Intel Pocket Concert

First impressions are very good. It is well made, having a solid, durable feel to it. It is predominantly brushed silver aluminium, with blue trim. Looks wise it is at least on par with other units, but this is of course subjective. Some users might not appreciate the "Intel" logo slapped on the front of it.

Sound is good, although bass tends to sound a little rough. I suspect that this is as much to do with the mp3 quality as the capabilities of the player. The supplied headphones are reasonable, but again some people may be put off having an "Intel" logo stuck on the side of their heads. I use my own top-of-the-line Sony in-ear type, the same as for my CD player.

The player is functionally very good, with the usual start/stop/pause, FF, rewind controls. Browsing tracks is straightfoward, but only the first 18 characters of each song name are shown, with no way (that I can find) to scroll across the rest of the name. This might be a problem for those people who prefix the name of all their songs with the name of the artist. My only real gripe with the controls is that the volume is on the top of the unit, and is a digital press-button type. There is a 'normal' analogue wheel on the side, but this is for navigating the simple menus. I would have prefered this to be the volume control.

Being a UK user, there are two other minor issues. Firstly the FM tuner, which works well and has both auto and manual tuning mode (including 10 presets), comes configured for the US by default. This means it tunes to odd-number frequencies only. I could therefore get 95.7 and 95.9, but not 95.8. The unit has to be configured by the supplied full-featured Music Match software bundle. Second, there is no rechaging unit available in Europe so we are currently stuck with using two AAA size batteries.

Highs: Function, simplicity, build quality, radio and 128 MB RAM, mp3 and WMA support (both upgradeable), lightweight. Lows: No docking cradle, annoying volume control, no battery recharger, cannot see full title of songs.

The dreaded hiss - Firstly YES there is a hiss, but its so quiet it really is barely noticeable, listening to the player WHILE the USB cable is plugged in makes this hiss 100 times worse, so the rule is, unplug the USB cable.

FM Tuner - Unfortunately, the FM tuner isn't much good, it claims that it is tuned in Stereo, but the reception is poor - having said this, you can still make out everything that is being said/ played, there is just a lot of static.

Software - The included software is excellent it gets the job done just fine. MusicMatch Jukebox has looks as good as the player does. It features CD ripping, playing, and visualizations along with downloadable DSP effects. The Intel transfer software is so basic even a dog could use it - "Find file, click transfer" that's it. If you still insist on hating the included software, Intel has released a patch to allow you to use Windows Media Player to upload your songs - how kind.

Sound Quality and Headphones - Upon using the player on factory defaults I was extremely impressed. After 10 seconds of messing around I located the bass control, jacked it up to 8 and was blown away by the cleanness of the sound. I then turned the treble up to 8 and crispness and clarity got even better. The headphones, while looking slightly cheap provide absolutely excellent reproduction. The volume control has approximately 20 positions. Position 10 is very loud (in fact as much as I would ever need it), the player, however will only go to position 15 before distortion is made apparent.

The Unit and Functions - Ok, the popular myth is that the body of the player is made of aluminium - this is quite far from the truth. It is in fact made of transparent blue plastic with aluminium plates stuck on; however, with it being transparent plastic, it will be stronger because colored plastic requires colored filler (talc) which weakens the plastic. The use of the player is brilliantly simple but packed with features. In the settings menu, you can
1) Set repeat to the whole list, 1 song, or turn repeat off
2) Turn random on or off
3) Set bass from -8 to +8
4) Set treble from -8 to +8

From the wheel button menu you can
1) View the play list
2) Set a bookmark
3) Go to a bookmark

Bookmarks are used when playing a song. You can set a bookmark at any place in a song and then hit "Go to bookmark" and the player will commence playing from the book marked point.

The volume settings are digital buttons meaning that it won't keep getting changed in your pocket, furthermore, it has a nice hold feature integrated into the power switch. The switch goes from Off to On to Hold, when the unit is switched to Hold; only the volume controls are operable. Finally, the button above the power switch enables the FM tuner which DOES have auto scanning contrary to what another review said. You may also store presets.

Overall, this unit feels very well built, firmware and hardware wise. It doesn't creak in your hand like most plastic products do. I've owned around 4 MP3 players, including the Archos 6 GB MP3 player which distorts at low volume and has no bass. This MP3 player is the best, except for the FM Tuner; I cannot flaw it - well done Intel.

If you are hesitating whether to buy this or not, don't worry, it's a great player and I recommend it over the Archos 6000 and the MPMan F-35 t3.