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Introduction & Design

The Nike PSA Play 120 Boxshot

Now that the MP3 craze is reaching feverish pitches, it seems like everyone and their brother is getting into the market with portable players. Nike, ever the savvy marketer, isn’t about to let this go without introducing a portable player of their own. Thus is born the Nike PSA Play sports portable player, a snazzy little number based around Diamond/S3’s Rio technology and featuring 64MB of built-in memory and support for WMA. This is a rugged player with all the standard features and a focus in its design as an all-digital sports portable.

Nike itself isn’t behind the technical R&D on this product. Instead, this is sort of a Rio in disguise… think of the Rio 600’s distant cousin with a Nike “Swoosh”. With that said, the design of the PSA Play is completely different than anything you have yet to come across, as far as MP3 portables go. The unit is divided into two separate parts: the larger main unit and a smaller remote. It’s obvious that the PSA is designed from the ground up as a sports MP3 portable – its catchy looking oval design is at a time aggressively avant-garde and rugged looking. You won’t find the LCD display on the stylish main unit though. Instead, for a more rugged design, a smaller LCD is mounted on the remote unit.

The Nike PSA main module

The larger unit looks almost like an amorphous oval sculpture. It is compact lightweight, and shaped so it fits perfectly in the hand. It is even easier to hang on to than the Rio 600, and is more portable than the other players I’ve reviewed in the past. It also has a different approach to its button design and layout. Rather than having individual buttons, the main portion of the unit’s front face is dominated by a rubberized pad that handles all the playback and control functions. Remember the D-pads used by the Diamond/S3 Rio 600 and the sleek Samsung Yepp 64? Just think of something 2-3 times the size, and completely covered in a layer of non-slip rubber. This makes the unit extremely accessible, because functions are set on a large surface area – no fumbling for small buttons with this player. Also, since the button surface is rubberized, it makes for non-slip control during workouts, intensive jogs, long cycle rides, or just about any sporty activity which is likely to make your hands slick with sweat.

The remote is beautifully designed, and matches the player perfectly. Its tiny 10-character LCD display scrolls the song title during playback, while track number, time elapsed, and battery life are permanently displayed above and below the title. Nearly everything can be controlled from the remote, and any of the playback functions you activate from the main unit is reported on the remote’s LCD. Without any sort of backlight, this is probably one of the more sparse LCD’s you’ll encounter. It also scrolls titles agonizingly slow, which is a surprising fault since you’re not likely going to want and stare at the LCD for long when on the go.

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