9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
You get what you pay for - its for kids
Date of Review: Jan 21, 2005
The Bottom Line: Buy it for kids in the target age group. Don't expect it to replace a portable DVD player or Apple IPOD. Consider the total cost before you purchase.
I bought a juicebox for my daughter and consider it to be okay - but not 5 star.
If you are considering buying a juicebox be aware that it could be the first of many purchases
- If you purchase just the juicebox you can do almost nothing with it. It comes with a couple of short advertisement type cartoons/videos and that is it.
- They sell additional media content. While I have not purchased any yet, it could add up to a lot of $ quickly.
- Buying the extra MP3/Photo unit greatly increases the usefulness of the juicebox.
- But there is still more to buy - you will very likely want a larger SD memory card than the 32 MByte that comes with the MP3 kit.
Once you have made all your purchases you get:
- a box that plays low resolution Mattel videos that you have to pay a high price for.
- a box with a speaker that is okay but not good.
- a box that can display your photos but don't expect too much, the display is not top quality and the photo resolution is low.
- a box that can play MP3s, but not of quality higher than 128Kbps. Most of my MP3 library was ripped at 160 or 192 kpbs.
The MP3 software that comes with the juicebox and the MP3 sound quality (through headphones) is reasonably good. You don't have any control over the sound (treble, base, and such). Sometimes (okay, often) the juicebox locks up midsong and requires a power cycle to clear the problem.
You might be surprised when you open the juicebox package and find the media cartridge is empty. I guess this is just to demonstrate what one looks like. The short demo videos you get are built into the unit.
You might want to be careful to buy a juicebox that has the screen/cover sticker on the glass below the "juicebox" insignia. The one I bought had the sticker on the topside covering the juicebox insignia. I think this label is supposed to be of the type that peels off easily. The label on my juicebox was loose around the edges but stuck solid in the middle. Now my daughter has a ripped up sticky label mess on the main cover of her juicebox.
