Gadgetell Review: Insignia Pilot MP3 Player
Posted January 20, 2008 at 06:55 PM by Natesh Sood
Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Originals, Reviews, Features, Portable Video
Insignia recently came out with a new type of MP3 player called the Pilot MP3 Player. It comes in two versions, a 4GB and 8GB model. One of the main features of the Pilot MP3 player is the integrated Bluetooth. Upon receiving the Pilot MP3 player, one of the first things I wanted to do with it was try out the Bluetooth. However, before I can get to the Bluetooth, let me explain about how the rest of the features and installation went. Other features of the Pilot MP3 are audio and video playback, FM Radio, photo viewer, and the memory can be expanded via SD cards. It can also work with Macs, although I installed and used it on a Windows XP computer.
Inside the box came a wall socket charger, ear buds, installation CD, instruction manual, and of course the Pilot MP3 player. Unfortunately, Bluetooth headphones are sold separately, but thankfully, I had a pair already and so I could test out it’s Bluetooth capabilities. One of the things I didn’t like was the packaging, it was a pain in the neck to finally get the MP3 player out, which seems fairly standard with electronics lately. After getting it out, I quickly went to go charge it and read up on the manual. Another good thing was the manual was easy to understand. About a few hours later it was finally done charging. Before installing the CD and transferring music, I wanted to check out the FM radio on it. I opened up the ear buds and turned on the player, everything worked well. It will also display the song title and artist, assuming the radio station provides that information.
Now, after putting the CD in, a screen came up asking what I wanted to install, basically the options were Best Buy Digital Music Store (needed to transfer music as well as buy music), Audible.com, the manual in .PDF format, and ArcSoft Media Converter 2 (to convert videos into the correct format). It was kind of annoying to install the Best Buy Digital Music Store, because I had not disabled some firewalls and such so I had to re-download the necessary online drivers. After that, I was able to easily transfer over my music from iTunes (I also own a 30GB iPod Video) and then drag that music into my Pilot MP3 player. It took a little bit longer than I expected to finish transferring my music, but at last it was done. I also added in a video and then unplugged it and went to work on hooking up the Bluetooth headphones. I must say, it was very easy to sync up the Bluetooth headphones and in no time at all I was listening to my tunes.
I left the MP3 on my desk, and went about 30 feet away from it and I was still able to hear it, but if I walked any farther, then the connection went dead. Other than that, the Bluetooth works very well and I must say I am impressed. One problem is if you want to listen to the radio using your wireless Bluetooth headphones, you need to keep the ear buds plugged in as they provide the antenna. Overall, this MP3 player is a very nice one and provides strong competition to the iPod classic. The only problem is it doesn’t have a lot of hard disk space, if it did, it would be a very nice MP3 player. However, the good thing here is that it can be expanded via SD memory slot. As with most MP3 players, they are usually compared to iPods, so I will compare this to my 30GB iPod Video.
The Pilot MP3 player is a lot lighter than the iPod, which was one of the first things I noticed upon picking it up. The screen size is a bit smaller, but the video quality on it is still pretty good. They are both tied there. Likewise with audio, I can’t say that one is better than the other. Overall, setting up the iPod with iTunes was easier than setting this up with Best Buy’s Digital Music Store. Also, the iPod has game support unlike the Pilot MP3. However, the Pilot MP3 has FM radio and Bluetooth. The radio on the Pilot MP3 player is very good and has very good reception If the Pilot MP3 player had more space and maybe a slightly bigger screen, I might prefer it over the iPod, especially since its slimmer and lighter. One of the things I did with my iPod was run with a lot, even though it was kind of bulky and a nano would have been much better. Now, I’m thinking of taking the Pilot running because its slimmer, has radio, and wireless Bluetooth headphones. The scrolling system on both these devices are similar, although the Pilot is a bit smaller, but it also features grooves so you don’t over-scroll, which is a feature that I like a lot. Another nice thing is that it features 2 headphone slots as well as the wireless Bluetooth, so essentially 3 people can listen at once. The interface, however, on the Pilot is a bit worse than the iPod’s. On the iPod, is a lot easier to navigate through music and find what you are looking for than on the Pilot.
This Insignia Pilot MP3 player is a great PMP and if you’re looking for a nice, economical MP3 player, I would recommend considering this one.
Read [Insignia]