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The price is right, so come on down!
Publisher: GO-LO
Tue, 29 March 2005
by: Ando
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I was a tad spontaneous the other day. While shopping at my local GO-LO (yes that’s right trend setters GO-LO) I was browsing for the usual odds and sods when I came across what appeared to be an offer too good to refuse – a portable mp3 player.
I have, for some time, been a fond admirer of the Ipod and, to a lesser extent, the Ipod Mini and the shuffle, photo, blah blah blah (they really have gone mad with it). I think it’s the apple styling and sensibility that appeals to me (I am a MAC user….Don’t judge me!), but it was always the price tag on the Apple Ipods that was less than appealing. Even the Mini is $300, and this was always where the admiration and adoring turned to frustration and aggravation, as it appeared that these wonderful pieces of technology were out of my price range – or the amount I was prepared to spend. The Xlogic L28 256Mb MP3/WMA Player changed all that. The price was the key factor. What would you expect to pay for a device that holds 50 songs (4-5 times a CD), is an FM tuner that features recording for voice and radio and is the size of a business card? $100-$200 would be reasonable right? Well, I paid $50AU for it and it appears to be an absolute bargain.
To give you a comparative price and product; the Ipod shuffle comes in 2 models: 512Mb and1Gig. Sure, the 512 has twice the storage and has Apple style, but it costs 3 times as much at $149 AU and has no digital display or other features like EQ, recording or radio. The storage limitations of the Xlogic are a tad frustrating to be honest with you - only because I’ve seen friends carry around their whole CD collection in their pockets, but the L28 makes up for that in many ways. Let me take you through them.
Plug and Play
Windows and Mac users (XP and OSX) will have no problem using this device, as the player mounts as any normal external storage device does when plugged in with the supplied USB cable. Windows 98, NT and ME may need to enable USB features to use it, but the device is supported with the older systems. The drive is then used like any other by dropping and dragging/copying and pasting MP3 files into the directory.
FM Radio
The ability to listen to radio is a feature that even the Ipoders don’t have the luxury of (let alone recording), and it doesn’t seem to even be on the agenda for the Ipod for some strange reason. Anyway this puppy has full featured FM radio support with automated setup for presets and tuning modes. The manual will be necessary at some point…if you’re like me you will put it off, fiddle your way around for the basics, get frustrated with the advanced features and finally high tail it for the manual.
Recording
The ability to use the device as a Dictaphone was an appealing feature from the get go and the internal mic actually produces quite good quality audio from a close distance. But the ability to record FM radio was a real surprise feature that gave me more cause for satisfaction. The recording options include custom sampling and bitrate options. All resulting in (you guessed it) an MP3 file.
All Thumbs
The buttons and menu system are a bit clunky and awkward to use. Multi-use buttons and press and hold type actions make navigating a little frustrating at times which is unfortunate but the need to use the setup features lessen as overtime you finalise your settings.
Satisfaction Guaranteed?
At the time of writing this review the Xlogic L28 has been on the market for some time and although similar products are still available the original and RRP would have been significantly higher. The product itself is hard to get any information on i.e RRP, manufacturer details and so forth, but the Xlogic player speaks for itself once you give it a birl. It comes with a 12 month limited warranty that in all likeliness would lead to brick walls, head butting and eventually a headache but I guess it creates some sense of peace of mind (I can always harass the GO LO goonies if worst comes to worst).
The first thing that occurred to me about the Xlogic L28 was how small this thing was. It is literally the size of a business card – fatter yes, but it makes an Ipod look like a brick comparatively speaking. The next thing that impressed me was the audio quality. It is stunning. The expectations I had came directly from the price tag which is why it was such a surprise(and relief) that the quality was there. You can pay $30 plus for a decent set of head phones (which comes with the player) let alone the CD/Walkman to go with it so that really put things in perspective. It can be used as a portable stereo in some cases – plugging into auxiliary inputs and active speakers and it will even double as a flash USB storage device for transporting files around with you. Sure it’s no Ipod in terms of storage, but the Ipods are almost ridiculous with their 40gig of storage space. When paying less than 1/8 of the price you won’t hear me complain.
by: Ando
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