I got the awesome present of a Creative Labs Muvo N200 MP3 player for Christmas. I've really enjoyed it so far for running, going to the gym, and flying.
The Apple announcement today of the iPod shuffle is pretty exciting for MP3 fans. I think of it as roughly a tie with my Creative Labs for features and functions. It's probably a slam dunk for Mac/iTunes users, but I think they will miss the lcd display.
Same
They both work with USB-2, 1 1 Gigabyte, roughly same size and weight (.78 vs .8 ounces), and roughly the same cost for same attachments.
Shuffle
The shuffle has a rechargeable battery, the good iPod dial, and a shuffle mode. The iTunes integration is pretty cool as it allows a shuffle of songs to be downloaded to the player. I think the shuffle and recharge is pretty cool. It comes with a lanyard and the accessories include the armband, sport-case, recharger, and earbuds. The earbuds look like they are better quality than the Muvo N200. It plays MP3 and AAC files.
Muvo N200
The Muvo N200 has an LCD display that shows the directory and the song title ID3 TAG. It also has an FM player, no rechargeable batter but it is AAA, a decent interface, line-input, and about 33% longer battery life. It comes with an armband, ear buds, and belt atachment. I think the display is really important as I regularly want to scroll to particular albums and also look at the song title. It's a little cheaper than an equivalently tripped out iPod shuffle. It plays MP3 and WMA files.
The results
I'm happier with the Muvo N200 because of the display, but I'd love the rechargeable battery and the shuffle/auto-playlist. I figure I won't be out of luck for too long because I'm sure the creative Labs PC software will add auto-shuffle soon, and probably will offer a firmware update for the N200 software as well. I don't care about WMA vs AAC files as I hold firm to MP3 only files.
Comments (5)
First, how about the playlist functionality of the MuVo N200? I've read that it does not support playlists, instead playing all songs in alphabetical order. But I also heard this from people who admitted they weren't very savvy with such things. Is it true?
Second, what about the drag-and-drop support (without using ANY proprietary software)? The N200 supposedly allows to copy songs directly through Windows (or MacOS or really any system that supports USB attached drives). Is this also true?
Posted by Don | April 10, 2005 1:02 AM
Posted on April 10, 2005 01:02
The N200 can play playlists, but you can use folders to seperate songs, however the N200 will play them in alphbetical order. Thankfully, like pretty much all other Creative players there's a shuffle option. -------------------------------
And it can drag and drop music and other files on anything that recognizes it as an external drive. I just tested it on a computer running Fedora Core 3 and it worked. I think it should work on a Mac.
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Also to the writer. You can buy rechargable AAA NiMH batteries from a store like Circuit City. They don't suffer from memory loss, but they don't work as long (a few hours less).
Posted by Scott | April 23, 2005 3:18 PM
Posted on April 23, 2005 15:18
Can you search by artist on the muvo n200.
Posted by James | April 26, 2005 5:36 AM
Posted on April 26, 2005 05:36
hi there
i own a creative muvo n200(latest version)... and in every sense it owns the shitty ipod shuffle..
with a Fm tuner and 32 presets....37 hours of voice recording......FM recording..and 15 hours of battery life....it definitely slays the ipod
i gues it should be titled-muvo n200-the ipod killer!.yeh and one more thing..its sound quality is the best ive ever heard....much better than ipod's
Posted by Sid | July 4, 2005 11:36 PM
Posted on July 4, 2005 23:36
Just a quick question. Do you know if there is a program out there that i can use to download music from iTunes(Mac Platform) onto a Creative MuVo2 fm?
Cheers
bfs
Posted by Brad | October 16, 2005 10:33 PM
Posted on October 16, 2005 22:33