Packard Bell Pocket M@estro MP3 Player

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.austinv.com/comment.php?comment.news.351' target='_blank'>http://www.austinv.com/comment.php?comment.news.351</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Designed for digital music fanatics who want the very best, the PocketM@estro packs a gigantic 5GB of storage capacity into a sleek, compact design ... Slightly larger than a credit card, the Pocket M@estro can hold up to 1,500 tracks (WMA format) and features intuitive music navigation. It also comes with a built-in FM tuner/recorder and voice recorder. Loading that much music is fast and easy, thanks to the Hi-Speed USB 2.0 port, while the rechargeable lithium-ion battery provides up to around 7 hours of non-stop listening pleasure. The 5GB version also comes with an easily readable OLED display and built-in real-time MP3 encoding."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/PocketMaestro.jpg" /><br /><br />Also available in a 2.5GB version, this is a nice little unit that is perhaps not as small as an iPod mini but has the OLED display and the FM tuner. Apparently these units are available now with the 2.5GB version costing just around $250. I can't tell how much the 5GB unit costs. So, would you buy a Packard Bell device? I remember the company as being the one that offered the ridiculously low priced machines in the late 90s. I did not even know that they were still around. ;-)

[Felix Torres]

I did not even know that they were still around. ;-)

Technically, they aren't.
They crashed and burned and took a ton of NEC money with them; the only thing that remains of the old operation is the name, which NEC uses mostly in Europe for PDAs and consumer products.

So the question is, would you buy a digital music player from NEC when they *won't* put the NEC name on it? ;-)

As for the player itself, its pretty generic, which is a good thing if you're waiting for a price war to bring prices down.
Seems we're getting a new one every other day, no?

YAMP!! :twisted:

[Kent Pribbernow]

With a name like Packard-Bell, it has to be good. :?

[Suhit Gupta]

So the question is, would you buy a digital music player from NEC when they *won't* put the NEC name on it? ;-)

As for the player itself, its pretty generic, which is a good thing if you're waiting for a price war to bring prices down.
Seems we're getting a new one every other day, no?
I completely agree, there are new flash based as well as hard drive based players coming out literally on a daily basis. But yeah, it is a mystery why NEC would ship their new player with a Packard-Bell brand name. They are either trying to revive the name? Or are thinking ahead - if the player fails to sell then they can blame it on the brand. :-P

Suhit