no hiss, noise, junk, cr@p at all during operations.
(i heard creative n200, sandisk, some iriver got hissing sound, noise, etc. at some point during operation)
ok, I just got my mpio FG100 today.
summary:
sound 9/10 (sounds pretty good, does its job, need super bass boost like sony standard cd player)
functionality 9/10 (only 1GB, but works good, no software required)
looks 7/10 (not pretty like ipod, but not ugly like old iriver.)
getting started 3/10 (vital info hidden away in cd and broken/poorly managed website)
over all personal experience 8/10 (It works pretty good. Not cool looking enough for people to worship. People who are not familiar with computers will need help setting it up.)
just for scaling purpose I gave ipod gen 3
sound 6/10 (distorted bass, harsh sound damn annoying)
functionality 7/10 (good software, sucky touchpad interface, big space, crashes often)
looks 10/10 (got class.)
getting started 10/10 (pretty straight forward if you follow direction)
over all personal experience 6.5/10 (sound quality is very important to me. I also got sick of the touch interface, because I didn't want to have to look at the ipod everytime I want to perform a basic operation.)
FG100 more in depth review
Sound: hmm, this is my second mp3 player that I have owned (the other was a 3rd gen ipod 20gb). I got to say, this thing got pretty good sound. It doesn't sound harsh like ipod did for me. However, the bass is ok, but cannot be boost to the level of a standard sony cd player. I could not hear any major distortions like I did on ipod. The earphones that came with the unit actually sounds better than my sony in ear earphones that I bought from japan, but I still use my sony because its less bulky and looks better (huhuhuh).
Looks: the design is fine, but I just can't stand the chrome plastic. Should use aluminum or use normal plastic. the OLED screen and blinking LED are dead sexy. However, I think it would be cooler if the blinking LED color kind of match with the color scheme of the OLED screen. (currently blinking LED is red, while OLED is yellow and blue). finally, it would be nice if u can get the FG100 in other colors. I haven't seen the silver, but the black (dark grey) one that I have looks too conservative. (still not as ugly as the old iriver though). The case that came with it seems to protect the unit well, but its really ugly so I think I will have to find alternative bag or something.
Cables are hideously ugly. If possible I would like a shorter USB link cable that have cooler looking plastic -_-'. This cable is like a couple feet, too long for such small device. I would cut the cable myself, but I'm afraid of creating more resistance and increase noise screw up the Speed of the USB data transfer.
Functionality
hmm.. the great thing about this unit is that you can operate the unit without having to look at the screen all the time. You can pretty much feel your way around the controls. All kinds of stuff can be stored on the unit by drag and drop from any windows computers without having to install any drivers (winXP). (music, documents, programs)
This is pretty sweet, becuase I can download anything from other people's computer on the fly.
The box says that it also work on mac, but I haven't tried yet.
Getting Started
this unit is probably a total pain in the @ss for people who are not familiar with computers, mainly because the manual is hidden as pdf file on the cd and not printed. There is a printed manual, but that is the "quick start" guide which doesn't tell you much about the device.
furthermore, upgrading to the latest firmware requires that you navigate around broken mpio website and download a couple software components. The softwares are all mixed together, and the descriptions of the files are a little technical so casual users who don't know what UMD means won't beable to download the right file. I personally have no trouble getting the device to work, because I have worked with much worse documentations (usually engineering and programming documentations are soooooooooo terrible).
overall personal experience
well over all I like this product. My biggest worry was the sound quality, but the FG100 sounds pretty good. Its not really ugly (would look a lot cooler in blue or some fancy colors), but it can look better. I really like the OLED screen, but I think it would be awesome if MPIO would make some visualization loops (like on pioneer car cd players) so we can waste some batteries and look cool. They did a turn on animation so I'm pretty sure the unit is capable. Hmm, maybe a dc input would be nice too.. kind of like a sony cd player, so I can hook it up at home to some speakers without wasting batteries.
Finally, the accessories are super ugly. The unit looks much cooler w/ my sony ear plugs. I think I will end up making a custom bag/case for it.
Oh it also supports other languages including Thai ![]()

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