Review: Insignia MP3 Player and Bluetooth Headphones
Posted on March 17, 2008
MP3 players have really come down in price lately. For Apple fans, the iPod is the MP3 player of choice. But iPods are expensive and only work with iTunes (and its restrictive DRM issues), which is why a growing number of consumers are purchasing competing brands' MP3 players. We had a chance to review the Insignia Sport Video MP3 Player with Bluetooth Technology.
The MP3 player uses internal flash memory: the unit we reviewed was 2GB, but Insignia makes a 4 GB version as well. The synch up with Windows Vista went smoothly and the drag and drop feature makes adding music quite easy. The unit features a microSD expansion slot, which is nice if you want additional memory capacity. In addition to MP3s, the unit also supports WMA, WMA Lossless, WMA DRM and OGG music formats. It will display MPEG4 (15fps) and JPEG formats. The screen is 1.7" and is in color, which is small but is very easy to read. The player comes with earbuds. The sound was excellent.
We especially liked that the player has Bluetooth capability: we tried it out with the Insignia Bluetooth Headphones (which feature the behind the head design), which worked perfectly. No wires is such a joy...unless, of course, you are the kind of person who loses your computer mouse unless it's actually hooked up to your computer.
The FM tuner found our favorite local stations quickly. Having a radio is a nice added feature. The unit is compatible with the Best Buy Digital Music Store, Rhapsody, Rhapsody To Go, Urge, iTunes drag-and-drop, Napster, Napster To Go and Audible, if you like to read audiobooks. We tested it with a PC, but it also works with Macs.
This is a good-looking, hard-working MP3 Player that retails for just under $90 at Best Buy. We also recommend the Bluetooth Headphones, which can be used with your computer (you will need a Bluetooth adaptor for that) and your cellphone. The headphones retail for just under $50.