14 DAY TRIAL // Recently, it seems that Hitachi is targeting the smaller and much more affordable MP3 player market. The company has announced its "I'm Muse" HMP-X5 player, the successor of the previous HMP-G1 player, which was dubbed "Eye Muse" and featured amazing resemblance to an electric shaver. But that's another story.
The brand new HMP-X5 boasts a blade like appearance - what's up with them? - and comes with the usual features such as the boring and out of fashion monochrome display, a directional pad for control and a decent 2GB storage capacity. According to Hitachi, the player's battery life stands at an impressive 16 hours. That of course, if you like to listen to the lowest volume level.
The player supports MP3, WM DRM and the recording WAV file formats. It has a built-in four line LCD display capable of showing you the track information you need as well as other details, such as the battery level. It also sports a voice recorder that can store the recorded data in WAV format, for up to 140 hours.
The player's sounds can also be customized with one of the several equalizer modes. Moreover, the Hitachi player comes with a playback frequency between 20Hz~20KHz and 85dB SN ratio, the ear phone output 5mWx2ch and the microphone included.
That might be useful to record some shopping lists. It seems to be quite a portable device, since it measures 84 ? 29 ? 13mm and weighs a matchbox like 36 grams weight. So, it can be hidden deep in your pocket while you perform your morning jogging.
The Hitachi player will come in black or white colors and will retail at an open price, leaving market forces to dictate just how much this player is worth. The company expects to ship the X5 to Japan at the "open" price on July 12th.