Emtec's MP4 Player Stays Under the Radar

The portable media players' market is quite a competitive one, so the products that don't offer the perfect mixture of attractive design features, very innovative functions and various extra perks simply can't cut it there. Unfortunately, that's exactly the case with the device you're about to see as follows, namely the C230 MP4 Player from Emtec, a device that doesn't go beyond the standard level in any of the aforementioned areas.

Admittedly, this is not exactly the worst such device I've ever come across, but it's not one of the best, either. Thus, the C230 sports a 2.2-inch full-color TFT LCD display, capable of attaining a 220x176 pixels resolution, and a relatively simple and straightforward control system, with a main menu button and a navigation wheel (for thumbnail browsing).

As any normal (at least according to the modern standards) portable media player, the C230 can play a wide range of files, including here MP3s and WMAs (audio), AVI, WMV, MPEG4 with 30 frames per sec (video) and even JPEGs (which can actually be opened even while playing music). Moreover, the device supports DRM 9 & 10 files and incorporates a library for easier navigation (browsing by genre, artist, playlist etc.).

The storage capacity is not exactly great, since the device provides only 2 GB of built-in memory. However, the player also incorporates an SD/MMC slot, which can be used for increasing the available space, at least to some extent.

The C230 connects to a host computer via an USB 2.0 interface, which is also used for charging the player's built-in Li-Ion battery, which provides up to 20 hours of audio playtime and up to 2 hours of video playtime. Moreover, the device is quite portable, since it measures around 93 mm x 53 mm x 14.3 mm (no word on the weight, though).

Emtec's C230 retails for around 110 US dollars, which is a relatively fair price to pay for a device that provides basic multimedia playback functions in a very portable form factor, but without the bells and whistles offered by other similar devices available on the market.

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