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Features
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Considering how tiny it is, it is capable of a lot of tasks. Not only can it
play many different types of MP3 and WMA audio, but it can also act as a
voice recorder, radio, and flash drive. SRS WOW, an alarm clock, and a sleep
timer are a few other features that have been crammed into the cube.
movie clip
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One
of the crazy little things that will set the DAH-1500i apart from other
small MP3 players is its OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. It’s
the smallest player on the market with a display at all, and to have one
this good looking instead of a little LCD is really a spectacular touch.
I’ve shown this player around quite a bit, and almost nobody freaked out
until I powered it up and they saw the display. It’s very bright and easy to
read in most situations, although it can be harder to read in direct
sunlight. As the display is not very big, most titles have to scroll across
the screen. I’ve included a short movie to demonstrate this, as the
scrolling motion is actually very smooth.
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This small interface is the only plug the DAH-1500i uses. It acts as a USB
interface, Headphone Jack, and also uses the headphone wires as the radio
antenna. Firmware updates are also applied using the USB interface using a
program that comes on the driver disk.
Performance & Testing
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Installing the DAH-1500i was about as pain free as it can be. Just plug it
in using the supplied USB cable, and it just pops up like a flash drive
would. I tried it out using Windows XP, Windows 2000, Media Center Edition
2005, and Fedora Core 3 with no problems. Pop open a window and deposit your
favorite music in the drive, and away you go! The DAH-1500i is capable of
working with a folder system, although the navigation is just a little
clunky. Most filenames have to scroll to be read on the small display, so
using shorter names would be advantageous. Play lists can also be created
and edited.
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I
generally ride my bike about 25 miles or so three times a week in order to
keep my beer gut down, so I loaded up the DAH-1500i with a pile of MP3s and
took it out on the road with me. The player itself stayed tucked in my
Hydrastorm pack in order to protect it from possible falls and to keep it
dry…it is summer here in Florida after all! The player works with every
bitrate I could throw at it, and also supports WMA. Sound quality was about
what you’d expect from a set of earbuds, and I didn’t have any problem with
the battery life during my two hour bike ride. Considering that the specs
say the battery will last up to 10 hours, this was expected.
I found that the buttons work well, although they are small for a guy with
big hands like I do. This is especially true when the DAH-1500i is in the
little rubber crate. The circular array of buttons was the main offender,
and the left side buttons were not too bad to deal with.
For the ultimate usability test, I loaned the device to my girlfriend
Michelle for a trip to the Gym. Aside from having some issues figuring out
how to wear the headphone necklace, she was able to get the player to work
just fine, so you don’t have to be a geek to operate this one!
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