MSI Mega Stick 1 - The Mini Wonder
by Andrew Ku on November 12, 2003 10:50 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Mega Stick 1 — Supercharged USB flash drive
Mega Stick 1 is a bit larger than most USB flash drives, and this limits portability to a degree. However, MSI aims to accomplish a lot, and the size of the drive is perfectly understandable. Over all, the Mega Stick 1 measures 3.8 x 1.2 x 0.7 inches, weighs in at 1 ounce (1.4 ounces with battery) and feels very similar to a garage door opener or a keychain-sized pepper spray can.The front of the unit draws the eye to the Mega Stick 1's mini, 1.2 x 0.4 inch, 96x25, two shades, backlight screen, and simple-to-use play/pause/power on/power off button. Flipping over the Mega Stick 1 doesn't reveal anything, as the AAA battery is hidden behind the cover. Removing the top cover reveals the USB interface, where the battery can be accessed.
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It is hard to peg Mega Stick into a specific category because it is multi-purpose by nature. It functions as a storage device, but it is intended to be used also as a MP3 player. Since most of the time it will be used as a MP3 player, we categorize it as such. However, unlike many of the MP3 players on the market, this aims to function in a different manner. The interface for iPod comes via firewire, and Mega Stick aims to use the more popular USB interface for cost issues and to dual its purpose as a USB flash drive.
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The left side of the unit is where the microphone in and headphone (stereo) out ports reside. Between the two ports lies the secure strap loop for the neck strap.
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The top side of Mega Stick 1 is where the majority of the buttons lie. On the far right are two slots in the casing and this is where the onboard microphone lies. To the left of this is the function button, which sets the repeating playback function during MP3 playback and enables FM radio mode. Next are the record, menu, and the volume up/down buttons. The menu button gives access to the majority of functions including: preset equalizer settings, record quality, display settings (contrast and backlight), etc.
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The bottom side of the unit resides the hold toggle. Basically, This prevents the rest of the buttons from performing any function, but we should note that this doesn't write protect the built-in flash storage.
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The backlight of the Mega Stick 1 isn't on by default, as it must be user defined. It isn't on all the time, rather only a few settings are available: 2, 5, 10, and 30 seconds. This would be in terms of the time it takes for the backlight to turn off, once a button has been pressed. It does look reasonably bright in our opinion, as we could sort through our MP3 selection on a late night flight.
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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.