14 DAY TRIAL // Wolverine has recently released their improved ESP multimedia player which can now store up to 160GB of data on an internal hard drive. This is by far the largest amount of storage space available on a PMP.
The 160 GB PMP also incorporates a 7-in-1 flash memory card reader, making for a great device to store your digital photos up when you're in the field. This way, you can back up cards and wipe them clean for another round of shooting. However, Wolverine's new PMP features a quite obsolete 3.6-inch 320x240 LCD screen. Slightly larger than a deck of cards, the PMP device is less than an inch thick and weighs around 10.2 ounces (including battery). As far as power consumption is concerned, the PMP can play as much as three movies in a row, also turning the HDD and display off when the device is not being used for several minutes in order to save power.
The 160 GB drive is just a conventional HDD, which could be making some noise while in use. A Flash drive would have been far more practical, but for now, these solutions are way too expensive. As a true PMP player, the EPS includes a FM radio module and the interface is controlled via a four-point joystick for navigation, the middle of which you push down to select an item.
The video player supports video files such as MPEG-1, MPEG-4, WMV9 as well as XviD and DivX compression formats. The player has to load the entire movie first in order to allow for smooth playback. This way, a 90-minute DivX video file takes about 17 seconds to load. Returning to the display, EPS is not able to play video content in 16x9 screen modes, but the overall brightness and contrast are enough for a 3.6-inch screen.
As a music player, EPS knowns how to deal with MP3, WMA, OGG, WAV, AAC and CDA audio files. Nonetheless, photographers will appreciate the EPS PMP for its JPEG, TIFF and RAW capabilities.
Wolverine 160GB EPS PMP is already available for $549.99 and comes with a one-year limited warranty.