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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from CNET Asia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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The shuffle-Tangent standoff
By Edvarcl Heng
23/07/2005 URL: http://asia.cnet.com/reviews/musicplay/0,39050461,39244600,00.htm Launched in January 2005, the iPod shuffle was received with a mixed bag of both approval and derision from supporters and cynics, respectively. Some took the new flash player anthem of "Life is random" to heart and considered it the greatest thing since sliced bread. Skeptics, on the other hand, played the common sense card and judged the lack of a display to be its Waterloo. Taiwanese manufacturer, Luxpro, payed Apple the ultimate compliment with an almost exact copy of the shuffle when the former showed off a souped-up version at CeBIT 2005 in March. Subsequently altering its name from Super Shuffle to Super Tangent, this shuffle clone continues to baffle consumers who are undecided on whether to get the enhanced copy or the original. So to help our readers find out, we face off both these flash-based MP3 players in a one-on-one match to determine who the real king of the heap is.
Bout 1: Sizing them up
Despite the differences in dimensions, it is hardly discernible in day-to-day usage. Both exhibit the same rounded edges and the same smooth scratch-prone surface, in addition to the same positioning of the 3.5mm earphone jack at the top of the player. The quad-directional button control on the shuffle has a slightly larger diameter of 23mm as opposed to the Tangent's 20mm. This may not amount to much, but the stylized button on the Tangent leaves only a miniscule 8mm diameter for the center Play key, making pressing it a less comfortable affair than the shuffle's (13mm). Good design often lies in the details. On extreme close inspection (think magnifying glass) of the innards of the USB cap, the Tangent has a rather empty look, and though it offers a snug fit, the design of the plastic fins suggests the fins are liable to expansion after long-term use, thus resulting in a looser fit. To its credit, the shuffle uses two spring-loaded ball bearings within the cap to secure it to the two indentations on the sides of the USB jack, which provides a reassuring fit. As we had earlier pointed out in our review of the shuffle, the slide switch on the back of the device is too smooth to get any appreciable friction going, especially for dry fingers. The Tangent improves on the former with indentations on its sliding switches. Both the shuffle and Tangent use an LED light embedded above the center control keys to indicate the status of the MP3 player, though the shuffle uses two instead of one as in the case of the Tangent. The Tangent also has a small eyelet for a lanyard to be attached. The Tangent also improves on the shuffle by coming in three different colors. Both shuffle and Tangent have their pros and cons, but for Apple's attention to details (barring the slide switch) and overall more solid construction, the design point goes to the shuffle this round.
Round 2: Unraveling the features
The shuffle, however, has an ace up its sleeve--the iTunes music software which comes bundled free. With iTunes, options like the configurable autofill (which fills up the shuffle automatically with songs each time it's synced with the computer) and playlists are fully supported, while the Tangent still relies on a drag-and-drop interface. Yet the iTunes also represents a caveat for the shuffle: It is not possible to transfer songs into the shuffle without going through iTunes other than resorting to hacks. We don't know about you, but we feel we would like to carry our features with us. This round goes decisively to the Tangent.
Though it is still possible to search through a track without a display, visual feedback has somehow to be substituted. On the shuffle, while the search button is held down, the unit emits 2-second snippets of the tracks to indicate to the user which part of the track he is currently on, while on the Tangent, there is only complete silence. The user can find out where exactly he is on the track only by stopping his search. The shuffle makes it easier to search in this case.
However in the case of the FM radio on the Tangent, the player uses an automated voice prompt to verbalize the FM frequency that the user is currently tuned in to. The voice prompt also alerts the user whether the tuner is searching higher or lower on the FM spectrum and features auto station search based on the strength of the signal. We consider this an impressive workaround for the lack of a display. As we mentioned earlier in Round 1, the design of the center button controls on the shuffle offers better tactile feedback and occupies bigger real estate as opposed to the Tangent's controls. The Tangent also gives off a creaky sound when the button is depressed while the shuffle has a satisfying click. Even though build construction is not the Tangent's strength, the fact that it tries to work around the lack of a display with an alternative user feedback system through the voice prompts gives it the edge here.
To test how the players fared with huge chunks of data, we used a 283MB installation file. The Tangent turned in a time of 2.41MB per second while the shuffle completed the deed in 2.43MB per second. As the Tangent does not require any software, we are not comparing the software installation speed for iTunes in this case. On the sonic front, the Tangent disappoints though it has a bass boost equalizer. We noticed that vocals are disconcertingly muffled unless the bass boost (kind of ironic) is turned on. When this is activated, rather than having the low end of the song track enhanced, equalizer settings are set on a harsh high overall. The shuffle instead turned in a decent performance with a good balance of mids and bass. Since there is no major difference in transfer speed, the shuffle takes the performance stakes with a more winning sound.
Round 5: How long you play?
The Tangent fails this criterion completely with a terrible battery life of 6 hours 32 minutes compared with the shuffle's 15 hours 39 minutes. Both the manufacturer-claimed battery life is 12 hours for both, the shuffle exceeded expectations while the Tangent fell short.
For the lack of support that Luxpro has for the Tangent, the shuffle wins this round, too.
However, we feel, the number of audio codecs supported is a more important feature. The shuffle goes two up on the Tangent with additional AAC and Audible support on top of the usual MP3 and WAV. However, for WMA users, the Tangent will be the more ideal choice.
The shuffle wins the confrontation this time, proving that sometimes, copycats just can't hold a candle to the original. But if faced off against an MP3 player that sports its own screen, the results could possibly be the other way around.
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Nice comfy button
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