Coby MP300-4G MP3 Player with 4 GB Flash Memory, USB Drive and LCD - Black

Amazon Customer Reviews

(1 out of 5)

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According to the manufacturer, this player "supports" ID3. What that means in practice is that it will display some of the ID3 information when it plays a track.

As far as i can tell (and i've scoured the Coby web site and searched the web for info), there is no way to use the ID3 information for *navigation*. (Compare the Sansa machines, for example, with menus that list albums by Artist, or by Title. And that *order the tracks within an album* correctly.)

So i now have a player that is loaded with several hundred tracks, in essentially random order. (I have a folder structure--by artist, then by album--in place, but the machine doesn't list the tracks in order within a folder, nor does it seem to provide "play this folder" capability.)

The manufacturer's website is useless. If i don't soon find out how to access my content in a rational way--and i've already wasted 2 hours too many of my life on this--i'm going to throw this machine into the garbage.

(5 out of 5)

Works well for what I want

I had one just like this with only(!) 2GB only it was a Rixxo Mambo brand. The functionality was identical though the buttons are differently placed. My son broke his (he's not real gentle with stuff) so I gave him mine and bought this. It plays MP3s and WMAs very well. I use it through my car radio (external input on the front) and it sounds beautifully clear and clean. It also plays podcasts very nicely so that when you turn it off then on in the middle of one it picks up exactly where it left off - almost to the syllable. Doubles as a USB drive if you mistreat it as my son did and break a button.

It also claims the ability to delete songs without going to iTunes or WMP on your computer and the ability to jump to different folders according to the well written instructions though I don't use those features since I just want to hear whatever I put on in any old order. Since it is about 1/4-th the cost of the 4GB iPod or Zune I am quite happy with it.

The output connector is at one of the ends so the headphone jack goes in straight with the body. This makes it easy to fit in my pocket when I'm at the gym listening through my big Sennheiser headphones. Next to the headphone jack is a small ring for some thin thread or wire or something so you can attach some holder.

4GB is about 1,000 MP3 tunes for me at 160-192 Kbps, tunes being 2 to 12 minutes long, mostly 3 minutes. That is a lot, and I'm finally getting to hear my 3 star selections instead of the same 500 5-star selections.

I had some trouble with WMP at first not seeing some of the tunes I had loaded from my other computer so I reformatted it as if it were an external drive (which it is) and reloaded everything and then it was fine. Likely a WMP issue.

The connection to the computer is USB 2.0 and it connects like a USB drive - take off one end protector and stick the whole thing in. It also has a USB cable if the angles are wrong for sticking it directly in.

(5 out of 5)

Easy to Use

The MP3 player is easy to use. Although it's a MP3 player, it's still a memory stick so to think of it as only a MP3 player will make it difficult to figure out how to use.

When putting songs into the player, the order the songs are put in is the order they will appear. If Track 2 is put before Track 1, Track 2 will be played before 1. If you want to play songs according to the album or artist, you have to make a folder first. After putting the songs in their respecitive folders, it's simple to have them played. Let's say you want to play the folder where the artist is XYZ. First, play a song in that folder. Second, go to the menu, then settings, then select Dir normal, in which Dir stands for Directory. The player will then ONLY play songs in that folder. If you picked, dir repeat or dir shuffle, ONLY songs in that folder will be repeated or shuffled, depending on which option you picked.

If you think of it as only a MP3 player, you will never be able to figure out out to get it to work. You need to think of it as a memory stick first and MP3 player second.

(5 out of 5)

Nicely done.

I've got very few problems with this mp3 player. The songs can end up in random order, but I've had experience with these mp3 players that don't really have a structure to put them in. The best way to set them in the order you like would be to put each song in individually. I also recommend using folders down to each album because the songs will probably get mixed. However, most of the time I don't really care what order they're in as long as its on there and I can find it through the menu.

Those are the only negative things to say about this, so if you're the type of person that likes to hear your songs in random order, you'll have nothing against this.

The design is pretty small, which is good because I need to hide it a lot of the time. Its also pretty easy to hold onto if you don't have a place to store it specifically. The headphone jack is a little oddly placed, but I think that can be adjusted to easily enough. It really holds my headphone connector piece in place though, so I won't be spinning it around as much anymore.

It seems to play my music really well, there's no distortion that isn't being caused by the headphones. The switch from song to song is fast.

The best part is, this came 2 days early for me. It might have just been a fluke in the route calculation, but 2 days early is 2 days early.

Also, a USB cord came with the mp3 player that plugs straight into the computer. The last time I asked about those the manager said that they didn't exist. Dunno what happened there, but I got one with the mp3 player.

(4 out of 5)

Impressive MP3 player for the price!

I bought the 1GB player at Walgreen's on sale for $19 and loved it so much that I 'up-graded' to the 4GB player which I ordered from Amazon this summer. I own a 2007 Toyota Yaris with an aux input plug that will absolutely not work with my iPods, but works perfectly with the Coby MP3 players.

There are many bells 'n' whistle features on the screen, which makes it a bargain - you can see the track, the artist name, time elapsed, which number track in the album and what the number the song is in the entire memory, battery life, whether it's on repeat, etc. There's a way to set the equalizer, the background colors, just about everything you can think of to tweak.

Some reviewers complain that it isn't a rugged case, but it's made from thick, hard plastic and it gets its share of bouncing around in my car and it isn't even scratched yet.

The positives:

Price per gig is incredible
Tough plastic case
Loads of features
AAA battery instead of USB charging
Sound quality better than I would expect
Solid buttons and headphone connector (nothing loosy-goosy)
Loading with Windows Media Player files is super-fast and easy
Cute style (in my opinion)

The negatives:

No iTunes compatability (at least that I could figure out)
Navigating the file structure takes practice (rather irregular)
AAA battery life isn't as long as an iPod's (I get about 8 hours per battery)
Long-term satisfaction is not known, as I've only had this player a couple of months
Unit weighs a lot more than a comparable iPod (partly due to the battery)making it less 'wearable' than an iPod shuffle or Sansa clip.

I recommend this player:

You're looking for a basic MP3 player on a budget
You're new to MP3 players
You don't want the hassle of iTunes
You want to just copy off your CD collection (no podcasts or new music)
You want to use an auxillary input from your stereo or car