Frontier Labs NEX IA

I was searching for YEARS for an MP3 player which would be seen as a Storage Device by Windows (no stupid control program needed, as is the case for the majority of players out there). I wanted a player with an upgradable firmware. A player which would support Vorbis. And finally, I didn't want a player with a proprietary battery pack.

I found the Nex IA, which fulfilled my wish list. The player is very interesting. The problem is, that the company doesn't seem to be serious about properly supporting it. I had (and still have), a boring "clicking problem" between songs. I use MP3 I have made myself, with state of the art methods: EAC safe mode as a ripper, LAME MP3 compressor, with at least preset standard profile, My own CD'S, a Plextor CD-ROM etc... My MP3's are definitely not to blame for this annoying bug.

I had a problem with the master control button. Suddenly, I couldn't lower the volume, only increasing it was possible. I went back to the store, and they decided to change my player for the new model, The Nex IA+. The IA+ can record from exterior line level sources, and the center control button, has a "tighter" feeling. No problem since the switch. But the clicking problem is still there. I watch Frontier Labs website often, and the Chinese version of the firmware is V2.0, while the international english version is V1.3. They don't seem to put the effort or speed in to release the V2.0 international.

Generally, I love this player, thanks to the USB storage device interface. I use good NiMH batteries (2400 maH), with a good charger and battery life (if about 15 hours), when driving a line level device (my car amplifier). I heard a lot of people whining about battery life, but about 99% of the popuplation don't know, that 95% of the battery chargers are bad for batteries. You should seek a Delta V charger which monitors the temperature (if you want fast charge), and it is advisable to charge as slow as possible. Maha chargers are good.

As for the support for Vorbis, I find it stupid to support proprietary Microsoft infamous WMA codecs, and not provide Vorbis, which is open source. Another annoying thing: No support for playlists.

As were many others I was drawn to this by some relatively good reviews, and its apparently good value for money. But I have had no end of trouble with it since. The cumbersome 2*AA batteries make it very heavy and bulky, the strange whining noise it emits, (which Frontier Labs claims is unintrusive) is quite the reverse and is very noticeable. The lack of any sort of functions such as searching by artist, genre, album, etc makes the product very basic and hard to use. The flimsy outer case is tacky and breaks given half a chance.

I must admit, this was my first MP3 player, so at first I was oblivious to these blatant faults, but over time I have realised that this is not a good quality player, and is not even particularly good value for money. I would not recommend this player to anybody, and even if you are looking for a cheap MP3 player, this is not the one to go for and you undoubtedly would regret your purchase.

Keep away from this Frontier Labs NEX ia Portable MP3 Player. It is a joke. I was lurred in by the 'excellent' reviews. The ability to use external CF cards is not worth buying it even a little bit.

- cheap plastic look

- on/off switch hard to move, again cheap plastic

- have to switch off/on after auto power off. SO if you keep it in the pouch then you have to remove from the pouch everytime you need to turn it on

- after turning on you have to select which mode to play instead of start playing MP3 files straight away. This is really inconvenient

- fast forward stopped working after 1 week. Now FF works like and I don't bother return it as you are required to mail the guarantee card within 14 days of purchase. Since I buy it through the Net, I expect to be able to register it via the Net.

- I also have the CreativeLabs Muvo NX. I definitely recommend the Muvo NX which has the same price as the NEX IA + 256MB CF but the quality is far far better, no moving parts, excellent quality, lighter , fast to start.

Conclusion: keep away from this device. I shelve it after one week. It's a waste of money and time.

I do not even bother to return it as you have to pay all shipment cost.

Being experienced with the entire variety of MP3 players (Flash, Hard drive, MP3/CD), I had seen the good and bad with every style of player. Frontier Labs has put together a player which has (in my opinion) the most positive and least negative aspects of any player out there.

One point to note is that you should avoid using a microdrive with this player if you use batteries. The reason is that this player does not come with internal memory to buffer the song like hard drive players do. This causes more power usage and a much shorter battery life than with flash memory. (I use a 1 GB flash type I in my Nex Ia)

If you use batteries the average time you can expect with a 5-10 second backlight setting, flash memory card, and medium sound volume is 9-10 hours. With no backlight used, you can get 10-13 hours. I suggest buying rechargable alkaline (not nicad) to save money.

Although the doors for the CF card and batteries are questionable for quality, they should last if you don't do something stupid to them.

The remote is well designed with a metal clip to attach it on your clothes wherever you need it, and it is compatible with any headphones.

The 5 band equalizer can be adjusted on each band for 1 user preset, or use any of the 5 standard presets. Considering the variety of headphones and styles of songs, you'll be making your own preset to make the best sound possible.

