MSI Mega Stick 1 - The Mini Wonder
by Andrew Ku on November 12, 2003 10:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Conclusion
Considering how popular USB flash drives are, we were a bit surprised to see it take so long to come up with something that seems so intuitively creative. It does leave us scratching out heads wondering why it took so long to come up with something that seems so obvious, yet innovative.Right now, we are anxiously awaiting Mega Stick 2 because it increases the capacity to 256MB via a larger NAND flash memory chip. 128MB is still a bit limited because of the number of MP3s that can fit onto the relatively small storage size.
Additionally, we would hope that MSI is also able to provide USB 2.0 on Mega Stick 2, as it will be easier to implement battery re-charge functionality. Apparently, SigmaTel is already offering their new STMP3550/3560 single-chip audio decoder, which provides everything we would like to see on Mega Stick 2 without an increase in real estate consumed by the audio decoder chip.
Some of the shortcomings that we see in Mega Stick 1 can easily be remedied via a user interact-able program that would allow for editing equalizer settings, playlists, etc. This addition would prove to be invaluable, as well as provide a more clutter-free way to program settings, since the menu button/forward/backwards toggle is a bit hard to use. We have already made this recommendation to MSI, and maybe in the future, this will pan out.
The battery life for MSI's Mega Stick 1 is rated at a maximum of 12 hours of playback with an alkaline battery according to MSI. In our own experience (drawn from a variety of battery brands), we got somewhere in the range of 10 to 11 hours of playback, which is plenty of time for a trip. Nevertheless, we would like to see the use of re-charge functionality for the next generation of Mega Stick because it will negate the need to carry around extra batteries.
Before the release of Mega Stick 2, MSI is going to do a minor refresh of Mega Stick 1, called Mega Stick 1 Limited Edition. Basically, the Limited Edition will feature new headphones and two new color schemes, which MSI calls “baby blue” and “hello kitty pink” (*no comment*).
Name brand 128MB USB flash drives are somewhere in the range of $40 to $65, while MSI's Mega Stick 1 has an MSRP of $119. Of those that are on the market, we highly recommend the Mega Stick 1 for those interested in getting a bit more from their USB flash drive. No doubt, it will be a great gift for the holiday season.
We took this on several of our trips, and we can testify to the durability of this MP3 player. The odd thing was that in our meetings with PR folks (not from the motherboard market), we were asked, “What is that little thing?” Once they found out what it was, they were readily impressed, and several asked where they could buy one.
Right now, we only see Newegg carrying this item, under the specified MSRP we might add. Hopefully, more retailers will pick this up soon. We have seen some other mini MP3 players on the market, but they do not have the same five-in-one functionality. Only MSI's Mega Stick 1 seems to have the FM tuner function, which others are clearly lacking.
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Aaapold - Tuesday, November 18, 2003 - link
Outwardsound carries the Jens of Sweden, but it lists for $219.95.geckojohn - Monday, November 17, 2003 - link
So, has anyone tried out this MSI mp3 player?I'm really thinking about getting it... Do you know what Newegg's return policy is? Could i return it if it suckS?
Thanks
Zoomer - Monday, November 17, 2003 - link
It has been around so long, practically all the taiwan/china odm/oems have jumped onto it and produced tons of them.If it gets imported to America en masse, I wouldn't be suprised if the price falls to around $70. In fact, I just saw the Hyundai HY-208 MP3 Player + 128Mb Mini Usb Flash Drive for S$139 - that's about USD$77. I would imagine that it would be even cheaper in HK, S.Korea or Taiwan.
The reason for such popularity? Well, if you are going to get a 128MB usb flash disk for $50, why not toss in another $20 to have it be able to act as a FM tuner/recorder/MP3 player?
Besides, they are small, stylish, "in" (the current trend).
This gets me thinking - how much profit would we be able to get if we get them and sell them on ebay? :)
geckojohn - Sunday, November 16, 2003 - link
Hey, So what one would you recommend besides the Sweeden one?OCedHrt - Saturday, November 15, 2003 - link
http://www.wewa.com.hk/products.asp?mode=second&am...Here's some more.
FRiC - Friday, November 14, 2003 - link
Not to mention, Acer has been selling this exact same MP3 player for a few months already, and for a lower price, before MSI released their version...Andrew Ku - Thursday, November 13, 2003 - link
Well, one more point I need to emphasize, and then back to the other reviews we got on the burner.The MSI Mega Stick 1 can't be seen just for its feature set, as size, weight, and price are just as important. If you compare it to the Nomad Muvo, there is a distinct differential in those three specific groups. This is also the case with iRiver.
Ultraportable notebooks are the "all the rage" overseas, but are not necessarily in the same situation domestically. And in the context of motherboard makers diversifying their portfolio, we do see this to be the first type of product to market. We can eyeball the foreign markets all we want, but the American demographic (I am getting a bit political here... :p ) is very very different from the rest of the world. Not being able to be successful in the American/North American demographic has been a big roadblock to the success of many products.
And to answer your hint of more MP3 player reviews: yes, we will have more down the road. The reason there are 4 and not more is because we took a hiatus from this section for a while. Our lack of reviews in that time is not an indication that we don't see the MP3 player market proliferating.
araczynski - Thursday, November 13, 2003 - link
america is usually behind in technology, europe/japan always has the newest/smallest gadgets at least a year before america decides to copy them... i remember my brother brining home a cell phone from japan many years ago, while everyone was carryign those bricks around here, they had things a third of the size.america doesn't innovate as much as people think, america's good at copying and mass producing at lower prices, which is good too :)
boran - Thursday, November 13, 2003 - link
ehm, may I point you to this site here:http://www.dansdata.com/usbmp3.htm
it's just a "george" or "fred" with the buttons swapped around a bit, even the transfer speeds etc are the same, which makes me believe msi isnt really as innovative as the article is, since the review bout the george dates 11 feb 2003 and you cant claim different weight, specs for function, I believe they R 99% alike (besides logo, firmware and button arrangement)
you can find around a million clones of the george or fred players on the market, imho my first misinformed review on anandtech cous if the reviewer just would have looked at the available players on the market for just a second he would have seen that there is nothing new or innovative at all with this MSI mp3 player.
Boran
Oxonium - Thursday, November 13, 2003 - link
I agree that Anandtech is extremely behind the times with this review. I just hope they make it up to us by having this be the first of many such reviews. Looking at the audio reviews menu, I see only four mp3 player reviews in 2.5 years. The mp3 player market is exploding and evolving as fast as SFF and it is barely being covered.