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Transcend T.Sonic 310 MP3 Player
Testing
I lived with this device for about a month and a half. Every day I took it to the office and back home. I let the battery run out and I let it charge; I dropped it and picked it up again; I even spilled coffee on it (not recommended, by the way). After all was said and done, here's what my impressions of the device were. The T.sonic 310 is speaking to a market of wide variety. There are multiple other devices out there that offer the same functionality, different ergonomics, and features. That being said, Transcend does not make this unit distinguishable from the rest of the market. The 512MB capacity of the device is more than enough for me. Most of my data files were less than 100Kb and my MP3's weren't recorded any higher than 128kbps. That being said, there will be people out there who want more capacity, and the 1GB version may appeal to them more. If you want more than 1GB storage capacity, you'll need to look elsewhere. I found that the Touch Panel, while novel in concept, is a bear to use in certain conditions. One whole side is devoted to song skipping, the other side to volume. If you have big thumbs like me, you'll be able to skip songs AND change the volume to your heart's content. In all honestly, it took a focused level of effort in order to switch songs and change volume while listening. Additionally, changing volume doesn't rely on tapping one side or the other. You have to slide your finger one way or the other which, in my opinion, causes user interface problems. Again, it may work for some but give me the click wheel of my Apple iPod nano any day. In doing some research, I discovered that Synaptics (of laptop touchpad fame) did the development behind the touch pad. This information can be found here. The Power / Play / Pause button... Great idea, really. Integrating all three functions into one button works very, very well. Additionally, Transcend went the extra step and used two different colour LEDs to show different status': red for playing/charging, and green for locked. Excellent move. The Lock button - a mandatory item due to the shenanigans of the touch panel. If you don't lock it, you'll lose it. This definitely is a strength of the unit and, like other units preceding it, prevents horrible annoying things from happening. Forget about playing and charging at the same time. For some reason, you cannot play the unit while charging it. My iPod can charge in the cradle and play music. Seems simple to me, but waiting the requisite amount of time for the charging to finish (which seems abnormally slow, by the way), is irritating. I took to leaving it charging overnight in order to complete the job. As the manual states, the T.Sonic takes an average of 4 hours to recharge. Since I had rather lofty aspirations for the unit regarding battery life, I took the liberty of testing out their claims. A 4 hour battery charge would routinely last me 8 hours, no more, no less. Your mileage may vary, and I'm pretty sure that somewhere along the line, you'll probably get the rated charge/play times, but this is my experience with the unit. Sound quality was excellent. Those earbuds, despite their size and looks, transmit the songs wonderfully. I have to admit that I was impressed with the clarity of the device. It's definitely not a Hi-fi component but for what it does, it works wonderfully. Battery life. Clear winner here, folks. I managed to squeak 12 continuous hours of use out of my T.310. That means that I suffered through the same 30 songs for 12 hours just so that I could tell you that, well, the T.310 can last 12 hours. Even my wife and 1 yr. old child joined me in listening to the same 30 songs so that I could tell you the T.310 can last for 12 hours on 1 single charge. 12 hours? Honestly, that's better than my iPod nano. (Don't forget to mention that you listened to the same 30 songs for 12 hours, all on a single charge. - Ed)
Page 1: Introduction & First Looks
Page 2: Features Page 3: Testing Page 4: Conclusion + More Photos 
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