Despite being a month into 2009, all we want to talk about is 2008 right now. Well, the Best DAP's of 2008 that is. For those that participated in our voting over the last few weeks, the Top 5 players shouldn't come as a surprise to you. To refresh everyone's memory, each player selected was the winner from one of five categories - Simple, Mid-range, High-end flash, HDD, and PMP. Here are the winners:
Sandisk Sansa Clip (Simple category winner) - This player has been one of the most popular DAP's to date and for good reason. It might be one of the smallest players available today, but it packs a mighty punch in the sound department. Sandisk released a 4 and 8GB model in 2008, as well as a new silver color.
Sony A820 Series (Mid-range winner)- Sony already won us over in 2007 with the S610/S710 series, and they continued that tradition in 2008 with the A820 series. It tackled nearly every fault I listed in my S615 review, including a larger screen, and higher capacities.
Samsung P2 (High-end Flash winner)- The P2 is a bit of an oldie, but it is still one of the best touchscreen players available today. Last year, Samsunng released their BlueWave Firmware which significantly improved the player and its interface. In 2009, you can expect the P3 to pick up right where the P2 left off, and then some.
Microsoft Zune 120 (HDD category winner) - The HDD category only had one other nominee, the iPod classic. The Zune won in a landslide due to its larger screen, sexier design, and superior interface (among other things).
Archos 5 (PMP category winner) - The winner of this category claims to be an Internet Media Tablet, go figure. Despite Archos' new label for the Archos 5 and 7, they're definitely PMP's in my book. They look pretty sexy too, compared to most other PMP's in the market.
The best part about this list is that it was chosen by all of you. In past years the list was compiled by just the staff members here, but I think it's better to get the community involved.. I want to thank everyone who has participated and I hope most are pleased with the final results. Now our final poll is more for fun than anything. You have the opportunity to select the Best DAP from the 5 listed. It's not exactly a balanced poll pitting the tiny Sansa clip against a huge PMP, but I do believe every player listed has their strengths over the other.
So locate our poll on the right side of the front page and cast your vote. The poll will be open for one week this time, after which I'll announce the Best DAP of 2008.
Thanks to Design Fabulous for creating the nice banner you see above!
On December 31st 2008 the world caved in for 1st gen Zune owners when their precious little players all of a sudden stopped functioning. As we later learned, Microsoft forgot to account for the leap year, and the player's internal clock imploded in a yelp of confusion. Thankfully the bug only last for 24 hours and all Zunes were up and running for the New Year. During that same period, news started to come in that Gigabeat players were also affected. That's not surprising considering the Zune was originally built by Toshiba and both were essentially running on the same PMC platform.
I figured the Gigabeat bug would be resolved just as the Zune one was, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Some 28 Days later (awesome movie btw) and alot of models still aren't working, at least in Japan. Players affected include the S, V and T-series. I've heard mixed reports on whether the bug is still ongoing so if you own of the players listed, let us know. It could be a problem that's just afflicting Japanese models. Toshiba just released a "software update tool" for the T-series which they're hoping will resolve the issue. Still nothing for the S and V-series however. We'll keep you updated on whether the fix is working. Some 24-hour bug huh.
I usually gauge a company's success by the amount of times I slap my forehead. The higher the amount, the worse a company is doing. Yep the good ol' facepalm meter never fails. Right now, iriver is off the charts and my head is feeling it. They just announced a new lineup of plush charms that will be accompanying a Siren DP150 adorned in a rainbow assortment of Swarovski crystals.
There's a hippo, a rabbit, and a monkey plush made by a company called "Clasky". The charms are fashioned with an "I love iriver" t-shirt and a bunch of accessories (guitars, headphones, etc..). The player will have 2GB's of memory and play for 15 hours.
Okay I get it, these are being marketed towards girls. Not just any girls either, Japanese girls. They'll probably eat these things up for all I know. That doesn't make me feel any less awkward about iriver right now though. Anyway, these will be sold next month in Japan as a Limited Edition. Get this, it's going to cost 19,800 Yen, which amounts to about $220US. Alright so let me rephrase again, these are for rich Japanese girls. *facepalm*
Continuing our coverage of mobiBLU's 2009 lineup, we present a player that's more reminiscent of their innovative past. It's model name is the A10, but for obvious reasons they're calling it the "UFO". While the design might only appeal to alien conspiracy theorists like myself (they're real dammit!), its functions should be more of a crowd-pleaser. The UFO doubles as both an MP3 player, and a Bluetooth speaker/headset. Check out the specs below:
Features
Capacity: 2, 4, and 8GB
Audio: MP3, WMA, and Ogg
Built-in Speakers (2W)
Bluetooth Support
Battery Life: 15 hours with headphones, 5 hours thru speakers
Dimensions: 90 x 42mm
It's clear the mobiBLU A10/UFO wasn't designed for portable use. Can you imagine stuffing that thing into your jeans pocket? Nonetheless, it's a cool device and definitely a promising sign from the once inventive company. Maybe the odds of mobiBLU coming back are the same as aliens landing on my front lawn, but either way, I want to Believe. Now somebody cue that spooky X-Files theme.
The Korean DAP market is much less diverse from before, with only major competitors now competing (Samsung, iriver, Cowon, iStation, etc). However, there is now a new member in the block called Lisse. Their new device is called the S10 and was designed by a company called Dadam (responsible for all Cowon products). It's quite attractive, and has already won the Good Design Award. The device itself is nothing special, just a standard music based device. The navigation method however, is quite unique. The device is much like the iriver U10, but instead of click on the edges, you slide the front face in 4 directions.
