Small, but Indestructible (Creative Muvo 64 MB)

Member Name: thanatoszane

Product:	Creative Muvo 64 MB
Date:	20/08/05 (267 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Solid, small, reliable

Disadvantages: Only 64Mb

I've had this Muvo a long time now (well over a year). It was originally purchased for my husband, but I inherited it after he decided to just use his mobile for MP3s.

The original reason for its purchase was, mostly, because it was a)cheap and b)small (literally a tiny bit bigger than two AAA batteries netxt to each other).

For the budget we had for an MP3 player (Less than 70 pounds) the choices were small at the time - either big and ugly with lots of space for MP3s, or small in all respects.

We also chose Creative because we have other products made by them, and they have never let us down.

This MP3 player is exactly that, an MP3 player. Nothing else at all. No speaker, you have to use headphones. No mic for recording speech, no display for the names of tracks, nothing. Just an MP3 player.

But, its a very small one - perfect for carrying around in your pocket.

The unit comes in two parts - one tiny compartment that slips off to allow the insertion of the AAA battery, and another which is the core of the player. It takes normal or rechargeable batteries, so you don't have to worry about some wierd third party battery dying on you and you having to rebuy something that costs more than the unit itself.

The main part of the unit has the USB plug on it, which you use to plug into your computer to transfer MP3s to it. The player can store whatever files you want, so it can double up as a thumb-drive - I find I use it more for general file transportation than I do as an MP3 player.

It did come with some Creative brand software to allow people new to the MP3 scene to rip their MP3s, but I don't use this. I find the interface annoying and prefer using my own software. You can use anything you want to make the MP3s, and you don't need any drivers to transfer files on to the player as long as you are using Windows 98 or above - just plug the drive into the USB port on your computer, wait a few seconds, then treat it like a normal drive.

As this Muvo only has 64Mb of storage space, you can't fit many files on there - probably 15 normal MP3s if you are lucky. I found that by using some free software such as CDeX I managed to get quite a lot of MP3s shrank to about 2Mb each - allowing for double that amount. There is a small deterioration in sound quality by doing that, but they are still OK to listen to, and with a bit of tweaking it isn't too bad.

The Muvo is really easy to use - the buttons on it look just like the buttons on an old tape player, but smaller. Not ideal for anyone with huge fingers because it is easy to press the wrong button, but for someone with small hands like myself, its fine.

In terms of battery life, well, I never timed it, but I could get a few days of travel to and from work out of it (30-45 minutes each way) before changing the batteries, and since it only takes one AAA battery it isn't really any problem to carry a spare. I use rechargables and haven't noticed any problem.

The headphones that come with it are the in-ear type. I don't mind these, but found the particular ones that came with it to be rather cheap feeling, and the sound quality wasn't brilliant. I replaced them with some other ones I'd bought to use with my nGage and found the quality much better, so if you are an audio snob and thinking of buying one of these then take note.

If you are an owner of a Creative speaker system for your computer, you can use the Muvo with the volume control unit as an alternative volume control - it just plugs in to the existing control knob. I don't do this as I actually prefer the knob to the buttons, but it is a nifty feature.

The build quality of the Muvo is brilliant. Mine has been sat on, dropped, had the main unit stood on, been rained on until it was soaked, and is fine. I doubt it would survive being stood on if the battery compartment was attached since that is more flimsy, but it has been dropped when it was fully assembled and it was fine.

I have even once managed to get the entire unit covered in chewing gum (my boss walked in while I was chewing so I spat it out and put it in a napkin in my pocket, then forgot about it and left it all day - it escaped the napkin.) when I found this little disaster, which has stuck the keys down completely, and even wormed its way into the USB connector, I sat down and cleaned it up. Some had made its way under the buttons so they were a bit sticky for a little while, but after giving it a day or so to dry up, it was fine.

This thing has taken a lot of abuse in my hands, and it is still going strong.

If you don't want to carry your entire music collection with you at all times, or just can't afford a bigger MP3 player, then this one is well worth a look. The batteries last long enough in my eyes that they aren't a problem, and you can get enough songs on it that unless you are going on a long journey they shouldn't repeat.

The only problem for me is I like to sometimes put new music on it and then listen to them while I'm travelling. The lack of a display for track names means that I have to guess which song I'm listening to, or spend time again at home re-listening to them when I know the names of the tracks.

That said, a display would have made the unit use more power, and likely increase in size, so its a trade-off that was worth it.

I like this player a lot. If you can still find it on sale (I've seen it in some branches of Dixons, but not all the ones in my area) then its well worth it.

Summary: Well worth the price

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