8 out of 8 people found this review helpful.
So far, more than so good
Date of Review: Aug 12, 2008
The Bottom Line: I'm wary of Coby, but this seems like a solid unit--I would recommend it. Great price.
I purchased The Coby Portable DVD Player this past winter and so far I am pleasantly surprised.
I have used many other Coby products and nearly swore off the idea of ever using them again--at best I have only gotten a few months life out of their music players, etc. In fact, having worked in a couple of retail stores that sell a lot of Coby products, I can say they are somewhat notorious. They tend to be very cheap but stop functioning in seemingly irreparable ways. (I have this habit of not saving receipts, too...)
That being said, their portable DVD player seems to break the mould. It comes with a number of useful features and a great price tag, and so far appears to be excellent quality.
There is excellent color vibrancy, sharpness of picture, and the sound has a wide frequency range that's typical of standard televisions with built-in speakers. I've noticed some websites list the unit as being anywhere from 3-5lbs. There's no doubt in my mind that this is an erroneous number; it is probably about one and a half pound and very comfortable to hold. Additionally, there is a very convenient swivel feature that turns it into a much more ergonomically-shaped handheld "book" that will be more comfortable for most single-viewers. Multiple viewers would probably prefer the "laptop"-like view. Additionally, there's a cover to hook it to front car seats for children sitting in the back, so it's a pretty versatile unit. On top of this, two people can actually use headphones with the included two headphone sets through two headphone jacks. It would appear Coby had a range of watching conditions in mind (and perhaps the sanity of parents?) It's even possible to connect the unit to a television, replacing your existing DVD player in the home. This is quite a useful feature if your home setup is conducive to quick plug-and-play, and you don't want a VCR/DVD combination player.
Naturally, the last remaining "accessory" is a remote--not too exciting, but it would have been easy to skip out on a remote for a portable unit.
The buttons and interface is very straightforward and simple. All the basic operations are easy to find, clearly labeled, and the buttons don't look like they'll break or become worn easily.
Battery life is about the life of most laptop batteries, just under 4 hours.
Since until this unit came into my life I used to use my laptop for movies often, the comparison I would make is this: I dropped about 6 pounds of carrying weight, gained more ergonomic comfort, and didn't lose much battery life or sound/video quality at all.
Considering the going price (it was $129.00 at the time of purchase, but on sale for about $99), this is a very recommended purchase. I've noted that there appear to be updated models available now but it would seem they've been given only a cosmetic update with new colors. At any rate, this is the model I've continued to see in stores.
