Ollo theKube (2GB)

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Performance

After turning on the player, it starts to play tracks automatically in alphabetical order . A blue LED flashes whenever a button is pressed. We found that the player's startup volume is preset, which is just about right if we used the supplied earphones. Users with more sensitive earphones may find it very loud.

Navigating the device meant jabbing the forward and reverse buttons until we heard the track we wanted. This sounds really old in the world of touchscreen players, but we never had to fish out the player once to look at what we wanted.

We discovered that theKube has a selectable EQ, quite by accident. Holding the play/pause button down while the music is playing turns the EQ off. And with that, we decided to hook it up to the PC for the RightMark Audio Analyzer test.

With the EQ off, it sounded perfectly balanced. Note the difference the EQ makes.

The included earphones may look cheap, but at least they sound decent enough, considering that the entire package costs less than a high-grade in-ear headphone. The battery life is short, hovering around the 5.5-hour mark, and we found ourselves plugging theKube into a USB port whenever we had the chance to.

What really annoyed us was that the player does not remember the last playback settings when you turn it off. That said, we managed to live with the player for almost a week and did not experience any high-tech withdrawal symptoms. However, we did miss the fast-forward and backward feature since the usual buttons have been unusually assigned as the volume control.

Because of its odd cube-styled body, theKube is definitely not going to find a comfortable place in your pocket. The solution is to either throw it into a bag or clip it to clothes. Quite surprisingly, despite not having a hold function, unwanted presses were rare occurrences.

Conclusion

We would like to have seen Ollo integrate a card reader into theKube, instead of having to resort to an extra card reader. That said, if you need a very cheap basic MP3 player that sounds good and aren't particular about branding or features, this player might just win the day for you.

Tags: Player, MP3 Player, MIDI, mini-USB, microSD Card

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