MobiBlu T10 review: MobiBlu T10

Touch-screen MP3 players are nothing new, but their popularity has certainly increased since the advent of the Apple iPod Touch. Not to be confused with the Samsung T10, or the iRiver T10, and certainly sharing no resemblance to the Apple iPhone (wink-wink), the 4GB T10 by MobiBlu ($120) has the distinction of being the worst touch-screen MP3 player we've ever seen.

Measuring 3.25 inches by 1.75 inches by 0.5 inch, with a glossy black and chrome aesthetic, the MobiBlu T10 looks like an iPhone that shrunk in the dryer. The T10 relies on tedious touch-screen controls for the majority of its functions, including volume control. The one tactile button included on the MobiBlu T10 is a power button that doubles as a hold function. After finding the player glowing in our messenger bag on several occasions, however, we realized the hold/power button combination is not an inspired idea.

The right edge of the MobiBlu T10 includes a 3.5mm headphone jack, pinhole reset switch, and mini USB port. A tiny loophole is also included on the right edge of the MobiBlu T10, offering a handy place to attach the included plastic stylus. In fact, using the MobiBlu T10's touch screen without the arrowhead-like stylus is an exercise in futility, as the 2.5-inch screen is crammed with icons that require precise double-taps.

The MobiBlu T10 comes packaged with a plastic stylus, earbuds, a soft case, and a lanyard.

Packed with a music player, video player, photo viewer, FM radio, voice recorder, text viewer, and games, the MobiBlu T10 looks like a bargain. Unfortunately for MobiBlu, the T10 plays movies out of sync with their soundtracks; radio reception is below average; the voice recorder imbues audio with a piercing squeal; and the included games are unintuitive to control. While the MP3 player, text, and photo viewer are somewhat useful, they're not worth $120.

Despite our general objections to the MobiBlu T10's poor design and challenged features, its audio quality is not too shabby. With support for MP3, WMA (including PlaysForSure DRM), FLAC, and WAV, and a customizable five-band graphic equalizer, you'll have a hard time distinguishing the MobiBlu T10's sound quality from the competition. Poor menu navigation and a lack of ID3 tag sorting, however, make the MobiBlu T10's otherwise decent music player more trouble than it's worth.

Playing videos back on the T10 requires running the content through video-conversion software included by MobiBlu. While the conversion process doesn't take very long, and the resulting 320x240 AVI files play perfectly on our test PC, movie audio is drastically out of sync with video timing when the file is finally viewed on the T10. If MobiBlu resolves the video playback problem with an update to its firmware or conversion software, the lack of conveniences such as file bookmarking and precise fast forward and review controls still make the T10 a tough sell. However, we do enjoy the MobiBlu T10's built-in speaker, and its rated battery life of 19 hours for audio and 9 hours for video.

Final thoughts
Historically, we've had good luck with MobiBlu products such as the Cube2 and B153, but the T10 is just a dud. If you have your heart set on a touch-screen MP3 player, but the iPod Touch is out of reach, then check out the highly rated Cowon D2.