14 DAY TRIAL // Kingston has been, up until now, known as an important maker of memory modules, but it has radically changed the production strategy, extending its products portfolio by adding a new division specialized on Personal Media Players (PMPs).
The manufacturer has already launched its first PMP named K-PEX (Kingston Personal Entertainment experience), a slim (3.7 x 1.8 x .57-inches) and lightweight (2.2 ounces) device that enables the users to watch videos, listen to music, play video games and store/view photographs.
I can't help thinking of the movie that has a similar title - K-Pax, even if Kingston's PMP has nothing to do with aliens and Kevin Spacey. But the fact that it resembles a so successful movie title is a good thing and it just might sore up revenues. Or it's just my movies fan imagination.
"K-PEX allows us to leverage our reputation in the memory business while maximizing established relationships with NAND suppliers which ultimately results in a high quality, multi-functional multimedia player for consumers," said Jean Wong, Flash product manager, Kingston. "By adding an expandable card slot to the K-PEX, we offer today's consumer a high quality product with the flexibility to expand media libraries at an affordable price," Wong added.
But let's continue with K-PEX's features and see if Kingston has done a good job or not. The PMP comes with an LCD screen and two versions of memory capacity - either of 1 GB or 2 GB, providing a miniSD slot for music, video or photographs easy transfer.
What is very important for the user is the player's compatibility, and Kingston's device will not disappoint you, as it supports the most popular formats including MP3, WMA, OGG and WAV audio, MPEG 1&2, AVI, WMV and ASF video, JPEG image formats, and TXT documents.
K-PEX will come with a full-featured kit that consists of an USB 2.0 cable, USB host cable, line-in cable, earphones, transcoder software CD, protective cover, lanyard, comprehensive user manual, and quick start guide. Furthermore, Kingston will ship the first 4k 2GB players with a Free Kingston miniSD card.
The Kingston K-PEX is already available in North America, Latin America and Asia/Pacific Rim at a suggested retail price of $129 (1 GB) and $179 (2 GB).