Olympus m:robe 500i [Archive] - Thoughts Media Forums

Gary Sheynkman

04-08-2005, 05:00 PM

<img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/olympus-mrobe.jpg" /> Product Category: Digital Audio/Photo Player Manufacturer: <a href="http://www.olympusgroove.com">Olympus</a> Where to Buy: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=jasondunn-20&path=tg/detail/-/B0006TLR1G/qid=1111689777/sr=8-2/ref=pd_csp_2?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846">Amazon</a> [Affiliate] Price: $474.99 USD System Requirements: Pentium III+; 200MB Free Space; USB Port; CD-ROM Specifications: 210 grams, 109.4x73.4x21.2, 1.3 Megapixel Camera, 640x480 LCD. Pros:<li>It is VERY cool; <li>LCD is good for viewing photos; <li>Slideshows projected on a TV look great.Cons:<li>Buggy and slow OS; <li>The camera is awful at best; <li>The price is too high for the functions it performs.Summary: For those of you who have read my article on convergence devices, you might very well remember my love/hate relationship with devices that try to be several things at once. The Olympus m:robe 500i is a 20GB MP3 jukebox as well as a camera and slideshow viewer. After spending a month with the device, I am still torn between my young cool guy personality and my audiophile/digital photography worshipper personality. Which will prevail? Read on for the full review!<!> <PAGEBREAK> That “Cool Factor” Just look at it! The masses praise the iPod for its clean design, but the m:robe takes it to a whole new level. With the exception of the recessed power button, there are no buttons of any kind on the device. Every task is performed through the touch-screen OS. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02124.JPG" /> Figure 1: The m:robe has plenty of screen real estate, but is still smaller than a CD in every aspect except for the width, of course. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02126.JPG" /> Figure 2: The dock is a beauty. It also allows for PC interface, charging, and AV out. Speaking of the OS, it is a cool modern burple (not a typo) color that evokes the Captain Kirk in me. Since all the functions are accessed via touch screen, the layout had to be well thought out. All major functions can be accessed by pressing icons that are located at the corners of the screen. There is even a function that allows you to temporarily hide some of the icons on the screen to make navigation easier on the eyes. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02107.JPG" /> Figure 3: You can see that navigation is simplified by shortcut keys located in the corners of the display. Simplicity is the essence of elegance and the m:robe excels at being elegant. Once the unit is turned on, the user is greeted by the m:robe logo followed by the three icons indicating the main functions of the device. These include music play back, the Remix mode, and the camera mode. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02106.JPG" /> Figure 4: The three main functions are displayed once the device boots up. <PAGEBREAK> The music playback mode is a fairly self-explanatory concept. Using the provided m:trip software one can organize his or her entire music collection to his or her liking. I found this feature very useful due to the fact that many live mixes that I’ve downloaded (legally) or recorded are poorly tagged and bad tags on a portable device are just inconvenient! After you sync your now organized music, you can choose to sort it within the device by the regular categories of artists, genres, dates, and others. A particular favorite of mine is the “favorites” folder. While a song is in playback, you can touch the heart-shaped icon on the screen and that song is instantly added to your “favorites” folder. This feature extends to the remote, which is compact and stylish, and has the ability to send a song to the “favorites” folder by pressing a single dedicated button. With regards to the small number of buttons present on this device, the power button doubles as a hold switch for the device which is obviously very sensitive to touch. Once the m:robe is in hold mode and your favorite music is banging away, the m:robe sails smoothly as you listen to your musical collection. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02113.JPG" /> Figure 5: The remote follows the elegant design scheme of the device. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02114.JPG" /> Figure 6: The remote allows you to add songs to the favorites folder. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02117.JPG" /> Figure 7: The m:robe has a special jack for the remote as well as an opening just for headphones. Camera phones are cool. Camera PDAs are even cooler. Camera MP3 players are out of this world! The m:robe is equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera with its own camera light. The viewfinder is non-existent, but the gorgeous LCD more than makes up for it. The setting menu allows you to choose between 1280x960 and 640x480 captures. With 20GB worth of storage, I don’t think size should even be an issue. The m:robe allows you to create folders to store photos and even features a neat focusing system. In order to focus in on an object, one must touch that object on the LCD display. Crosshairs will appear and the image will freeze as the hard drive records it. Since there is no flash, the photo light is a great source of ambient light that is often needed for indoor and overcast outdoor shots. Nothing beats the convenience of having some sort of camera with you at all times. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02121.JPG" /> Figure 8: The back is garnished with the camera light and the lens itself. When I said that nothing beats the convenience of having some sort of camera with you, I forgot to mention that there is a feature that is even more convenient: having an entire picture album with you. The LCD on the m:robe is brilliant, there is no other word for it. The colors appear vibrant and I did not find any dead or hot pixels on my unit. The picture album functionality is augmented by the inclusion of PictBridge. Any camera compatible with this system will be able to transfer the contents of its storage medium onto the m:robe for storage and viewing. Certainly the m:robe can’t view raw files, but that's why we have dual recording right? All of these features are good, but the Remix function makes them great. The Remix function allows the user to pick certain pictures, combine them with a song they have on the device, select some awesome looking transitions, and show the world an exciting slideshow. This function is really top notch, but since the device is not huge it is not a family event type of slideshow, but don't fret - the m:robe dock has an AV OUT port that allows for all the contents, both audio and video, of the m:robe to be displayed on a television screen. You can now gather the family to watch all the great pictures you snapped with the m:robe or any other camera. Throughout the testing process I always carried around some photos I took months back to show all my friends and family. The Remix feature is something that really ties together the audio and photo aspects of this device and gives it greater purpose than a shiny box full of bells and whistles. