Home > Consumer Reviews > Gateway DMP-310 256 MB Digital Music MP3 Player

I got this player for my birthday. It has been the best that i have used.

Pros: everything pretty much

Cons: the only thing that i dont like is the radio function.

The DMP-310 really has only one viable function: playback of MP3's, for which it works very well for the price.

The problems unfold from there: the control wheel is extremely difficult to use (believe it or not) and has a very slow response to touch.

The radio function is useless, as it picks up barely any stations and mysteriously begins recording if one hits the control wheel in a wrong fashion. The Gateway website attributes this to hitting the "Next" button on the control wheel...which is how you change the channel in the first place.

The voice recording function is just plain bad, picking up a multitude of fuzz and static on even the calmest recording.

USB connectivity was nice--it connects directly to the computer so it's very simple to use and then drag-and-drop songs onto it.

The earphones are of extremely low quality. Upon adjustment to fit my ear, the right earphone actually broke on the first use.

Another thing that really bothered me was the "feel" of the product. It is made of very lightweight plastic--it doesn't feel very sturdy and I was afraid it would crack easily upon dropping.

The CONs:
- it does drain a battery. I feel like I have to change it often, but its a AAA to thats probably why
- the navigation button doesnt always work as well as it should. I feel like its difficult to skip to the next song...forget this if at all if you are working out doing something high impact....you need a steady hand to do it and several attempts
- volume level doesnt go that high
- radio doesnt pick up stations and its not easy to set them
- cant do your own playlist in the the order you want. It sorts it alphabetically. You can do random but sometimes w hen working out i want to put songs in a certain order

PRO's:
- so small and lightweight!!! this is a great feature.
- i have the 256 mb capcity and sometimes i fit 90 songs on it.
- its really easy to plug and play into a computer!
- great for a commuter

I got this as a gift and as its my first one I have to say overall I love it as its much smaller and easier than a cd player when working out and commutting. However when I really think about it when I do get another one I probably will be checking out other ones unless they improve the navigation buttons and battery life. But seeing as how I have no experience with other MP3 players I dont know if this is a norm or not.

I bought this as an upgrade to a 128 MB player, and thus far, don't mind it. It holds a lot of music (110+ songs in MP3Pro format, use MusicMatch to convert for free). The screen is big enough and shows all the nessisary info, though for some reason, the song time is messed up occasionally. Though, for example, it is a 4 minute song, the display says 2 minutes, and every second on the countup timer takes 2 seconds. Strange, but not really a crisis.

It's dirt easy to transfer songs, too; just plug the player into a USB port and drag and drop in Windows Explorer. Windows 2000, ME, and XP have the USB driver built in, too.

I like the size; not too big or too small. I wouldn't mind it being a sliver smaller, but oh well. I like the earphones that come with it too; nice and small, yet comfortable. The belt clip and neckstrap are nice, too.

I havent used the FM tuner much, but when I did, it picked up the popular stations well, but none of the weaker stations. The voice recorder is great for recording notes to yourself, but too weak to make recordings of a lecture. You can record from the radio, too, which is cool, if not kinda pointless.

The navigation button is frustrating at times -it pauses when I try to skip forward, or it doesn't do anything when I press forward- but I usually get it. It doesn't have a browse feature, either, so you must manually go through all the songs to get to the one you want. One thing I hate is the battery life; it seems that every few hours I must change it. It's probably more like 6, but still.

The customer service is great, too. My first one had a loose wire and kinda melted (kool to look at, anyhow) and I called them and it was replaced within 10 days, free of charge.

PROS
-Cost: only $125 now
-Size: about the size of two of my fingers (I'm a big guy though)
-Capasity: Over 4hrs/110 songs w/ MP3Pro.
-4 in 1: Works great as voice recorder, FM tuner (for strong stations), and thumbdrive.
-Included Accesories (Belt clip, neckstrap, USB extention cable)
-Great customer support.

CONS
-Buttons don't always work.
-FM tuner bad on weaker signals.
-Battery life: 5-6 hrs.

I bought this player as a replacement for my Muvo which died after about a year of use. That came with just 3 months warranty so there was nothing I could do about it. About Gateway's DMP-310:

I like the extra features. The voice recorder and FM tuner are a nice bonus and the display is great. It ultra-portable and it comes with its own leather case with belt clip attached which is also very nice.

What I don't like: The volume quality is terrible! I am comparing it with the Muvo which is built in the same way, so I don't understand why the volume would be so different. Battery life is the pits! I have had this player for four days now and have gone through as many batteries. Each has lasted less than 2 hours, even after turning off the backlight feature and setting the energy saving mode on. I'm not sure if I got a bad apple or if this is common with these players, but it appears that I will be spending more on batteries than on music. The Muvo, was not the greatest battery saver either, but I could at least expect to get a week of use out of it before the battery died. This DMP-310 requires a daily battery change even with light use.