Transcend T.sonic 820

The video capabilities of the device are unsatisfactory. Consider the display resolution of the screen. More annoying is the silly black navigation bar occupying a third of the screen. I don’t understand the reason for that. The image quality is poor but if it’s a short clip you need to show someone it’s okay. Just don’t stare at the screen too long. If you’re going to be viewing photographs, well, you’ll at least be able to recognize the person in it. If your eyesight is good.

Another feature that is a waste is the FM radio with recording. I was not able to get a decent signal anywhere. Forget commutes, I was lucky to be able to hear a few squawks while in my office building. The recoding feature is quick, but don't expect any great quality. Had the radio been better, I might have enjoyed going back in time and recording from FM. It records files in .WAV format, and also has an Audio-In feature to record from other sources.

The e-book reader was only able to read .TXT files, so all your books will have to be converted to that format (if they aren’t already). It was decent enough to get by. The inbuilt microphone is quite good and has good range. There's also a world clock.

The battery life of the T.sonic 820 is superb. With a full 12 hours of nonstop music you’ll have no problem at all. All that on a single charge! Don’t let a single bar in the Battery Meter fool you, it’ll still give you a good three hours of music, if not more.

The Bottomline
Priced at about Rs 2,795 for 2GB and Rs 3,495 for the 4GB model, this player is not too bad. But you must realize that the T.sonic 820 is fundamentally a brilliant music player, and little else. If a simple, nice-looking MP3 player is what you want, and don't wish to go to the hassle of getting another set of earphones, this one is ideal.