We use flash players more and more nowadays. They have become a very big part of our lives. Moreover, they have replaced the old cassette and CD players because of their advantages. They are more compact and can have more features built in. Today we are going to talk about two new models from Orient. The MP720C and the MP730C are two MP3 players that are medium quality and have some gadget features built in. The features are quite interesting but we are going to talk about them later. Appearance
Both players are stylish and not very big. They look like bricks or boxes and have no special forms or some really cool designer twists. MP720 is grey and it looks a bit strict but neat. The disadvantage is that its plastic is not very resistible to scratches. Moreover, we advise not to drop it because the plastic might break. So no extreme use of it is advised.
On the other hand MP730 with its bright colors would match bright color clothes of modern teenagers. The material it is made of looks like it is higher quality but we still do not recommend you to use it in extreme situations. It comes in different colors: grey, green black. However, the chromed edges give it a glamorous look.
Battery
They are not very big and are very light: the both players have a weight of only 30 grams which is very light. However, light weigh means not big battery. They will last up to 10 hours of listening MP3 files. It is enough for a usual teenager for a day. You can always charge it during the night. So I think you are going to have no problems with that. Besides, you will not even feel them in your pocket.
Display
Both MP730 and MP720 have OLED 65536 colors displays however they are different sizes. And this is where the differences begin. MP720 has a bigger 1.6" display which is pretty big for a gadget like this. However, it makes the player look somewhat big and bulky.
MP730 has a smaller display therefore it looks much smaller and compact. However, the size is not very different from its brother.
Of course there is some difference in screens' resolutions. MP720 display has a resolution of 128 x 96 pixels and the MP730 model has a resolution of 96 x 64 pixels.
Data transmission
Data is a very important part of any MP3 player. With no mp3 files you will not be able to listen to it. (Well, duh.) To transmit files to and from the players you are going to need a PC and a mini USB cord, which I think has become a standard in MP3 players. This is the advantage that the players from Orient have.
However there is something not that good that we can say about them. The speed of data transmission is very low. It is 900 KB/sec and it is totally does not match the characteristics that are written on the box.
So we can say that it will take you a while to upload or download some big musical tracks from or on it.
Menus, controls and interface
The interface is not very comfortable and there is where we can criticize these players a lot. The system of files is not very comfortable. The players will only allow you to see the top folders and it will not see the enclosed ones. Besides, they will not allow you to navigate through the files; just choose the folder you need and it will play the songs from there. It is a good thing that it can go on to the next folder when it runs out of songs in the current one. There are different modes of work and you will have to make additional operations that you wouldn't do using a more high quality player.
MP720C
There are only 5 buttons to control the player and they are all placed on the front side of it. They are arranged in a circle. I think that it is too few for a player that has so many functions built in. There are only play/ pause, next/ previous track buttons, and the menu button. There are no even separate buttons to control the volume. To change the volume you have to press the Volume button and then press next/previous track buttons for louder o quieter volume. The MENU button scrolls the menu and you do not use track buttons to do that. Totally inconvenient way to control the player makes it not so good for the user. The menu interface is done nice however it is too slow because the graphics too good for the processor.
MP730C
The controls here are totally different. It has a joystick on the front side that you can press to access the menu. Pushing joystick right or left will switch the tracks and pushing it up and down will change the volume. There are three more buttons on the side: Play, Rec and Hold. Play is obviously playback. Rec button allows you to start recording with one push of a button and the Hold button in normal mode playback switches the settings of the equalizer. The controls on this model are more convenient and it works much faster in general because of fewer graphic showed.
Sound quality
Both of these models have medium sound quality. However, they cannot compete with such players like iPods or something like that. It is ok to use them in the streets in the loud atmosphere especially with their own headphones that come with it. If you not a really big fan of high sound quality this should be enough for you.
However, sometimes the MP730 model was making some surprises. Sometimes the sound quality would become so bad that it would be impossible to listen to the music. However, it happens not so often.
Supported file types
Audio files that they support are MP3 and WMA. However, they do not support popular OGG format that. You can also download WAV, PCM or ADPM files that can be read in Voice mode. They record voice or radio in one of those formats.
The support of video files exists but it is not very convenient to use them. The resolutions of the displays are not big and it would not be comfortable to watch a movie on the tiny screens. Besides, you have to convert video files into MTV or AMV formats which is not handy to do. There is special software to do that and it comes with the players.
Every MP3 flash player that has color display has a support of pictures. However, the pictures level is not high. It is very difficult to see detailed objects on it, besides the colors are not so bright. They have built this function in just to have it and not for the quality. However, they support more then one format: JPEG, BMP, and GIF.
Additional features
Voice recorder
Both players have voice recorders. It has become a usual function for the players nowadays and there is nothing special about that. However, the recorded sounds are not coded into MP3 so you are going to need to encode them if you want them in MP3. There is a function for saving battery and space on the drive and it is called VOR. This function allows the player stop recording when it is quiet in the room and start recording again when the noise appears.
FM tuner
The players have FM radio built in and they have a memory for 20 stations. The only problem that can appear is that they don't have automatic search. You can also record the radio broadcast to your player, however the sound quality is not that good. On the MP720C model you can record in two different qualities as opposed to one quality option in the MP730C model.
Text
Having a text reading function does not make the players cool because of the fonts. You will be able to read ebooks on the players for example on during a trip. The fonts are not really good however MP720C has a bigger display and shows the fonts a bit better.
Games
Yes, games. These players have games too. So you will be able to do that too. There are two games: Russia Block which is a usual Tetris game and Huarong Road.
Encoding the info
You can encode the information that is stored on the flash players having a special software program. It will help you secure the data if you loose the player. Both player models have this feature built in.
Conclusion
On one hand we get a lot of functions for a pretty low price however the functions are not always useful and the price is not that low. The players have lot of features that are accomplished not very well. Orient has created two pretty cool players but they cannot compete with high end ones. So it is up to you to decide what would you like to buy.
