Napa 1GB MP3 Player

[Ben]

Forenote: If you can't be arsed to read this then just take my advice and don't buy a Napa mp3 player

 

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/product.php?sku=384199

 

 

One day I had £100 on me and impulsively decided to buy an mp3 player. So i went out and bought the cheapest one that holds a gig for £80.

 

I probably could have found a better and cheaper one online but i was in an impulsive mood and wanted one right there and then.

 

I ended up buying a Napa that could hold 1 GB. I regret that descision now.

 

Pros:

Does the job,

Compact design,

 

Cons:

Bad menu system,

No playlists,

Tiny battery life,

 

 

To briefly skim across the pros and cons;

 

"Does the job" means basically that the thing works when you turn it on. Not that i've actually learnt the "knack" of turning this mini-beast on though. If you hold down the play (on) button nothing happens. I've tried holding it down for a few seconds and then clicking again a few more times but i just can't suss it. It seems completely random but you can easily turn it on with a series of incoherent clicks, within around a minute. A recommended model if you're learning to become a safe-cracker.

 

Compact and stylish design. Fair Does.

 

Bad menu system indeed. To set it to shuffle you need to go through an annoying load of menus. Once it is set to shuffle you need to navigate your way back to the main non-menu screen using all of the exit options. Same with just about every option you want to access. Browsing through the menus also seems to drain battery life significantly.

 

There are no options to create playlists so you're stuck with just a huge list. Also there is no way to rearrange the order of the tracks. They're stuck in the order that you recorded them. Because of its small design, the LCD screen is unable to display more than one track at a time. You also can't select a song before you play it. You have to cycle through them as if it were a huge CD. Also the time it takes to play a track and display the track title is quite slow. This means that selecting a track out of a few hundred will take quite a while. This too also significantly drains battery power.

 

It takes AAA and the box claims "up to 8 hours battery life." Napa, you're speaking bollocks. I know that just means "8 hours if you're lucky" but come on. The most i've stretched out of it is an hour with duracell batteries. Even less with Ever ready batteries. I can't even expect half an hour if i skip through and find a track because skipping tracks seems to take up most of the battery life. It would be slightly acceptable if you had the option of playlists.

 

To sum it all up; This is a piece of shit! Avoid. I'm writing this because the shoddy design annoys me and i don't want anyone else to make this mistake and buy it. I've never heard of Napa too. I guess they've got a lot to learn. I just can't afford to buy a pack of batteries every day.

 

Final score - OOOO - 1 emoticon out of 5

 

Up yours Napa

[Steve]

The battery life on this is terrible! Half an hour? Could you not return it?

[Ben]

I'm going to try. I disposed of all the packaging too soon though. You reckon that'll be a problem?

 

Battery life aside i still think this is a terrible mp3 player.

[Steve]

Did you actually buy it from PC World? They are notorious fuckers for not taking things back. As long as you have the receipt I would stand your ground though because the player sounds as good as useless to me. Even if they gave you a credit note because you're missing the packaging you could add a few quid to it and get something better, or get a better quality 512MB model for a similar price.

[Ben]

No. Got it from Dixons.

 

As i said, impulsive. Haven't bought anything from Dixons in ages.

[Clownstyle]

That player sounds like a bag of shit. Have you tried using higher power rechargable batteries?

[Ben]

I've slightly changed my opinion of this player now.

 

Just before i walked to london, i bought a few Duracel Extra batteries. They seem to last for a good day of constant playing. Why the normal Duracel last only 30 minutes confuses me slightly. Oh well.