Aigo F820

Aigo is still a relatively new entrant in the portable media space. Though the company's last few attempts have done quite well in the market, I’m afraid its latest offering – the Aigo F820 – may not fare as well. But I'm getting ahead of myself; let me clue you in on the device.

Form Factor
The F820’s design is certainly remarkable. It’s lightweight and easy on the eye. But though the keys are well-placed and seem simple to use, the actual navigation is quite another story.

To start with, the dual-color OLED is decently large. A jog dial on the side is handy for scrolling and skipping tracks, and it can also be depressed to enter certain menus (not all). But I’ll get to that later. A standard 3.5mm earphone kick is located just above the jog dial.

A mini-USB port and Hold slider (to lock the keys) are located on the other side of the player. Under the display are the volume keys, a loop A-B key, and a play/pause button. I had absolutely no issue with the product design. It’s easy to tote around and the button placements seem well thought out.

Features and Performance
While the Aigo F820 scores in design, its functionality leaves a lot to be desired. The display appears too cluttered when a track is playing. There are too many details on screen. Audio quality is fairly decent though. It’s loud but tends to be a mite sharp at times. The six EQ presets do make a difference. You might want to look at another pair of headphones – the bundled set is okay, but not good enough to do full justice to the audio.

The interface is simple and easy to navigate, if not quite consistent. The keys tend to have multiple functions, which can be quite confusing at times. You can store files in folders on the drive that can be accessed very easily from the player’s 2GB storage, and although it’s an easy job to scroll through them using the jog dial, you can also select files by depressing the same. Press the Play/Pause key and you’ll then be given an option to ‘Play’ or ‘Exit’. I’m not sure why, considering the reason I navigated to that track was to play it. D-uh!