WD200711ZA-sm.pdf

How We Tested
Media Players
USABILITY We trucked the
players with us everywhere
—to work, the gym, and the
grocery store—and fiddled
incessantly with buttons,
menus, and settings. Players
that let us quickly skip
around, build playlists,
and queue up and switch
between songs, photos, and
videos earned high marks.
AUDIO QUALITY We loaded
the players with music
files in various formats,
including regular old MP3,
DRM’d AAC and WMA,
and, where supported,
uncompressed AIFF, WAV,
and exotic FLAC and OGG.
To compare sound quality,
we spun everything from
bossa nova to Bad Brains
through a pair of high-end
Jays earphones, paying
attention to loudness, tone
color (or lack of it), and
any distortion.
PHOTO AND VIDEO QUALITY
About a dozen JPEGs,
along with either MPEG-4
or AVI rips of Planet Earth
and The Sarah Silverman
Program, were transferred
to players with multimedia
support. To check display
quality, we set units side by
side with the same photos
or videos onscreen and
noted variations in clarity,
color, and brightness,
as well as image smoothness
and depth.
BATTERY LIFE We juiced
players to the max, set their
audio play mode to Repeat,
and then ran them till they
gave out. We expected small
devices to run at least 12
hours, and midsize or larger
players anywhere from
15 hours to several days.
Portable Media
Mini Players
Sometimes your heifer of a main player just
breaks your stride. These tiny dynamos are
ideal for commuting and active lifestyles. —S.C.
Apple iPod
shuffle 1 GB
$79 • apple.com
Once the homely runt of the
iPod litter, the now brilliantly
hued shuffle is fast becoming
as beloved as its screened
siblings. The popularity is
well earned: With a slim bod,
integrated clip, and attractive
price, the shuffle makes the
perfect mate for a morning
run or a crosstown bus ride.
And although it’s named for
its randomizer function, the
shuffle will also output songs
in album, alphabetical, or
playlist order—however you
arrange things in iTunes.
WIRED Small and sexy
(1.1 x 1.6 x 0.4 inches). Handy
clip lets you sport it anywhere.
iTunes’ Autofill function can
mix it up for you.
TIRED Screenlessness
may always chafe for
some. Mini dock, required
for charging and transfers,
is awkward to tote along.
EDITORS’
PICK
Cowon
iAudio 7 4 GB
$170 • cowonamerica.com
Cowon’s iAudio 6 update is all
about battery life: The 7 has
50 hours of it, by our count.
And like most Cowon players,
it supports some rarer audio
formats, including FLAC and
OGG. But perhaps this pintsize
player tries to do too
much. Though it displays
photos and 15-frames-persecond
video, both seem just
smudges on the stamp-sized
screen. And the sensitive touch
controls, combined with the
wee 1.3 x 2.9 x 0.7-inch size,
make for frustrating operation.
WIRED Rugged. Mega
storage for a mini player. Two
programmable buttons for oftused
features. Bright 1.3-inch
LCD screen. Savable soundenhancement
settings. FM
tuner. Line-in recording.
TIRED Unwieldy controls.
Tiny submenu fonts are
excruciatingly hard to read.
Creative Zen
Stone 1 GB
$40 • creative.com
This stupid-cheap shuffle
clone is the most inexpensive
1-GB player we’ve seen. Too
bad the device feels cheap in
your hand and the high-gloss
plastic just loves fingerprints.
On the plus side, the Stone
serves up pure, crisp audio.
Can’t cope with the no-screen
thing? The pricier Zen Stone
Plus ($70) throws in another
gig of storage and a tiny
OLED screen, too.
WIRED Light and oh-sopetite
(0.7 ounce). Comes in
six colors. Attractively curvy
shape. Flashing battery
indicator switches from green
to red when low on power.
TIRED Superslow startup.
Thin plastic housing feels
insubstantial. Controls are
tough to operate by touch
alone. Doesn’t automatically
pause music when headphones
come unplugged.