Frontier Labs NEXBlack

Introduction

When you ask about digital music players, the first thing that comes to everybody's mind would be the iPod.  Sure the iPod is nice, but there are few little things about iPod which I absolutely hope that Apple can update or add to the next generation of digital music players.   Despite Apple's dominance in the digital music player market, it has not stopped other companies such as Creative, SanDisk even Microsoft (with the upcoming Zune) from attempting to bring out new products, hoping that they can carve one piece of the lucrative market away from Apple.

Today, we have at our hand another digital music player from Frontier Labs—NEXBlack.  Frontier Labs may sounds like a new company in the digital audio player business but they have actually been in business since 2003.  We have previous reviewed a few of their products Frontier Labs NEX 3+ MP3 Player and Frontier Labs NexKube.  The NEXBlack that we are looking at today is Frontier’s Labs’s latest product that they hope to be able to grab some of the market from Apple.  What really sets this music player apart from the rest of digital music players is the usage of removable Compact Flash or MicroDrive as the storage.  In addition, NEXBlack also has an FM tuner and the ability to record sounds.  Let's take a closer look at NEXBlack.

The product was sent to me in a small box with the NEXBlack clearly displayed out to the buyer.  The box are covered with the features of the unit.  Opening up the box, you will see the NEXBlack, a Line-in adapter cable, a pair of Headphones, a Software CD, an USB cable, and a Manual. 

Specifications:

• Signal to Noise Ratio: 95dB
• Distortion Rate: <0.05%
• Maximum Headphone Output: 30mW @ 32 Ohm
• Frequency Range: 20Hz to 20KHz
• Weight: 80 gram w/o card & batteries
• Number of Equalizer Presets: 5
• Play time on 2 x AA alkaline batteries: 20 hours using CF cards, 12 hours using Microdrive
• USB transfer rate: about 4MB/sec (USB 2.0 high speed)
• Dimensions: 80mm x 65mmx 22mm
• LCD Display: 132x64 bitmapped
• Bit rates supported: 16Kbps - 320Kbps & VBR for MP3, 64Kbps ¡V 192Kbps for WMA
• Recording bit rates: Selectable by user

Features:

• Light and portable
• Single 5-way joy stick for easy and precise control
• Solid construction with no moving parts
• Uses Type I & II Compact Flash memory cards for storage
• Supports Microdrives (Hitachi/Magicstor/Seagate)
• Infinite memory expansion configuration
• Supports multiple formats, such as MP3, WMA, WMA with DRM
• EL backlight (neon blue)
• Choice of backlight settings - normal, always on or always off
• Displays ID3 Tags, duration of songs, memory level, battery level & etc.
• Equalizer - 5 bands
• Pre-set sound mode - Jazz, Rock, Classic, Dance & Latin
• Smart play functions (normal, repeat one, repeat all and shuffle)
• Draws power from USB connection
• FM Radio
• Digital Voice Recorder
• Direct Line-In Recording