This is an 8GB audio player and photo viewer. Fairly standard stuff. It charges via USB, has a removable battery—it encourages you to stick a paper clip into this thing to pop off the back, which is a fairly refreshing—and very intuitive interface. The design, however, is the best part. The front is clad in rubberized plastic while the back is chromed metal. It is bulbous and very tiny and has a bright, readable screen. It also has a scroll wheel. But this isn’t just any scroll wheel, it’s a physical scroll wheel that lets you turn it 180-degrees. There’s even a little pip on the wheel that glows and lights up when you hit one of the cardinal points on the wheel. Then you have a center button and four cardinal buttons for controlling things, almost like the iPod.
That’s kind of the key, here, isn’t it? “Almost like the iPod.” Well, it’s an interesting design for what would have been otherwise and also ran MP3 player. TrekStor is popular in Europe and is just trying it’s luck here this year, so the company is definitely one to watch.
One unusual aspect of this player is that it doesn’t come with and FM tuner built-in. You actually have to buy the tuner separately and it comes on a tiny chip about 1/4-inch per side that you have to press into a little slot. This is not a major issue, but clearly anyone who buys this has no intention of putting a little chip into a slot. They have to remedy this before it goes to market.
Audio quality, if you’re interested is standard with no surprises. It’s a good MP3 player.
Otherwise, this clever little MP3 has a fairly nice user interface and a unique DJ feature that acts almost like the iTunes dynamic playlists except they’re run right on the device itself. If they had added a video player to the Vibez, I’d marry it. However, as it stands I can recommend it for the $219 they’re selling it for on Amazon and elsewhere.
Looks good. Does it support USB Mass Storage? What about Ogg?
Oh, does it also support file browsing via id3 tags? I know it should be a give, but I purchased a Chinese player last year that doesn’t.
Very nice… And it’s less expensive than reported:
On Amazon:
8GB
$199, shipped from Amazon (free shipping, no tax), but not in stock
$169, shipped from J&R ($6 shipping, tax in NY), in stock
12GB
$219, shipped from Amazon (free shipping, no tax), but not in stock
$199, shipped from J&R, in stock
15GB
$239, available for pre-order (…will be released on February 1, 2007)
http://www.amazon.com/TrekStor-vibez-Player-Black-Silver/dp/B000K43LV6
“Thanks to the ID3 tags, vibez TFT display with 176 x 132 pixels can show the CD covers of the songs being played.”
“TrekStor vibez supports MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG and FLAC files as well as WMA DRM (Digital Rights Management) 9 and 10 formats.”
“…a USB host function that lets you connect to other peripherals, such as digital cameras, and copy files for backup storage via the USB 2.0 interface.”
Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. How’s the durability? Solid state memory or hdd?
It’s nice to finally see a very unique and innovative product design in this space. I was wondering how long it would take to get and actual 180-degree wheel or a jog dial on a media player. I really expected Apple to have added this to the iPod line by now, 5th gen.
there’s a little hdd in there. durability looks to be about average.
That UI shot looks exactly like the UI from the older Rio players like the Karma and the Carbon. I loved that UI but it’s a little weird to see it show up again, I have given up all of the Rio tech for dead and buried.
I’m confused as to how it’s a 180-degree wheel. Does it only go half-way around?
Sorry, I think this design is hideous. The rectangular display inside the circular “window” is jarring. Makes me twitch.
Hum the “unique DJ feature” is the rio dj … so it’s not unique … it’s like a new karma, no it’s another karma
but to now that, you have to know what a karma is …
It plays ogg vorbis, does gapless playback, and works with mac? Finally, it seems I am part of a target market for mp3 players. Maybe I’ll have to update my karma…
USB mass-storage yes, Vorbis and Flac yes, browse by ID3 (or equivalent) yes, gapless all formats yes, mac yes, and the wheel does indeed go all the way round, 360 degrees. There is however a small error in the Amazon description: it doesn’t have USB host and you can’t plug digital cameras into it.
It is derived from the Rio technology, which ended up getting bought by Sigmatel, the chipmaker whose STMP3600 CPU powers the Vibez.
Peter
Does the Vibez support the reading of chinese characters ID3 tags ? I am 1 click away from ordering at amazon but i need to know if it can read my chinese characters ID3 Tags.
I am interested in this player (thank you all for your input & questions) and asked TrekStor about the 15GB version since if it was going to come out soon I’d wait.
They wrote back & said that they are no longer planning to do the 15GB version, so 12 it is…for now.
I just ordered the Trekstor Vibez and am reading more reviews in anticipation.
The reason I’m leaving this commentary has nothing to do with the actual topic of this article, but with this little phrase: “TrekStor is popular in Europe and is just trying it’s luck here this year, so the company is definitely one to watch.”
It’s kind of jarring to realize, out of the blue, during your evening blog grazing, that a site you enjoy, if only off and on, actually makes the point explicitly stating that it is not written for you. That you’re, like, not its primary readership, probably tolerated, but “out”, not in. No wonder then that the internet does as much driving people apart by nationality (not even language!) instead of joining them up.
Well ok, got your point.