Home > Consumer Reviews > Transcend T.sonic 850 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

I bought this player specifically to play wav files. Amazon's website states that wav is one of the support file formats. However, my wav files were not recognized. I looked at the FAQ on the products website and they state that only wav files in IMA_ADPCM format are recognized. However, even after converting my to this type the device still does not recognize the wav files.

If you need wav format don't rely on this product. My previous (and more expensive) iaudio plays wav just fine and I suggest it instead.

I was very pleased at the features of this mp3 player. The radio recorder, which I have not used yet, is very exciting. Also, the video option is pretty great--tiny screen though. The equalizer is a fantastic feature. For those of us who like our sound the way we like it, especially with our own music on the thing, it's great to have the option to adjust the levels, even though they don't give you too many choices. Having the equalizer at all is a blessing for a unit like this.

This friggin' thing has tons of space. I already have like over 2000 songs on this 8g card and it's still got 4.4 left!

Only detraction: The software is a little buggy. Sometimes it freezes up when you give it a command, with the hourglass just sitting there forever, nothing changing. You have to shut down and reboot in that case. Also, I use it in the car with a power inverter, and sometimes it mistakes the usb power supply for a connection to a computer, and has to be rebooted then too.

Other than that, great unit. The menu is a little rough to figure out at first, but once you know the processes, becomes cake to navigate.

This is a very thin, lightweight player that is easy to slip in a purse (or in my case fanny pack) and take everywhere with you. It's so small and light you won't even know you're carrying it, about half the size of my Blackberry.

I love the fact that you can drag and drop files onto the player, plus it can be used as a portable hard drive to transport or save files, or store and look at photos. I do not like making playlists, so I look for players like this one which do not force you to create playlists. It has a bright display and comes with a clear silicone cover (usually you have to buy a protective cover separately, so this is a plus). To me the supplied earphones sound very good and fit in my ears comfortably, unlike many other earphones that hurt. The FM radio is a nice bonus and is not found in all MP3 players. It has a long battery life which is good for someone like me who forgets to charge it often.

However, the screen is small and I would not want to watch movies or read e-books on it, so I have not tried those functions. I mostly listen to talk show podcasts and what I do NOT like about this player is the fact that it does not go directly to what I was last listening to when it's turned on, unlike the SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8 GB MP3 Player, which I also have. That is a minor inconvenience but is the reason I prefer the Sansa Fuze over this player.

This is an inexpensive MP3 player for all it has on it. You may not want to use it as your only player because it only has 8GB with no expansion slot, and that 8GB can fill up pretty fast.

The Transcend T.sonic 850 8GB Video MP3 Player is an excellent mp3/video player with great performance. It has enough memory and battery life to satisfy the casual user and even some features lacking in Apple's iPod line. Although the design, ease of use and quality of build are slightly below the iPod, you are getting a much better value for your money.


Design
The T.sonic 850 is comparable in size to an iPod nano, though a bit thicker. The design isn't quite as sleek and doesn't use as high quality materials as an Apple product, but it's solidly built and attractive. Accidentally dropping the player on a hard floor, it was none worse for the wear. I can't say the same for my wife's old iPod nano.

Performance
The display is crisp and clear, displaying videos well, though screen could be bigger. The sound is excellent, outperforming the iPod IMO. Features including radio, recording, and media viewer round out the T.sonic nicely. I especially appreciated the radio. Battery life is excellent as well.

Ease of Use
Navigating through the menus and settings is fairly easy, though not entirely intuitive. Adding files and folders by dragging and dropping from your computer is a breeze. Creating playlists is easy too. On the other hand, compatable formats leave a lot to be desired. I understand that by forcing users to convert video files to their .mtv format Transcend can ensure those videos work well with the hardware and don't use up excess memory. However, I would still prefer the option to drag and drop video files in at least a few popular formats. Also, I would have liked .wav audio file compatability.

The T.sonic is my 12 yr. old's first MP3 player and, so far, he is happy with it. I would say that this little player is worth about what I paid for at one of Amazon's one-hour specials.

I will first summarize what I got for my money and then I will have some closing thoughts where I will explain my rating.

