Review: Vintion MSC 128MB

Mobilemag Score

86%

90%

83%

85%

87%

76%

Rate this product!

This little keychain sized mp3 player packs a lot of punch for its size.

The Vintion MSC from our friends at Innogear is able to play both MP3 and WMA playback formats as well as voice recording. This unit does not support FM transmitting and a built in FM receiver like some of the other players out there. Not a big setback as external FM transmitter and/or tape converters can be bought for a cheap price.

A couple of features that really impressed me were the controls on the device. The play and menu functions are controlled through the ever so popular toggle switch that we see on a lot of the small players on the market. Very smooth controlling and easy to master when you are suppose to be driving your car instead of playing with your gadgets! Other controls on the device include the Hold button. This locks the device so you don’t change songs, settings or volume when the player is in your pocket. The best feature that I found on the Vintion MSC is the ability to use the player as a portable hard drive! I am sure you have all seen those portable keychain flash sticks out there in sizes ranging from 32-512 Megs, well this player performs in the same manner. Plug the device into your USB slot and it automatically detects under windows XP as a 128 MB removable disk drive. Perfect for students who bring their work to school on the outdated, unreliable, stone age floppy disks. Under WinXP no extra software is needed to copy your MP3’s onto this device, just drag and drop them to the removable disk.

The display is pretty standard as far as MP3 devices go. Scrolling ID tag display, format (MP3/WMA), current track number and a battery power indicator. There is an EQ built into the device but I usually use normal for everything because it seems to fit my music the best, the choices are Jazz, Pop, Rock, Classic, and Normal. The submenu lets you start recording with the internal mic. Later you can listen to your recordings and delete them via the menu system. Some of the modes are Repeat, Random, Normal, Repeat all, Repeat one, and Preview. The backlight display can be turned on or off to save batteries. The Memory Info button displays how much memory the device has left for recordings or adding mp3s. There are no expansion slots for additional memory.

The recording function is pretty spiffy; you can record up to 8 hours of digital recording in ADPCM format. The quality of the recording is great too, you can pick up a lot of voices from pretty far distances of ~5 feet.

Pros

- Very small, you can use it as a keychain.
- Toggle switch, easy to change tracks
- Backlight, BLUE! Awesome color.
- Ability to use the device as a removable hard drive.
- No extra software needed under WinXP.
- Recording is great, long range and pretty darn good quality.
- 1 AAA battery powers this bad boy for ~8 hours.
- 128 Megs of storage, pretty standard for these days.

Cons

- Power button, I can’t stand it! You need to hold it down to turn it on, but if you hold it down too long it turns on then off again. Pain it the butt!
- No FM transmitter
- No FM receiver

Features and Specifications

Built-in 128MB flash memory
Smart and fashion design
Plug and play e-disk, except for Windows 98
Integrating e-disk music player and digital voice recorder
Supporting MP3, WMA and ADPCM
Dot matrix graphic LCD with EL back light
Adjustable back light time
Supporting English and Chinese ID3 display
Digital voice recording in ADPCM format, 4 hours/64MB
Repeat Modes: Random, Normal, Repeat all, Repeat one, Preview
EQ modes: Jazz, Classic, Rock, Pop, Normal
Supporting Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

Via

Fabrizio Pilato