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02112.JPG" /> Figure 9: The Shuffle mode allows for fun musical slideshows with cool transitions. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02128.JPG" /> Figure 10: The dock allows the m:robe to project to any TV screen. Family slide shows are redefined. <PAGEBREAK> Once the Luster Fades… Yes, it is cool. Yes, it is shiny. Yes, it has a camera which automatically gives it 100 cool points. Unfortunately though, Olympus was much like Julius Caesar: too ambitious. Where it fails as an MP3 player As a rule, it is unethical to base any sound quality reviews on the included cheapo earphones. Unfortunatly my old Panasonic CD player sounded better then the m:robe when I used my Sony studio monitoring headphones. The EQ worked well to alter the sound frequencies, but all my music still sounded just a bit flat. I am not saying that it's bad, it just didn’t amaze me as much as the design did. If you get past this problem with a nice headphone amp I have more bad news for you. This device is slow. When I say this device is slow I am talking about Concorde vs. sloth kind of slow. The shiny OS takes the better part of seven seconds to turn on from the off position and the time between when you touch the screen until the device completes the function is at times too lengthy to go unnoticed. The playback screen has a huge portion dedicated to the playlist and even has a scrolling progress bar. On a device where to fast forward you need to hold down a touch sensitive screen for a little while, you would think they would implement a finger scrolling feature since there is a scrolling bar already, but nothing of the sort exists. The bar is unaffected by your finger and if you have hour long live recordings, getting to a favorite part is annoying at best. The volume display also has a scrolling type bar, but you can change the volume only by tapping the small icons on the opposite sides of the popup screen. Same story goes for all scrollable screens. The device is also horrible at showing titles which are too long. There is a set cutoff point and no live scrolling of the title. Speaking of dealing with length, I discovered a glitch in the device when I tried to play a live two hour mix. As you may very well know, there are 120 minutes in two hours. The m:robe only displays 99:99 of those minutes and lets the song play the other 20:01 minutes out with the timer stuck at 99:99. Granted, not a lot of people listen to two hour mixes, but that glitch combined with poor song scrolling capability frustrated me. Although buttons don’t look cool, I’ll take then any day over a completely touch screen interface unless some serious usability issues are resolved. Another problem is the lack of features on a $500 MP3 player. Where is FM radio? Where is Line Out on the device? The thing is huge, so you might as well put some I/O on it! The iPod Shuffle clone has voice recording, why can’t this thing? The m:robe is an awesome idea that didn’t run through the common sense department of Olympus. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02109.JPG" /> Figure 11: It seems that all my recorded mixes are the exact same length...right down to the second. Where it fails as a camera 1.3 mega pixels might not seem like much, but several years ago it was the norm for consumer digital cameras. In March 2001 Olympus released its 1.3 mega pixel C-1. The street price for that camera was $300. It has been 4 years and you would think that Olympus could vastly improve single mega pixel imaging with new optics. The m:robe is by no means tiny and could have easily included a flash. The shutter is unbearably slow and getting a sharp image indoors is difficult at best. Don’t get me started on color accuracy. Most camera phones that I’ve used produce MUCH better images than the m:robe. Blacks look purple! Coming from Olympus this is a shock. If you are making a device that sets itself apart from others by having camera functions at the expense of size, you should make sure that the camera is at least mediocre. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02110.JPG" /> Figure 12: Come on now, my cell phone has more capture options! <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P2040009.JPG"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P2040009small.jpg" /></a> Figure 13: That guy was wearing a black shirt and was sitting on a black chair. Yes, I said black. Click on the image for the full size image. (609KB) <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040026.JPG"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040026small.jpg" /></a> Figure 14: I took a picture of myself in a warehouse mirror. All I got was noise, noise, and more noise. Click on the image for the full size image. (775KB) <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040029.JPG"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040029small.jpg" /></a> Figure 15: The image is noisy and colorless. Click on the image for the full size image. (501KB) <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040030.JPG"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040030small.jpg" /></a> Figure 16: Even outside, the shutter has to be very slow in order to capture the image. Notice the blur on the car. Click on the image for the full size image. (600KB) <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040032.JPG"><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/P3040032small.jpg" /></a> Figure 17: A cool view of the Sears Tower ruined by noise. Click on the image for the full size image. (620KB) What about that third function. It was good, right? Well…yes. The Remix function is great but PictBridge is just not enough I/O. The Archos Gmini 400 is much smaller, has the same capacity, has a lot more I/O, plays videos, AND it has a CF slot to store your pictures on the go. Olympus listen, if you create an awesome portable photo viewer that has a paltry camera and a mediocre MP3 player on board why not give the end user the ability to get nice pictures on the device using other methods? USB On-The-Go would have been a better option, as would at least an SD card slot. CF would have been awesome as one can just get adapters for all other types of flash memory. Yet another opportunity lost. So Does the Cool Guy Beat the Cool Headed One? No. This device is a great concept with poor execution. It seems like it was rushed to the market. It's like buying a Ferrari with a Corolla engine; you will look good at the stop light but a kid on rollerblades will beat you at the drag strip. Gary’s top tip: avoid. <img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/DSC02122.JPG" /> Figure 18: Just steer clear of this mess.