Customer Reviews

mobiBLU B153 512 MB MP3 Player (White)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my fifth MP3 player. All of its predecessors suffered from one or more fatal flaws (slow, bad display, no bookmarks, various other problems). I've only had this one a few days, but it's shot to the top of my list. The OLED display is bright and very readable except in direct sunlight. The audio quality is excellent. The battery life is hard to believe, but I haven't had it long enough to find out if it really goes for 153 hours -- it just hasn't run out on me yet. 10 bookmarks and they're pretty easy to set and find. The black case looks pretty cool. Load music and files using drag and drop (not that awful Windows Media Player).

Negatives are fairly minor: controls are a bit awkward. Can't use standard AA or AAA batteries, but at 153 hours, who cares! It weighs a bit more than others due to its giant battery. I got the 2G model and wouldn't recommend anything smaller since there's no storage expansion capability.

Overall I like this and think it's a pretty good deal.

Update on 26-Mar-2008: please see my caution on purchasing Mobiblu products under "mobiBLU T10 8GB Black".

I like to listen to audio books, so I had to upgrade from my iriver and JVC players-both of which only held 1 gig. My mobiblu player holds 2 gig and I just love it! The battery life alone is worth the price, since I was changing batteries every three days with the other players.

If you can't stand being strangled by itunes, sonic stage, or music manager, then this is the player for you. Can you say, "Drag and drop?" I won't buy any other format for the sheer convenience of it. With the provided cable, you can share practically any media file with any computer. I refuse to be kept on a short leash by smothering software.

Just one thing, don't set the alarm with the Hold button in the lock position. Otherwise, it'll freeze and you'll have to reset it.

P.S. I've dropped this player twice with no ill effects.

I bought one after reading about it in Wired magazine, because I liked the idea of the incredible battery life, and I was looking for a MP3 player that could do both voice and line recording. I went to their web site, read the specs, and decided to give it a shot.

Pros
--good, bright display
--reasonable cost
--good sound playback quality
--nice features (FM radio, radio/voice/line-in recording)
--recording direct to MP3 at various qualities (up to 128 (voice) or 192kbps (line))
--small size, thicker but smaller than an iPod nano
--incredible battery life
--easy drag-n-drop interface from Windows XP, no drivers required

Cons
--pretty un-friendly user interface (buttons + joystick)
--foreign language manual can be cryptic

The voice recording quality was good using the built in mic, not outstanding, but good. I was sad to find out after I got the unit that voice recording can only be done at a max. of 128kbps (which is fine for most purposes), and line recording is up to 192kbps (if I recall correctly). I ended up returning this one because I'd like one with a bit more recording capacity (Mobiblue makes them in 1GB and 2GB models, for not much more $$$).

Overall a nice little device. I'll probably get upgraded model with more capacity.

You guys have got to check out the Mobiblu B153. This thing rocks. I'm mainly concerned with being able to record 4-5 hours on a daily basis, and listen to it later that day. There are not alot of players that can handle that. Some have limitations as to max record file length, max record time, or max battery life. The B153 has none of these! The recording on the B153 easily handles what I need. I can record all week, 5 hours a day on one charge. I encode it as a 96 kBps and each file roughly takes ~ 200 MB. I am able to store 2 weeks worth of recording on my 2GB B153. It has FM Record, Line in record, and encoding rates up to 192 Kbps. It also has some additional features that make it great. It has a record timer function that allows you to select the time of day and the channel you want to record. It automatically starts up and starts recording at this time. (Unfortunately there is no time off; it needs to be done manually). It has FF with 32X quickly fast foward through a file. It has book marks, that can be used while listening. Once set it allows you to be able to get back to a place in the file to start listening again. They have a new player out. The US2 which looks good (it also include time off recording function mentioned earlier). But I opted to go with the B153 since it has a battery life of 153 hours of continuous playing. Check it out folks!

bababooey!

5/29/07 revision to review below:
Not really working - will only allow you to save or delete 1 file at a time via PC before failing
5/28/07 revision to review below:
I revived mobiBlu B153 - myPodder/autorun.inf may cause problems

