Home > Consumer Reviews > Frontier Labs NEX iA 256 MB MP3 Player

I received this item as a christmas gift and was surprised at how small it is. It is slightly heavier than the RIO 35S player or the smaller ones but note that this has a tad more features than the other ones. It comes in at approx 3 ounces without batteries. With batteries, it still a bit lighter than more cellphones and smaller, too.

PROS:
1) Can act as storage for other files. It will just show up as a removeable drive in XP without driver installation much like most Digital cameras. Drag and drop ease in storing files unlike some MP3 players that cannot do that

2) No proprietary software or drivers. The disadvantage of players like RIO's is that you have to use their Jukebox software to transfer music. This forces you to have the software with you when you need to bring it to another PC to load MP3s.

3) Firmware upgrades. I just received my player and I immediate upgraded the firmware with ease (drag and drop!) and got new features instantly after I rebooted.

4) Compactflash storage. The cheapest of all portable solid state storage and most expandable ones. It can accept Type I/II and Microdrives allowing it to take up to 2 GB of music --- READ: no skip music unlike the hardrive based ones like IPOD, or the other JUKEBOXes.
5) Feature rich: Shuffle, 5 EQ controls + 1 custom EQ, large display, and automatic sorting.

CONS:
1) Flimsy controls. Felt like they were saving a little bit on the components.
2) Compactflash loading slot - They should some kind of mechanical door for the CF slot because like other people said, it feels like it's a bit too flimsy and could break.
3) USB 1.1 slow transfer --- way slower than USB 2.0 which is why I'll end up buying a USB 2.0 Complactflash reader writer for less than ten bucks.
4) Manual - I wish they had put more stuff in the manuals for people that are less technical.

Overall, This player is solid, very easy to use, light enough for me to buy an armband and hook this up with so I can run with it! Hope this review helps.

OK I only paid $120 for the thing on sale from Amazon but the price is now back to $269. At that price, do not even consider this player.

Pros - sturdy construction, easy to use menu, good backlighting, decent equalizer, drag & drop download.

Cons - Heavy with 2AA's, slightest bump makes it skip even with "hold" button on, constantly freezes (must remove battery to reset) and usb 1.1 microdrive is as slow as a glacier.

Do not get suckered by the extra bells & whistles (CF card usage, built in microphone & FM radio). These things will have no value in the long run to anyone as the primary reason for buying an MP3 player is to play MP3's. On that function, this player sucks big time. The 1 gig microdrive never let me load more than 540 megs of mp3's. I kept getting a "disk full" pop-up once that limit was reached. Frontier support said to reformat disk and try again (this exchange occured via email as Frontier has no live person support). I did this 2x with no change. Also, the microdrive is as slow as molasses. I kid you not, it takes about 5 hrs to download 540 megs of files. You will be at it all day. Take my advice and skip this piece of junk.

Having been a fan of their previous model, I gave the nex IIa a try. I heard it was able to support a 4gb microdrive, so I was able to get a drive on ebay for 135.00. I am happy to confirm that the nex IIa does handle 4gb microdrives with no problem. I use a cf card reader to drop and drag my mp3's and wma's. The Nex IIa works great with the 4gb drive. However, due to the size of the drive and the limited processing power of the Nex, it takes about minute and a half for it to load up before you can start playing it. It is a bit buggy with the larger drive. Too much ff or skippping through songs can cause it to freeze up. I just put it on shuffle play. Starts faster with smaller drives though. There is no comparison to an Ipod. Ipod is far easier to use, the controls and the ability to scroll instantly and intuitivly through large numbers of files is simply not the case in the nex IIa, but if you want a rather sturdy and no nonsense mp3 player, with changeable drives, the ability to use rechargeable or disposable batteries, this isn't bad at all.

I bought the player and it seemed like a great deal at the time.

I had a hard time to get the microdrive flap open. The unit is nice but everything has that cheap plastic feel to it - like you would want to handle it very carefully lest something snaps off. After putting the microdrive and batteries in, it was pretty heavy considering the weight before that.

The USB 1.0 transfer is just so SLOW... It took 6 hours, yes 6 to load 550 MB of songs on it. That is its WEAKEST point.

Radio tuner is lame and you wont get a decent signal unless your'e standing infront of the radio station building.

The unit also guzzles batteries down like an SUV.

It crashes/freezes very often and to get it started again you have to remove the batteries and put thenm back in - a very annoying procedure.

Good qualities: Sound is very good. The backlight is bright. The remote works fine.

In the end it is a good looker with no performance.

Going to be jogging/running? Get a flash based player.
Not going to be jogging/running? Get a drive based player.

First one I got worked for 1 min. then the nav. stick would not go up, even w/ the remote so I had to exchange it. Using 2100Mah NiMH batteries worked for a couple of months then it just kept freezing even w/ new batteries. Suffice to say I have to use alkalines now. Battery life is poor, about 8-10 hours w/ alkaline batteries. I'm looking for an iRiver (17hrs avg. play time on 1AA battery). For 2AA bateries I expect better life. Updated firmware helped bugs but not battery usage even w/ the backlight off all the time.
compact flash door is a but flimsy but I keep it in the included case so it is not much of an issue. Radio recording is okay but the reception sucks and is restricted to 64kbps only. I don't use the voice recording but if I went back to grad school I'm sure I would.

Sound is extremely good but not w/ the included headphones. Use your own. User EQ is a nice feature but every player has that now. I've had this Nex IA since Summer 2003, a month after it was released. Too bad there is no better compact flash based player w/radio. Compare the features of this player and the iRiver 390T or 395T series players and you'd be willing to give up the compact flash player for it, especially for the ability to encode to MP3 at any bit rate w/ line in.

I thought that I could use this as an all around MP3 player but am restriced to using it only when jogging/running because of the battery life.

Pros: Great sound w/ other headphones (SQL and SPL), Nice display, compact flash based if you use compact flash memory a lot for digital cams and USB memory, nice white/acrylic look.

Cons: Too many freeze ups, Poor battery life for 2 AA, flimsy construction, Poor radio reception, old for its time. There are better alternatives but unfortunately no alternatives if you are looking for compact flash based players.