Dell DJ Ditty 512MB MP3 Player

Reviews: Multimedia

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Mike McCormick
Brian
Dell
Feb. 14, 2006

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Introduction

Business is rough for everyone in the MP3 player market in America, except for Apple of course. Despite all the lawsuits surrounding Apple, they're still doing very well for themselves with their iPods. There are a number of other players in this arena who are trying to steal the spotlight from "the white one,' including Creative, iRiver, SanDisk, COWON Systems, RIO, and Dell! Oops, scratch RIO; they threw in the cards several months ago because they just couldn't pull a significant market share. My point is that there is a lot of really fierce competition out there, all trying to get into that number 1 spot.

Dell isn't new to portable media players but they aren't exactly seasoned veterans either. Their Digital Jukebox DJ was moderately popular, but it simply couldn't compete with the iPod. Now Dell has said that they are quitting the high capacity HDD-based players market and sticking with the smaller flash drives. So, as you may have guessed, their latest addition to the MP3 player market is the flash-based DJ Ditty.

The Ditty is a budget-minded MP3 player that sports a monochrome screen, an FM receiver and also doubles as a USB flash memory device. It is roughly the same size as Dell's USB flash drives and sports 512MB of storage, enough room for around 200 songs. It's also comparable in size to Apple's iPod Shuffle, measuring 3.6 x 1.1 x 0.5 inches, and it weighs just over an ounce. The Ditty comes in at around $99, and we aim to find out whether Dell has released a mighty giant in a little package or if it will drown in the crowd of wannabe iPod-killers.

First Impressions

Like Dell's computers, this MP3 player comes equipped with some nice accessories. The most obvious is the dock that connects to your computer's USB port. The dock acts as a charger as well as a means to transfer to the Ditty, though of course you could just plug it directly into an available USB port - for some this is just more convenient, particularly if you don't have I/O ports on the front or top of your computer. Also included are two covers for your Ditty's USB connector. For the fashion-conscious, the different colored covers will help you to accessorize, or match it to the color of your poodle's dye job, or something. There is a lanyard in the package to allow you to wear the Ditty around your neck. The lanyard cord is the same color as the earbuds which are also included in this package. Bundled with the earbuds are a few pairs of foam covers for comfort, as well as for keeping your ear-goo out of the speaker (of course, those of us who shower shouldn't have that problem). To round out the package, there are a few manuals and a CD containing software for your Ditty.

The most obvious aspect of this player is its size - in my opinion it is the perfect size for an MP3 player and can fit anywhere with ease (Ed. - Hmm. Let's try to stick with pockets and bags though, mm'kay?). The fact that you can plug this MP3 player into a computer without a cable was also a huge plus. On a less positive note, the small screen wasn't nearly as impressive as those found on some of the competitor's products.

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Page 1: Introduction / First Impressions
Page 2: Taking a Closer Look / Testing
Page 3: Conclusion

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4 User Comments

1 - Posted by Brian on February 15, 2006 - 11:26 am

I don't think anyone is going to take out the iPod until someone can actually compete with iPod + iTunes. A cool MP3 player alone just isn't going to cut it.

2 - Posted by handrail on February 15, 2006 - 12:52 pm

and this dell player sounds more like the cowon ones from 2 or 3 years ago. i'm still using the iaudio4 and it works great AND has a larger colored display.

3 - Posted by Nick on February 15, 2006 - 1:04 pm

$99 for 512MB capacity? I can get a 1GB iPod shuffle for that price.

Apples-to-apples comparison here (no pun intended) is that the iPod shuffle at 512MB is $69. Maybe this is just me, but I listen on random anyway so a display isnt all that helpful and the FM tuner certainly isnt worth an extra 30 bucks. Maybe if the Ditty were $10 more than the Shuffle at 512MB I would consider it worth the price, but not $99.

All this is a moot point however as I wouldn't buy any player that only has 512MB of memory. I would definitely stick with flash for size concerns, but I think 2GB is a minimum for me.

4 - Posted by mike on February 15, 2006 - 2:16 pm

you are better off with a sandisk. Having played with 2 sandisks and this dell. Just my too sense.

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