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Motorola M25 Digital Audio Player (256MB) review: Motorola M25 Digital Audio Player (256MB)

The orange-and-silver, sports-styled M25 is a solid MP3 debut for Motorola.

John Frederick Moore
3 min read
Motorola M25 Digital Audio Player (256MB)
Motorola's M25 Digital Audio Player, which uses technology from MP3-player pioneer Rio, is designed for active types who want to listen to their tunes during a workout. Although some users may find the device's operations menu a bit confusing, this expandable, flash-based unit should satisfy those looking for a rugged, splashproof player that supports DRM-protected files.

At 2.5 by 2.5 by 0.9 inches, the M25 is a boxy little number, but its 2.4-ounce weight won't slow you down. Stylish in an industrial sense, the M25 has bright-orange rubber trimmings on its silver casing, indicating that this device is designed to handle the mild bumps and jostling that come with jogging and going to the gym. Motorola includes a holster and an armband so that you can keep your hands free for these activities.

7.3

Motorola M25 Digital Audio Player (256MB)

The Good

Strong sound quality and battery life; expandable memory; supports DRM-protected WMA and Audible files; USB 2.0-compatible; durable design.

The Bad

Somewhat confusing menu controls; poor-quality FM recording; software rips CDs only into WMA.

The Bottom Line

What it lacks in grace the M25 makes up for in performance.

Front and center on the M25 you'll find the ample LCD, which has gray (and rather dim) backlighting. The small, four-way thumbstick on the right side of the unit provides access to the main playback controls and the Menu button. Controls for these functions are also embedded behind the rubber sheath on the face of the device, but pressing them takes a bit of work. Below the thumbstick you'll find a Hold switch and a dedicated power button, while the volume control sits on top of the unit.

Motorola's tendency to make its cell phones' basic operation more confusing than necessary is also reflected in the M25's somewhat bizarre menu control. Once you're in Menu mode, you make your selection by pushing the joystick. That should be enough to register your selection, but the M25 also makes you press FF. Similarly, you'd think that pressing RW would take you back a step after making a selection; instead, this cancels whatever selection you've made. Also, because there's no dedicated Record button, you press and hold Play/Pause to start and stop FM recordings.

The M25 supports MP3, Audible, and DRM-protected WMA files, so you can play music purchased from online music stores. It took the included Music Manager application about five minutes to locate more than 1,300 tracks on our PC. With this done, you can set up a manual or automatic sync profile for the device. Automatic syncing fills the device to a certain capacity, which you specify. You can also use the software to rip CDs to your hard drive, but it encodes files in WMA format; for MP3 support, you'll have to purchase an upgrade pack. If you're like us, you'll stick with Windows Media Player. The M25 is also fully compatible with iTunes.

The M25 includes an FM tuner, but it stores only eight presets. Although the M25 has FM-recording capability, it encodes recordings as 64Kbps WAV files rather than high-bit-rate MP3s. You also get EQ presets (rock, jazz, pop, classical, and trance) and a user-defined five-band EQ setting. Like Rio-branded sports players, the M25 features a stopwatch. In addition, the M25 has a card slot for adding annother 1GB of memory in either Secure Digital or MultiMediaCard format.

If you swap out the included earbuds for better-quality headphones, the M25 delivers exceptional audio quality. With the provided earbuds, music sounded muffled regardless of the EQ setting. But with a set of full-size Koss UR-40 headphones, music of all genres came through clear, with practically no hiss and very good high and low response.

We reached transfer speeds of 0.99MB per second, which is on the low side for USB 2.0. Battery life, however, was impressive. In our Labs tests, the player scored an average of 20.7 hours of continuous playback from a single AAA battery, exceeding Motorola's rating of 18 hours.

7.3

Motorola M25 Digital Audio Player (256MB)

Score Breakdown

Design 7Features 7Performance 8