Just got Gateway DMP-X20. Mini-review:
- Gateway said they mistakenly sent it UPS ground yesterday, but it shows up today. (?)
- First thing I noticed was that this one has a slight defect: the backlight flickers in intensity. Annoying, but otherwise the player has functioned normally. Sent an email to Gateway, I plan on exchanging it after Xmas.
- Installation. Easy, only took 5 minutes using the included CD. No hiccups.
- Construction. Back is bead-blasted plastic, which should resist scratching and feels durable. The front bezel is polished steel, as opposed to silver plastic on the Odyssey. The front is mirrored with a Lexan covering, like Odyssey. The buttons are sturdy (no wiggle) and have a good tactile "click" when depressed - better than Odyssey. The drum-wheel controller takes more pressure to click then then Odyssey did, a touch too much I think. It may loosen in time. All good so far.
- Controller. The drum-wheel controller is my favorite syle navigation control. Even moreso than iPod's optical wheel. Very few players have this.. Dell DJ, and the Odyssey/Gateway only. The only concern is that since its a mechanical construct that it may not be as durable as iPod's, but only time can tell. This style controller is also the best, IMO, for controlling volume.
- Main Menu. Intersting choice here. From the main menu you can select Playlist, Genre, Artist, Album, Track, or Audible.. choices that are usually nested under "Music" or "Browse" on most other players. I think I like this better, one less click than usual. Also there is Recording, Bookmarks, Settings, Tools, and About. This setup is easy enough to understand that anyone can pick it up and be playing music in 5 seconds.
- Settings. Not too many options here. Display, EQ, Idle settings, etc.. fewer options than Odyssey. There is no SRS WOW support either as on Odyssey.
- Tools. You can see how many gB are free and can reformat the player. Not too useful. No Reconcile function here as on the Odyssey.
- About. This tells you the model number and firmware version, and **** it does state e.Digital MicroOS ****
- Transfers. You have to use Windows Media Player and a plug-in supplied on the Gateway CD. With the Odyssey, you had the option of using the eDig Manager or just drag and dropping music to player and then using the onboard Reconcile function. No onboard reconcile function on the Gateway. USB2 transfers were fast, about 1-2 seconds per song (5mb). Windows Media player aint the best interface, but way better than MusicMatch Jukebox that Dell sticks you with.
- Sound Quality. So far, very good. Much like the Odyssey as I remember. Output Power is strong, it should any headphones up to 100ohm or so with no problem. I am listing to it fairly loud right now, using Koss KSC-35's, with the setting on 22/30.
- Screen. Great, top-of-class. large and easily legible, except for the flickering backlight on this one. Same size as the Odyseey, which makes it look even bigger on this shrunken chassis. On thing of note is that the Gateway player I saw on display at the store had a purple backlight, this one has blue. No idea...
- Browsing music. Easy enough, select how you want to see your music from the main menu. If you pick artists, you select one, then it lists at the top of the screen the artist's albums you have loaded (selectable) and then all the songs underneath them (selectable). If you move the highlighted selection bar over text that is too long for the screen, it scrolls as soon as you select it, just like Odyssey. Smooth and fast. Best text scolling on any DAP by the way, others scroll jerky or slow. Also lists "loop" meaning you can scroll up at the top of the list (A) and roll around the bottom (Z). These last 2 are both important features that iPod STILL doesn't have. Moving through lists is easy, and it appears to have acceleration - meaning the faster I roll the wheel, the faster it scrolls down a list.
- Now Playing screen. All pertinent details listed here, nicely organized. Adjusting the volume displays additional details like the bitrate and codec type (MP3, WMA) and current EQ setting. Clicking the controller in this screen brings up a screen where you can add it to a playlist or make a bookmark. This is how you add tracks to a "on-the-fly" playlist.
- Size/Weight. The player, right next to a 2nd gen iPod, is almost identical in size. It is wider and taller by a few millimeters. It does feel heavier, not terribly though. Solid feel, no body flex.
- Battery. Well, like most other players, it's internal and non-replaceable. This makes it smaller, but unfortunately makes it practically disposable once the battery dies. Not too concerned as my iPod is still going stong for over a year. Hopefully Gateway will offer a battery replacement service in the future like Apple now has.
- Remote. It's smaller and flatter then the pics on Gateway's site depicts. I was expecting a rounded teardrop shape, but its relatively thin. It only offers simple controls, but good enough. The buttons have a solid feel. The clip is plastic.
- Case. Ahh, gateway did include a really nice case. Made from reinforced Nylon. A similiar case for iPod would run $20-30. It has holes cut out for the screen and controls. Has a good clip and velcro closing top. This is about a million times better than the crappy one that came with Odyssey. High quality stiching too.
- On/Off/Hold button. Retains the same layout as Odyssey. Not too thrilled about it, but it works. Steel. Solid sliding action, not much wiggle.
- External drive. Plug it in USB, and it shows up as a drive you can drag and drop data files too, like Odyssey. Some players (Creative, Rio) still require a File Manager program to load data files, annoying.
- Other notes. Havn't tried the recording functions yet. It only saves recordings as low-quality WAV files. However, the player doesn't support regular WAV file playback (?) - MP3, WMA only. I would like to see WAV and OGG support added later. I would like to see the SRS WOW logarythms added and the Reconcile function added to the player as on Odyssey. That requires a lot of work though, it would have to be able to build the ID3 tag database on its own.. so far only the iRiver iHP-120 supports that. All in all, I feel this is a good player and worthy of recommendation, assuming the LCD defect here isn't common. A fair deal at $300 including the nice case and remote. It would be more competitive at $270, but I couldn't wait :)
That's all for now. I need more time to play with it and write up a proper review for my website (DAPreview.com).
AI