I'm guessing the problem has to do with the myPodder software on it - just a guess. When I deleted the autorun.inf file on it, it started to behave normally when connected to the PC. I was flailing to get it to that point.
Recap: Windows would recognize it to the point where it gives you the menu of things you can do when you plug in a USB device. When I would try to open the folder and delete a file, it would say it couldn't find it, the contents of the file folder would disappear. Disconnecting and reconnecting would cause a warning that the USB device was not recognized. To get it recognized again, I had to totally power down the PC (not just restart). I tried a few things. Checked if it was the recent (mid-April 07) MS update that affected PnP devices. I uninstalled it - no effect. I deleted all files I could delete directly using the device (no PC connection). No effect. I recorded many hours of FM on the device, hoping it would overwrite corrupted data. This may have done something - after recording something like 20 hours at 128 kbps, I was able to open the log.txt file on the device and read it. That was all I could do before it failed. I did a cold restart, then deleted the mypodder.exe file. It got stuck, but seemed to delete; when I cold restarted it was gone. It failed again. Next cold restart I deleted autorun.inf. It seemed to fail again. Next time I cold restarted, the autorun.inf file was gone and the device seems to be behaving normally now. So, I guess if I just received this device, I would at least consider deleting myPodder.exe and autorun.inf. The mobiblu website is not much of a resource in troubleshooting problems. Latest firmware is a year old. It would be a shame if this was a great device crippled by poorly designed unnecessary software (myPodder).


5/24/07 revision to review below: I retract my recommendation. I would change my rating to zero stars if I could. I can't get the player to connect to my PCs anymore. I'm a geek, so I don't think it's due to a lack of impatience or ignorance. I did have some expired DRM WMA audiobooks on there, so I suspect Windows is refusing to recognize it (even after I deleted the files). But there were also a few unprotected mp3s that were displaying messed-up file names also, so it may have been a case of an electron or two being misplaced somewhere - anyway, it's a pain - don't buy it - I apologize to anyone who already bought it based on my earlier recommendation.
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On 3/30/07, I got a 2GB version of the MobiBlu 153B player (also know as DAH-1900V). I have successfully used it to download and listen to audio books from both Netlibrary and Overdrive. The player has 5 bookmarks and a resume function. I find it easy to use. Consumer Reports rated it a best buy in a recent issue. [...]. I ended up getting mine directly from the company's store because Amazon only had the 512K version, and were out of stock on that. I had a little problem with a little slide switch (HOLD) that was slipping. I pulled it off with my fingernail and popped it back on and that fixed the problem. Also, one of about 20 podcasts I loaded onto it made it freeze. I reset it with a paper clip. (It doesn't wipe everything out when you reset it. You can easily delete files off it from Windows Explorer.) Those are minor annoyances. Overall, it seems to me to be well designed. Windows Media Player 11 had no problem syncing to it for NetLibrary. The OverDrive application had no problem syncing to it. It uses a USB connection to recharge. It supposedly gets 153 hours of play out of 1 charge and can be recharged 500 times. Well, I've been using it alot over the last 4 days, and the battery indicator still says full. So I think it's a good choice for an audio book player (assuming it doesn't break over the next 12 months anyway).

I have used a lot of different devices to play my digital music collecton and as a mac user all i see is ipod ipod ipod and more ipod well i got fed up with the ipod i had and i deceided to get something a little bit different I saw this player and after hearing about is RIDICULOUS battery life i deceided to give it a try well ive been useing it a little while on my ibook and it works pretty good while it cant play my drm protected files i dont have that many so thats no huge loss to me its just a simple drag and drop action which can get combursome but is not to bad throw in a radio and even some live on the fly recording and this player is a fantastic value for the money at only one twenty for the two gig version its cheaper than a nano and it feels a lot more sturdy so even if you are a mac user consider somthing beside the ipod it may work for you

Not only does this item not work at all, except for the fm radio, it is not even a GOOD PAPER WIEGHT. It is to light to hold papers on the desk and it is to defective to play podcasts.
This useless item worked for about two weeks total out of the seven weeks I have had it. That is after having to reinstall all of the firmware and software.
The reset/reboot button does nothing! The screen is upside down, the display has Asian symbols and the playback is in very slow motion. It sounds like an old record being played back at the wrong speed or for you younger folks, a dragging tape player. I have been able to get it all right a few times, but the next time I turn it on, it goes back to its upside down slow ways.
I did not buy this to be able to keep myself busy reseting and going through countess menues, I bought it to listen to podcasts, which is impossible with this piece of cr..! I am not able to get in touch with Support, the phone number is diconnected adn they do not respond to emails. I have just left a message with Sales hoping they might be able to go over the the support person and wake them up! I feek ripped off and may contact my BBB and/or my states AG.
So I guess I reccommend you not by this unless it is FM radio your after.

This player has some nice features for playing music tracks, but if you use your mp3 player for long podcasts (most of mine are 2 to 5 hours long), don't consider this player.

The maximum search speed is only 32X (per the user manual). It would take more than 9 minutes to search a 5 hour podcast.

In contrast, the Apple Nano maximum search speed is not constant and accelerates to about 4000X, so it takes about 5 seconds to search a 5 hour podcast. The Apple Nano is ideal for long podcasts.