Quirks & Final Thoughts
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| The Jungle-I's Parallel Port Interface |
The Jungle-I could have been a perfect portable product if it werent for two flaws/quirks that really galled me. The first of these is the lack of any seek feature in the player, which means that you cant zip through to different parts of a song. The second problem is that the player resets its settings when you turn it off, which means that each time you power it up again, the VOLUME is restored to the factory default. This is the single largest flaw that the player has, and it is very significant because it means that you will be threatened with a constant requirement to reset the volume to your listening preferences every time that you reset the player. The only good news is that if you pause the player long enough over 3 miniutes, it will go into sleep mode. 3 more minutes and it goes into a low power mode, where your settings ARE retained. The manual warns against leaving the player in low power mode, because the batteries are slowly being drained, but I am almost tempted to use the low power mode in lieu of the off mode, just to try and save my audio settings.
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| Great angled shot of the Jungle I |
One last quirk, which is not really a quirk, is that the player is geared towards the Asian market, which means that it comes with a charger with the wrong voltage (220V) and wrong prong shape. The manual, box, and player itself are totally unaffected though, since all three use English (the manual is written in English and is particularly complete in its coverage of various topics). Its easy enough to pick up a voltage converter from Radio Shack or any electronics store, so I dont really count this as a very strong reason to avoid the player. Amazingly, the built in battery is capable of powering the player for 8 hours of continuous play. I say this is amazing because I doubt that the battery must be of small size and light weight, considering the overall size and weight of the unit.
The Jungle-I is definitely an eye dazzler and pocket pleaser. It is the first MP3 player that has impressed me with its sheer dimunitive size and stylin looks. The audio quality is also nothing to be ashamed of, so this player packs beauty and ability with high quality construction. You can literally slip this baby into your shirt pocket and none would be the wiser, save for the headphone cables peeping out from under the shirt.
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| Jungle I sitting on black pouch |
An integrated Lithium Ion battery means that you dont have to worry about buying any batteries, and is also a bonus because it can be charged with no regard for battery memory related effects. I was disappointed in some of the unpolished features, especially the lack of any settings retention when the player is powered off, and this ultimately hurts the player more than even its lack of expandability. As a tech toy and gadget, this player scores top marks
it will wow your friends and let you show off how cutting edge you really are I am so in love with the product that I get giddy when I pick it up and show it to someone that has yet to see such a small audio wonder. I would have given the player a 90%, in spite of its lack of expansion and its limited LCD display
but that whole thing about the volume settings retention forces me to dock off some marks and award only a 82%. Ideally, Artec will revise the Jungle-i and improve it for a better end product.
For the sheer heck of it, I would say that the player could be perfect IF it could retain user settings, if it used a USB interface, had a more robust management program, and also had track title display on a backlit LCD. Now all THAT in the same amazing package would have easily won a 98%. Ah to dream of the gadgets that COULD be. For now
the Jungle-i is one of the most persuasive and elegant MP3 solutions yet, and I am already itching for the 96MB version.
Overall Score: 82%
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