Frontier Labs NEX 3+

Frontier Labs NEX 3+ Portable MP3 Player.

I've had or seen a few of the previous Frontier MP3 players. The NEX3 is the latest of the Frontier Labs digital audio players, and is a departure from their past players. It's smaller, lighter and more affordable. It now uses the more popular SD (up to 1GB) memory card, and comes with (what I would consider) a comfortable set of ear bud headphones. The player has all the features of a more expensive player, but how well do they work?

First of all, the style is not your typical white, silver and black with 8 corners. Love it or hate it, this player has a shape, colors and design is an attention getter. The colors available are burgundy (red "ish"), blonde (yellow), crimson (hot pink), and for the faint hearted, grey. It's an organic eggy shape with a rubber outer skin. The controls are flush mounted to maintain the smooth outline.

The supplied headphones are designed to let the player hang around your neck. This works out well because it's so light. Tuck the player inside your shirt or shirt pocket, great for walking or running or just knocking around town. With that said, I've always been a fan of just going out and buying whatever headphones suits my taste.

The songs download quickly with a USB2 connection. No special software required for anything after Windows 98. A disk is included with drivers for Win 98 and Mac.

The FM has the ability to preset stations. FM radios on most MP3 players are notoriously bad. While this is better than most I've tried, it's not comparable to a "real" radio. It will pull in only the stronger stations without fading in and out.

The controls are simple and straight forward enough. A menu button, + and -, and a jog lever/push button. The functions vary with whatever screen or mode you're in. There is one thing though. The jog lever is touchy. If you push it down for any more than momentarily, say of a second, it acts as if it wasn't pushed at all. You have to be quick.

The display is alright. The play list gives the artist first, and when you scroll down to a file, it slowly rolls across the display to give you the song/file name. The problem here is that the font is large and it scrolls slowly. The play list will show an artist's name and song title so you see the artist's name, and you wait longer than you should have to before the song title appears.

This isn't why I got it, but the voice recording or ability to record FM does it's job. Every once in a while it seems to quit on me for no apparent reason. I don't know if it's because of rubbish MP3 files, flaky software or both. I've had enough MP3 players to know this isn't unheard of. Resetting it is a matter of cycling the power (removing the battery).

All and all, if you like the price and just want to listen to MP3, or you like the style or the way it hangs around your neck, this may be the player you're looking for.