Truly Pic 'n' Roll MP-310 Plus 1 GB Digital MP3 Player with 1.85-Inch Color Display (Brushed Aluminum) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I've had and reviewed several digital players in the past. Most MP3 players come across as following the same cutting edge trend. The first thing I noticed with the Truly MP310 is its more sophisticated look. It's solid and seemingly well built.

Now grant it, this is more than just an MP3 player, perhaps a bit too versatile for the casual music listener. It supports music, digital books, FM radio, voice/line-in/FM recording, games and photos. You can set your wallpaper or theme, similar to windows. The menus are as easily navigable as can be expected for a multipurpose gadget. Keep in mind that this kind of versatility comes with a learning curve. Expect to use the reference manual once in a while. It comes with a quick start guide which is of limited help. The full manual is on a disk.

I like the style of the earbud headphones. They're comfortable, built solid and look sharp, but the sound is a bit bassy and the cord could be longer. With that said, Earphones are cheap. Go out and get whatever headphones suit you.

The LCD display is about the best I've seen in the MP3 mode. It's big, bright, colorful, and easy to view in bright sunlight. It very clearly gives all the expected information including artist and song name, track number/total tracks, volume level, play mode, equalizer mode.

The player does come with some well built accessories; particularly the carrying case and arm band. They're made with a heavy black nylon. This is to say the player can be worn on the belt or arm. All the buttons and display are accessible while in the case.

Speaking of the buttons, they're responsive, well laid out but a bit small. The volume, forward, back and menu buttons are on the front and the equalizer and A/B buttons are on the side. I like a player that you can just reach down and operate without looking. You'll need to look at this player to hit the correct buttons. As mentioned, there's a dedicated button to access the equalizer. This is a bit uncommon but a convenient feature. I find myself using it more than I thought I would. Usually the equalizer is buried in the menu. There are standard genres settings for pop, rock, classical, custom and so on. The player locked up on me once while downloading but playback seems to work well so far.

The FM reception is much better than expected. Frankly, most FM receivers in digital players don't work well. You can select the quality of stations you want (how strong a station you want the thing to pull in), low, medium or high and then scan and this puts the stations into memory. I pulled in the two strongest stations in high and 19 in low. Stations come in decent in low with a minimum of fading in and out when moving about.I'm impressed.

For the pictures, there's software on the disk for cropping and converting to a useable format. Pictures need to be converted to an LGO format in order to work well. After a little playing around, the software is simple, easy to use and relatively straight forward. The pictures appear a bit grainy but viewable. Pictures with good contrast work best. The ability to crop helps too. The player comes with some pictures already loaded, more for demo purposes than anything else.

You can listen to music while reading an ebook. There're options for a slideshow, the ability to name preset radio stations, an adjustable timer for power off, display options and so on. All and all, this is, but not just an MP3 player that you would load music and go. If that's what you're looking for, there's plenty out there. This is a digital media player (pictures and sound) that should be learned to be fully appreciated.

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Product Description:
Compact, stylish, and extremely portable, the Truly Pic 'n' Roll MP-310 PlusMP3 player is a must for the on-the-go music fan. The device, which supports MP3 andWMA audio formats, stores up to 16-plus hours of music on its 1 GB of built-in flashmemory, more than enough for a cross-country flight or a backwoods hiking excursion.Users can also view JPEG photos on the 1.85-inch, 64,000-color LCD display, whichoffers a crisp 128 x 160 resolution. And should you tire of listening to prerecordedmusic, you can turn to the built-in FM tuner, which not only plays every station on theFM spectrum, but also records songs and programs for later listening. The tuner evencomes with 30 station presets with a custom naming function for easy and quickchannel switching.
These days, an MP3 player must do far more than simply play music and view photos,however, which is why the Pic 'n' Roll also sports such features as a digital voicerecorder, a text viewer, and several preloaded games. The digital voice recorder capturesup to nine-plus hours of material in MP3 format and is ideal for recording voice notes,song ideas, or lectures. The text viewer, meanwhile, displays e-books and otherdocuments in ASCII, Unicode, or TXT format, making it a handy option for people whotravel a lot. And thanks to the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, users will enjoyup to 11 hours of audio playback per charge.
Additional features include a seven-band equalizer with classic, live, pop, rock, bass, andtremble settings; a synchronized lyric display function that works with LRC files; USBor AC charging; a USB 2.0 interface; a line-in recording option; and an ultra-light metalcase with a brushed aluminum finish. The Pic 'n' Roll measures 1.96 by 3.11 by 0.51inches (W x H x D) and carries a full manufacturer's warranty.
What's in the Box
MP3 player, earphones, AC charger, USB cable, line-in cable, installation CD, quick-startmanual.