Shock Proof? Yeah, Like A Glass Vase... (Freecom Beatman Mini)

Member Name: dodidle

Product:	Freecom Beatman Mini
Date:	29/09/02 (1451 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap media, Smaller than the usual Mp3 CD players

Disadvantages: Skips when jogged hard, Poor construction, Poor battery life

About 9 months ago now, I was just browsing the internet and I stumbled across a new technology which allowed you to play mp3s burnt onto mini CD?s. I already owned an mp3 player and was getting annoyed about the cost of Smartmedia and its small storage capabilities. The first mp3 mini-CD player I came across was the Beatman.

This is what I considered before deciding whether to buy one or not.

Advantages
Plays mp3s
Small and lightweight
Cheap media (£1 = 180mb mini CD)

Disadvantages
No song titles, just numbers
Not as small as mp3 players

In the end I decided to look around a bit first... This led me to discover the Compaq PM-1.

http://electronics.cnet.com/electronics/0-6342 420-1304-7344429.html

It was very similar to the Beatman except it had the advantage of song titles via ID3 tags and 480 seconds anti-shock. I read a few reviews of it and thought wow! Loads of music, about 6 albums, on each CD and the CD's only cost a pound each. Not quite as big storage capabilities as full size mp3 CD players, but this one was much smaller and pocket sized.
I purchased one of a bloke in America, they weren't then available in the UK, on Ebay, and it arrived a couple of weeks later. In total it cost me around £105, including all those wonderful import taxes. I bought five more CD's from Argos for £6.

I burnt a few albums onto the 3 blank CD's that came with it, then I started to come across the problems...

1. The anti-shock is useless if your walking around with the player in your pocket. The player was just small enough to fit in my pocket, but it was in the vertical position. It has a hold button so the buttons couldn't be pressed in my pocket. Normally, the mp3 player loads the data into a little buffer in the player, then the CD stops spinning. However, if the player is be jogged while at the start of the song it loads it into the buffer with skips in it. The
whole way through the song you start to get jumps and jitters.

In the end I had to start taking the player out of my pocket, waiting for the track to load in, then replacing it my pocket, this would give a jitter free experience.

2. Cheap paint. After a few weeks the grey coating on the plastic started to scratch off. This made it look really tacky, and it wasn't supplied with any protective case, so it couldn't be prevented.

3. Chews batteries. Battery life is good if the player is kept flat. This means the data can be loaded and the motor is no longer needed to spin the CD. It kept going during long car journeys as a passenger. Battery life then was about 8-9 hours on 2 rechargeable AA batteries. However walking round with player in my pocket reduced the battery life to just 3-4 hours.

4. Stuck without the inline remote. There is no LCD display on the unit itself. The inline remote displays the track title, album, battery life etc. What happens when this breaks? All the buttons are on the unit itself, and you can use all the features without the remote, its just very hard without the LCD screen. I might not treat my music players well, but little after 5 months the remote was falling apart, with the wire nearly breaking where it enters the remote, and the plastic parts holding it together pinging apart slightly (they do clip together again, but shouldn't be coming apart).

5. Endless errors. When trying to start up the player you will occasionally get 'read errors'. The CD sits there spinning for ages, but it just wont play the music! You have to stop it, and start it again, then it'll work fine. Why does it do it though? I?m sure its not scratched CD's as I've put in perfect ones and the same error occurs.

GRRR!!!
Well I've had it stolen from my bag in a changing room now, and I'm not particularly missing it.
The lesson of this rather expensive story is, always fo
llow that phrase saying 'Solid State Construction'. I'm certainly going back to mp3 players now, especially as 256mb compact flash is less than 100$

Summary: