Best Buy’s Insignia MP3 players

Posted December 29, 2006 at 01:18 AM by Adam Berger

Section: Audio, Portable Audio

Did you just realize that you left someone off of your holiday shopping list and now need to scramble to get him a gift? If you aren’t too close with him and he has yet to know a thing or two about gadgets, technology and pop-culture, you may want to consider picking up one of the Insignia MP3 players.

Best Buy’s private label brand, Insignia, offers two models: the Sport 2GB (NS-DA2G) and the Sport 1GB (NS-DA1G). Both models are 0.5” thin, weight 1.2 ounces, have a 1.2” OLED screen, built-in FM tuner, USB 2.0, have a rechargeable battery with 18 hours of playback time, and are PC and Mac compatible. They also both support MP3, WMA, WMA-DRM, PlaysForSure , Napster and Rhapsody subscription services and JPEG image files. The 2GB model also adds audible support.

I had a chance to play with both models (which are essentially identical) and was left rather impressed with the functionality and ease of use as compared to name brand players (check out the interface here). The 2GB price is right, the size is good, and they are easy to use for you non-tech folk. I suggest heading over to Best Buy to pick one up if you are currently in the market, or forgot to get someone a present.

You can get 1 GB for $79.99 or 2 GB for $99.99, not too bad if you don’t feel pressured to buy a iPod name brand.