SOOTEWAY Mp3 Player Review

The last MP3 player I had was about five times the size and didn’t have Bluetooth so this is certainly an upgrade to that. It arrived in very basic plastic packaging with an apple style set of headphones; the instructions are reasonable taking you through the features and functions. The Mp3 player is really small and fits in the palm of your hand and the matte material gives a good finish feeling nice in the hand.

After opening it up I put it on charge and gave the manual a read through, once it was fully charged I gave all the features and functions a good try out, the radio is reasonable but relies on the headset being plugged in to get a signal, the movie player is really a bit pointless as it only seems to supports amv format, the voice recorder works although the record quality is average, it has an e-book reader limited to text which works.

The screen and menu are very clear and I found easy to navigate once I was familiar with how it controlled, I added some albums to the player a very simple process just using the supplied USB to micro USB connector linked to my computer, I also added some albums to a micro SD card to test the expanded memory.

I found the sound quality very good once I linked it to a Bluetooth headset and also to a Bluetooth speaker; the music on the micro SD card worked perfectly giving a massive boost to the storage and listing everything on it.

Overall this is a very nice and tiny MP3 player but I feel it tries to do too much and the added features such as movies, e-book, pictures, radio are underwhelming and should either been worked on more or left off the player. As an MP3 player I found it really nice with good sound quality, really small and lightweight, extra storage capacity, Bluetooth connection and a good menu listing system with easy to navigate menu on a good clear screen so although I wouldn’t give it top marks I would recommend it just for its MP3 playing features.

• [16GB and fast charging] 16GB of memory can store up to 5000 songs, Micro SD card slot can support up to 128GB TF card (not included). The SOOTEWAY MP3 player can be quickly charged and you can enjoy music quickly.
• [Grinding material and exquisite] matte material, soft light, clear vision, wear resistance, give you a smooth touch and ultimate experience. The 1.8-inch body is compact and easy to carry. You can easily put it in your pocket.
• [Backlight button and high-sensitivity button] The backlit button allows you to easily access the music world at night. It has a high resolution color TFT screen. Simply press the power button to lock/unlock the screen. Six high-sensitivity touch buttons are easy to operate and feature independent.
• [Wireless Bluetooth 4.1 & HIFI lossless sound quality] Bluetooth 4.1 technology mp3 player, fast and stable transmission, easily enjoy wireless high-fidelity lossless music! It can be paired with most Bluetooth speakers and headphones, supporting background music playback, music fast forward/rewind, and playback. This MP3 player uses a professional intelligent digital noise reduction chip to provide close to the original HIFI level sound.
• [Multi-function MP3 player and premium service] This versatile MP3 player features music playback, one-click lock, voice recording, FM radio, photo browsing, and e-book (only supports TXT format). 

Price: £20.99

PRODUCT LINK

Dodocool High Resolution MP3 Music Player Review

I purchased this for my daughter who is 10 years old and is constantly sitting on her ipad watching YouTube video’s and I wanted something to introduce her more to the joy of music but also have a greater control over content, due to some questionable video’s I caught her watching on YouTube she is not allowed her ipad in her bedroom so this is something she can use there and when she is out.

This arrived in a solid black dodocool branded box with the MP3 player packed in a rubber cut out with power/transfer lead and instructions under it, the first thing I noticed after unpacking was how solid and well finished this was with its aluminium body and extremely clear QVGA LCD screen you could feel and see the high quality.

After switching it on I linked it up to my computer and transferred some MP3’s over and also put some albums on a micro SD card as I wanted to test this feature, the transfer was fairly quick although I would think this is also dependent on the speed of your computer, USB connection and transfer rate. The menu is very easy to navigate using the wheel going through in a clockwise motion you have Now Playing, Playlist, Radio, Record, Explorer and finally Settings.

Going through the settings you have an option of an alternative interface, and in common settings you can adjust the screen saver timer and screen brightness, I did turn the brightness up a bit on this but again a personal preference and no doubt my daughter will adjust it again. There is also an option for timed shutdown and auto power off both with the option of disabling them, an option to increase the boot volume and format both the internal 8gb memory and external micro SD card.

I found the sound quality superb totally lacking any distortion even at the highest level, I tried it with a small external speaker which worked instantly and also attached my daughters headset again working flawlessly and certainly very powerful, I tested the sound recorder which came out very clear and I would think ideal if you wanted to record memos as it has a pause and continue recording feature with the mic being inbuilt into the unit.

I have added a video and will also add some pictures, in this I show unpacking, going through the menu, selecting and playing some MP3’s from the internal 8gb memory then adding a micro SD card loaded up with some albums and playing a few songs from that, I then went on to test the radio which I found to be impressively clear and easy to tune, please be aware the sound and video are crystal clear but the video quality often degrades considerable when uploaded.

• High-Resolution Audio Certified: Deliver high-fidelity sound reproduction which complies with the High-Resolution Audio standard (96kHz/24-bit or above) and is much better than CDs (44.1kHz/16-bit)
• 2'' LCD display: Easily enable you to navigate the menu and relevant information. Provide fast and accurate operations with an advanced ARM Dual-core Cortex-M3 processor.
• Support Expanded Storage: This mini music player is built-in 8 GB memory and a expandable memory card slot that support a TF card of up to 256GB (TF card is not included).
• Working time up to 30 hours with 3.7V 1400mAh rechargeable Li-battery. Support music playback, FM radio, high-fidelity voice recording (up to 192kHz/24PCM), line out and TF card reading.
• Support audio formats: MP2, MP3, WMA and decoding DSD64, DSD128, DSD256 (.dff & .dsf), FLAC (up to 192kHz/24bit), ALAC (up to 192kHz/24bit), APE (up to 96 kHz/24bit), WAV (up to 192kHz/24bit) and other lossless audio format

What I liked
************
- Nice design with a high quality metal finish
- The QVGA LCD screen giving a very clear display
- The menu layout is very nice and easy to navigate
- Ability to add up to a 256GB micro SD card
- Sound recording, a nice added feature that could be useful
- In built radio
- Choice of interfaces selectable through the settings
- Up to 30 hour’s playtime from a single charge
- Supports a multitude of different audio formats
- Really great quality sound

What I Didn’t Like
******************
- The manual could be better and more in depth but as everything is simple to navigate and self-explanatory not a big deal and I am not reducing my overall rating for it.

Summary
**********
Overall this is a really solid high quality MP3 player with some nice added extras, the sound is superb and my daughter is over the moon with it so for these reasons it gets full marks from me. If you have any questions please feel free to ask I will do my best to answer.

Price: £45.99

PRODUCT LINK