So I bought one of those Chinese knock-off MP3 players on eBay. I lost my old Creative and don’t really feel like spending a lot of money on something I really only use in my car, so I decided to take the $45 plunge and see what was lurking at the bottom.
As an MP3 player, it is, of course, pretty shit. Advertised as 8GB, my research shows the chipset can’t page more than 2GB, so there’s probably only 2GB of actual flash memory on the board – probably why my files keep corrupting.
This particular MP3 player is a knock-off of the 5th-gen iPod nano, which includes a very shitty camera. I’d show an example picture, but I left the cord at home – it’s pretty dismal, as to be expected.
The biggest issue with this thing is that it doesn’t save EQ, playback, or most-recent-track settings after shutting down. You have to set the EQ, playback mode (which means I always have to tell it to go into shuffle mode) every time you turn it on.
Since I’m really only going to be using this for spring break and buying a new one sometime after I get back, I’m not really all that concerned about it’s shortcomings. If you want a slightly cumbersome MP3 player to leave in your car and not worry about it getting stolen, this is the way to go.
You might want to get a different model though – older models have better-documented chipsets, and have the firmware easily available in several online communities dedicated to these Chinese knock-offs. That way, if you brick it, or it dies (as is apparently very common with these units), you have a back-up plan.