The sound output is far better than other units, but with higher volume on the speakers, means less time the batteries will run.

Although the user interface is not as good looking as the iPod, Rio Riot, or Creative Nomad Jukebox, the upgraded firmware (1.1) helps a little.

Personally, I would have wanted to see a larger screen for easier viewing from short distances instead of super close. Also, it would be convenient if there was a "pager" style window on top for when I have the player on my belt.

Other "wishes": A stopwatch / timer / alarm clock capability for working out, Better voice & FM recording bitrates, Replaceable display cover for any scratches you get.

Although I have my own personal "wish list", the Nex Ia player is by far the best value for the money if your collection is all MP3 based like mine. Unless you need large storage, then get something like a Nomad Jukebox, iPod, or Rio Riot.

What a neat and tidy piece of equipment THE Frontier Labs NEX ia is. With a capacity of up to 1 gig memory plus its multifunctions in which it is an FM radio, External Hard Drive, Voice recorder, Record from radio as well as an MP3 player, I can't fault it for value and quality.

Add to that a built in graphic equaliser with presets and user configuration and I've got a super all rounder which is no bigger than a pack of cards and does all this on two AA batteries.

It deserves to be bought.

The software works but hopefully an upgrade could improve on the strong points. I found the text readable and with the backlight even in a totally dark environment. The earphones that came with it, I could live without as I use Sony's noise cancelling earphones -- which enhances the good sound quality of this product. Works with Lame VBR (16-320KBPS) Joint Stereo encoded MP3 files (some mp3 players have problems with this type of encoding) which I found to create the best sounding MP3 file with good compression ratio. I love the ID3 tag as well as other info shown on screen as the file is playing. The radio works, at least in the NYC area where signals are strong. I haven't tried the voice recorder. I hope the next software upgrade will enable this unit to read FAT32 formatted Compact Flash as 4 - 6 GB CF cards are coming out.

I have had the NEX IIe for 2 years and I liked it very much. Now the NEX IA came up, I went and bought one to see how it compares with the NEX IIe. Both the NEX IIe and NEX IA use the removable compact flash type memory cards as storage medium. As far as I cam concerned, CF is the best storage medium around. They are cheap and are very large capacity. And both the NEX IIe and NEX IA are the only type of MP3 players that use the removable memories. Unlike other players, they have no in built memories. So this makes them extremely flexible as I have many CF memory cards around from my Digital camera to my Pocket PC PDA.

Now for the player itself, I have to say that the NEX IA is a big improvement over the NEX IIe. It does everyting the NEX IIe does, but more. Frontier Labs has improved on some of the deficiencies on the NEX IIe such as a more stable firmware and USB. I can now navigate the menu and song list while I am listening to a song which is a must when I have over 100 songs stored on the memory card. The sound is great, louder than the NEX IIe. The equalizer is the same, where there is a 5 band equalizer for self-adjustment. The player has an in built FM tuner, which I have to say is not great. Too much static and would lose the reception when I listen to it in the car. The voice recording however works great. I use it to record lectures and the player saves the recording as an mp3 file.

Overall, I think the NEX IA is a great player, great sound, does exactly what I expected and a great improvement over the NEX IIe. Thank you Frontier Labs and keep up the good work.

This Frontier Labs NEX ia MP3 player is a perfect example of someone coming up with a great design concept followed by poor production. Examples:

1) Awesome backlit screen but you can only leave it on all the time or 5 seconds, the 5 seconds option is really about 2 seconds (or until you press another button!) which is annoyingly brief , and the all the time option sucks the batteries dry.

2) NO shuffle option for a single directory. Do any of the sofware engineers actually use the product???

3) If you voice record, the entire card has to be reread after the recording is saved. With a 1 gig microdrive this takes about 30 seconds making the recording feature pretty useless.

4) Nice cover for the (applause) CF II card slot, but maybe it could be designed so the cover stays closed instead of flopping around just waiting to break off?

5) The song list screen shows the entire song title and Artist. The play screen only shows the song title. Why?

6) It uses 2 AA batteries. Too bad that even with quality NiMh batteries the player only lasts about 2-3 hours with a microdrive (Frontier Labs claims 8 hours)

7)The LCD screen has a spectrum bar graph that would be useful if it refreshed more than 2 times a second and related in any way to the music being played.

Some more minor issues:

You can't put more than 70 files in a directory

Poor radio reception

No standard 3 volt power input (must use USB or 110 volt adapter)

Card memory information isn't updated if you add / remove files until next power up

LCD song display can't be customized

No low power warning, player just shuts down

Preset (low) recording bitrate

As you can see these are 90% software problems, I'm hopeful they can be fixed in firmware!