When it came to innovation, I would have put mobiBLU in my Top 5 a few years ago. After all, this is the company that won us over with their adorable cube, and amazed us with their 150+ hour DAP (aka the B153). You'd think those types of players would propel the Korean company forward, but conversely they seemed to disappear into thin air.
I was recently contacted by mobiBLU Korea. They were quite persistent in their attempts to make sure I was aware of their new products. I was going to ignore them, but I decided to take a look at what they had to offer. It looks like they have a few new players lined up for 2009, including a touchscreen PMP called the T50. The T50 doesn't do much to differentiate itself from the crowd unfortunately. It has a pretty uninspiring design and its interface looks like another iPod touch clone.
Like the Samsung P3, it features a haptic touchscreen display (2.6" 400 x 240 resolution). It supports a respectable amount of formats including FLAC, AAC, and APE. It can also play back RM/RMVB videos. There's also the usual extras including an FM tuner, Voice recorder, and Text viewer. Another knock on the T50 is its small capacity of just 4GB. That just doesn't cut it anymore. Most of the company's current players are rebrands, and I wouldn't be surprised if the T50 was one as well. It is sad to see such a promising company in this state, but hopefully they can bounce back one of these days.
Here's a deal that'll probably be gone before you know it. Amazon is selling the Archos 605 WiFi with 160GB for just $209 and free shipping. That's the cheapest I've seen this capacity going for, so it's either a price mistake or they're clearing inventory. Probably the latter.
Features
Capacity: 160GB HDD
Display: 4.3" TFT touchscreen (800 x 480) w/ 16 Million colors
Audio: MP3, WMA, and WAV (AAC and AC3 via optional plug-in upgrade)
Video: MPEG-4, WMV (H.264 and MPEG-2 via optional plug-in upgrade)
Audio and Video recording via the optional DVR station
Built-in WiFi for browsing the internet and streaming files (requires browser plug-in)
PDF viewer
Battery Life: 17 hours for audio, 5.5 hours for video
No industry is safe from our current financial crisis. Yesterday Microsoft reported that they were planning to cut 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months, including many from their Entertainment division (Xbox/Zune). More gloomy news surfaced today as it appears Zune sales revenue is down $100 million, or about 54% from last year.
There are a few factors for this of course. We're in the midst of a deepening recession and things like MP3 players take a backseat to paying off credit card bills and the mortgage. For those that are in the market for a new player, the Zune is simply not a safe bet compared to iPods. People want a product that they've seen others have success with, rather than trying something new that might not work as well. It's the reason iPod sales continue to dominate this industry, even when the market is stable. Truly thinking different is risky it seems.
My last contributing factor is the lack of any new Zunes. There hasn't been a new Zune for over a year now. This is one of the major downsides to releasing new software updates, but not making any hardware changes. Sure it's beneficial to existing Zune owners, but your average consumer isn't aware of a new software update. Thus, all they see is the same product that's been on the shelf since November 2007. Apple on the other hand releases a new iPod once or twice a year and that helps to keep their momentum going. A new color Zune, higher capacity, or a"Special Edition" isn't going to lead to a steady increase of sales. It might provide a small bump, but nothing compared to a new player.
Although this news looks bad on the surface, I'm not too worried about the Zune. It has become the clear alternative to iPods and Microsoft isn't going to abandon it so prematurely. They just need to release something new. If I had to guess what that was, I'd say a touchscreen Zune is what they need and what many of us want.
Improved video playback performance of HD Xvid, DivX 5, DivX 6 - HD-level Xvid, DivX 5, DivX 6 files (be able to play high resolution files that are over 1280
720p)
Added picture mode settings: vivid mode / standard mode
Improved stability of performance of some faulty video files that contain AC3 audio codec.
Moved position of volume icon in TV-out mode.
Music
Fixed the error that some music file lyric passed quicker then it supposed to.
Improved video resolution of album art, which is high resolution, of mp3 files.
Fixed the error that while some music files, which contain album art, are playing, screen changes to menu and back to music mode and karaoke lyric is overlapped on Meta information.
Changed position of album art.
Pictures
Changed to stop when you press previous or next button in slide show mode.
Fixed the error that slice show is irregularly down when previous or next button are pressed.
Documents
Improved performance of controlling scroll bar when it didn’t work right in some part of irregular files.
I have just completed my most recent concept design, and since it's a DAP this time, I felt that it needed to be shown here more than anywhere else. It's called "Soma" and I started working on it around November. It's not designed for the hardcore users like most people on dapreview, so keep that in mind. I won't say anymore, the design will probably say more than my words.
(Simple category winner) - This player has been one of the most popular DAP's to date and for good reason. It might be one of the smallest players available today, but it packs a mighty punch in the sound department. Sandisk released a 4 and 8GB model in 2008, as well as a new silver color. 
(Mid-range winner)- Sony already won us over in 2007 with the S610/S710 series, and they continued that tradition in 2008 with the A820 series. It tackled nearly every fault I listed in my S615 review, including a larger screen, and higher capacities. 
(High-end Flash winner)- The P2 is a bit of an oldie, but it is still one of the best touchscreen players available today. Last year, Samsunng released their BlueWave Firmware which significantly improved the player and its interface. In 2009, you can expect the P3 to pick up right where the P2 left off, and then some.
(HDD category winner) - The HDD category only had one other nominee, the iPod classic. The Zune won in a landslide due to its larger screen, sexier design, and superior interface (among other things).
(PMP category winner) - The winner of this category claims to be an Internet Media Tablet, go figure. Despite Archos' new label for the Archos 5 and 7, they're definitely PMP's in my book. They look pretty sexy too, compared to most other PMP's in the market.
