchasing additional storage. This MP3 player will accept up to 2GB of external memory. I say this for two reasons - 1) 1 GB is fairly limited these days, and 2) the internal memory is very slow to write to (VERY slow - one megabyte every two minutes or so). I don't know if this is because I have a faulty product, or because I'm using it on a Linux system, or this is just the way it is. An extra SD card will set you back ~$5. A worthwhile investment!

The quality of sound is good, the FM radio gets good reception, the earphones are of decent quality, too. The MP3 player comes with a lanyard for hanging around the neck, but doesn't have any clip or attachment for use with a belt or strapping around the arm. In general, a good product, with a couple of little niggles.