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Nomad Jukebox: The Real Scoop
Date of Review: Jul 2, 2001
The Bottom Line: A great product for those that love having their entire music collection in the palm of their hand.
Despite the recent influx of MP3 players to hit the market, the Nomad Jukebox is still one of the best MP3 players around. Although this product has now been around for a while, I decided to wait until the price came down enough to justify purchasing it. Once it reached $300, I finally took the plunge and plunked down my $300. Was it worth the money? Let?s take a look:
Things I Liked
One of the first things people notice (myself included) about the Nomad Jukebox is its incredible 6 gigabyte hard-drive storage. They finally got smart and decided to use an actual built in hard-drive rather that memory cards. Creative Labs, the makers of the Nomad Jukebox, claim that this storage capacity allows you to store up to 150 albums. This claim is a stretch since it is only possible to download 150 albums at 128 Kbs. I usually download my MP3?s at 192 Kbs because the sound quality is noticeably richer and crisper. Consequently, if you are like me you will find that the storage capacity begins to fill up at around 75 albums. This is still an incredible amount of music.
Secondly, I was impressed with the connection speed using the provided USB interface. At first, I was worried that file transfer would be abysmally slow based on several reviews I have read. Creative Labs must have been listening because the Jukebox that I purchased transferred data at a surprisingly fast pace. I was able to transfer files at approximately 3 Mbps which is lightning fast for devices of this type.
Third, I like the LCD viewer which allows you to view songs by artist, album title, or track title. The personalized playlist will let you store 1,000 songs. This seems odd since their claim of 150 albums should allow the playlist to store 1,500 songs (150 x 10). Nevertheless, I have had the device for a couple months and don?t envision approaching the 1,000 limit anytime soon. Don?t get me wrong, you can still store songs past the 1,000 playlist limit. The point is that you can only store the song title, album title and artist for 1,000 songs. Get it? It?s a minor complaint at best.
Finally, I loved the price and convenience of the Nomad Jukebox. When it first came out I thought that it was a little expensive for $500. Now that it is only around $300, it is now definitely worth the purchase price. I was able to buy it at Best Buy for $250 as a special promotion price. I checked out the prices on-line and I couldn?t find it for much less than $300. That being said, it is still just a MP3 player for quite a bit of money. If you are like me and enjoy carrying around your entire collection of music in your hand, it is worth the price. Now I can flip between Jane?s Addiction and U2 with the push of a button. I love technology.
What the Hell Were They Thinking?
Now we?ve reached the infamous ?What the Hell Were They Thinking? category. Despite all of the praise I listed above for the Nomad Jukebox, it is inevitable that there are some features that leave a lot to be desired.
For one thing, I am the type of person that enjoys upgrading and installing new hardware on my computer devices. Creative Labs, for whatever reason, was determined to make adding new hardware on the Jukebox impossible or next to impossible. Take my advice and avoid trying to add any hardware to this device unless you are an expert in such manners. I nearly destroyed my Nomad Jukebox attempting such a maneuver. Either wait for the 20 GB devices to come out or be happy with the 6 GB storage.
Lastly, I was not impressed with the battery life of the Nomad Jukebox. This device really requires a lot of juice and will suck your batteries dry fairly quickly. If you are a casual listener, the battery life should be adequate.
Final Thoughts
As I write this review, it looks like there are many new MP3 players ready to hit the market that will blow the Nomad Jukebox out of the water. Do not let this deter you from considering the Nomad. My only advice is to possibly wait for the new devices to come out and then look to see if the price of the Nomad Jukebox has come down. My guess is that the newer MP3 players will be so expensive that the Nomad Jukebox will seem like a bargain.
