It's the first music player to integrate on-the-go music shopping via Wi-Fi - but does the quality of MusicGremlin's MG-1000 hold up to the promise of its concept? We find out.
Review summary of the MusicGremlin MG-1000:
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 The MusicGremlin MG-1000 offers the ability to download music whenever you're at a Wi-Fi hotspot. Clear sound and a bright 2-inch LCD are nice perks but the battery life is mediocre and the FM radio is poor. Downloading songs without your PC is the real draw but $299 for an 8 GB player is a bit expensive. Release: June 2006. Price: $299.
Pros:
Cons:
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Full review of the MusicGremlin MG-1000:
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Music playback - Very good
The MG-1000 offers decent sound for MP3 playback but the FM radio's reception was poor.
This device supports MP3 and WMA, as well as MusicGremlin's subscription service. Transferring content onto the MG-1000 is done with either Wi-Fi or the included USB cable; either way was pretty effortless. The MG-1000 downloads music at a decent pace and songs are available before they've completed transferring.
The 2-inch LCD is bright and menu options like Recent Downloads, Playlists, Artists, Tracks, and Albums should be familiar to iPod users. They help quickly locate the song that you want to hear.
Ease of use - Very good
Controlling the MG-1000 is simple. A four-way navpad scrolls through your songs. Volume, rewind, play/pause, and fast forward buttons are found on the right and the power/lock control is on the left.
The MG-1000 can be filled with songs from MusicGremlin Direct (similar to subscription services like Napster); single track purchases are also available. The ability to fill it from anywhere (that you get a Wi-Fi connection) and to share songs with friends makes it stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, only subscription-based songs can be shared and the other person must also be a subscriber.
Battery life - Good
The MG-1000's battery life is rated at 10 hours but it's much less with the Wi-Fi on. With it on we got a little over 2 hours, which is rather disappointing. If you're going to be downloading frequently, plan on staying near an outlet.
Price and availability
The MusicGremlin MG-1000 will start selling for $299 () in June 2006.
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