- The contents -
The little box includes the player itself with a rechargeable battery (up to 22 hours of music playback or radio play on a full charge claimed) inside, a protective silicone skin, neck lanyard, a multi-lingual manual with the English section being 6 or 7 very small pages, the headphones, a WHITE (everything else is black) USB cable and a mini disk that has an extended version of the manual plus a video file conversion utility, a slide show maker and some utility that is supposed to password-protect files that one would save on the device.

There is NO charger. The expectation is that the person who owns the player will use a computer to charge it through the USB cable. For those of us who don't carry a charged laptop next to their MP3 player, I found that a Blackberry charger works. I suspect that other independent USB chargers work as well.

- Design, ergonomics -
The player itself is not too bad looking. The screen is small but bright. The main 'button', below the screen, has the central button as the on/off, OK, and some select functions. It is surrounded by the up/down and right/left. These are not 'touch' buttons, you have to push them with some force for something to happen and, due to the player's slow response I found myself pushing the same button more than once before the player responded.

There is a 'menu button' and a 'red dot' button on the right side and a 'lock' button on the left side. The buttons are not always responsive and it can take several seconds before an input is acknowledged by the player (more about that later when I discuss 'performance'). It is possible to press the 'left' or 'right' button and to cause the player to display the 'goodbye' message because the central button was accidentally activated when touching it meant 'turn off'.

The interface is basic and anything that's a bit more 'complex', such as organizing a playlist can be difficult to execute.

- Features -
Computer interface:
Any file can be loaded off a computer by simply connecting via the USB port, at which time the player becomes a 'removable drive'. .mp3, .wma, .jpg, .txt and other file types can be simply dropped into the 'drive' and they will be played or displayed as appropriate. Given that the device looks like a drive to the computer, one can create folders to better organize content.

Music player:
Play is adequate but accessing your favorite song once you have hundreds is a different matter. I am repeating myself but the fact is that the interface and ease of use leave a lot of room for improvement.

Photo display:
Pictures are displayed off a separate menu and, like the songs, can be difficult to organize. It can take 5 to 10 seconds to display a 4MB file. I have little doubt that, had I reduced the size/resolution of my photos, they would have been displayed a lot quicker but I didn't feel that the user was 'expected' to convert dozens or hundreds of picture files prior to loading them on the player.

Voice recording:
It works and the 'voice activated' trigger is useful. If one takes the time to meaningfully rename the voice files, they could become meaningful records.

Radio playing:
20 FM stations can be preset on 20 'channels' and one can listen to a preset channel or seek a station not yet saved. The controls are a bit awkward but this is becoming a 'constant' observation already. An interesting feature is its ability to automatically scan the spectrum and assign stations to each of the 20 channels. It's a nice idea but, in my case, the same stations were assigned to 3 or 4 channels and some of the stations 'found' were nothing but static hiss.

Video:
I did not test it yet and it's not something that we are going to use. My son wanted a 'music player'. To play videos we have big screen TV's and laptops that do a much better job. I will enter my impressions here, once I have a chance to test it.

E-book:
Yes, it opens text files but one must be irresponsible to attempt actually reading a book on a postage-stamp size screen. We only have one pair of eyes and they don't get any better.

Clock:
Apparently, this model was not meant to be sold in the US. When setting the clock, you will find that the 'Pacific' time zone is labeled 'United States' and 'Eastern' seems to be called 'Venezuela'. Daylight savings time is available as an option to check but, who knows when that kicks in, since my time zone is 'Venezuela' now.

File storage:
I suppose this is a possibility but, with 8Gb thumb drives available for about $10, it would be a waste of MP3 player to actually attempt to use it as a file storage device.

- Performance, quality -
The player is overall slow. It is slow to respond to commands, slow to display large files, slow to turn itself on or off.

The quality of sound is acceptable and the basic (as in cheap) ear buds could be easily replaced with something better.


To conclude, this is something that my first born is likely to use for a while until he manages to impress me (good grades or some new belt color in Taekwando) into getting him something better. It's also a good way for him to get used with the concept of an MP3/gadget.

This model's several shortcomings would normally earn it a 2-star but the not-so-high price pulls it up into the 3-star territory. I view it as a 'disposable' gadget and, as such, it can be considered a 'good buy'.

To be fair, my little guy would give this 5 stars without hesitation. He is very happy with what he got and, if he's happy, I'm not unhappy either :).