For many years, I've been using Cowon audio players. I've had a Cowon J3 since 2011, I replaced the battery once, then in 2024 I accidentally killed it by dropping it on concrete. I was quite sad to find out that there is significantly less choice nowadays for portable audio players. I assume it's because most people just use their phones to play music. The remaining options among portable audio players are made for audiophiles. These are expensive and not that compact. For sports activities, I would like to have a small and lightweight device with long battery life. Unfortunately, this is almost impossible to find these days. So I decided to try a cheap Chinese device. I looked at several options and ended up getting this one. My requirements and how much this device meets them: - Compact. Yes, it's very small. It's thicker than my deceased Cowon (because of the clip), but otherwise it's much smaller. I like the form factor. - Lightweight. Yes, it's very lightweight. My smartphone feels like a heavy brick in comparison. - Bluetooth support. I use the device with Bluetooth speakers and headphones, I don't want to mess with cables. Yes, it connected without an issue to all my speakers, headphones and my car. Sound quality over Bluetooth is good, I haven't had any disconnections. - Easy file management. I don't want to mess around with 3rd party apps just to manage my files. This player works as well as Cowon, the computer recognizes it as a portal USB drive, so you just copy the folders/files onto it. Or you can just remove the memory card and plug that into your computer's built-in or external USB card reader. - Ogg Vorbis support. I have a lot of music in Ogg Vorbis format, so ideally the player should support this. Yes, it actually supports Ogg Vorbis. Even though it's not listed in the supported formats in the manual, so I was worried about it, but it actually works. I guess just an omission in the manual. - Long battery life. No. Unfortunately, the device doesn't last that long on a full charge, at least when using Bluetooth. I would say less than 10 hours of non-stop playback. My Cowon J3 could probably last around 30-40 hours with Bluetooth. I would prefer if the device was slightly larger, but had a bigger battery. Still, the device is quite usable for all my sports activities - cycling, running, skating, going to the gym. Just have to remember to charge it more often than I did with my Cowon. So, I found the device quite alright to use for my sports activities. The battery life is not so long, so I charge it after every use, everything else is quite good. Still to find out: - I still have no idea how water-resistant the device is, if at all. While it has a reliable-looking clip, I still tend to just put it in my pocket. So even if the weather is not ideal, it's somewhat protected by being in the pocket. Sweat hasn't affected it so far. Time will tell. Pros: - This player turns on very quickly, a second or two and it's ready to play. Weird things: - There are two ways to turn the device on and off - a hardware toggle switch on the top edge, and long-pressing the play button. Both appear to do exactly the same thing. I wonder what's the point? I normally use the toggle switch. - The device has 3 screensaver options (Set > Display > Screensaver). I had an intermittent problem, when the screensaver was displaying, if I pressed any button to wake the screen up, the screen would become completely white, device was still working normally and responding to keypresses, but it was not possible to see anything on the screen. The only way to fix the situation was to turn the device off then on again. I changed the screensaver option to "None" and haven't experienced this problem again. I don't find the screensaver useful, anyway. It would be ok to have it if it was not buggy, but basically it's just a gimmick. Cons: - When viewing folders on the memory card, the device is sorting the items in some strange way. Generally, things appear to be sorted alphabetically, but some items are not sorted alphabetically. E.g. I'm looking at my top-level music directory, containing the list of genres. It goes like this (partial list): acoustic_guitar, acid_jazz, BLUES, drum&bass, ..., progressive_rock, ANIME, ROCK, guitar_rock, HOUSE, progressive_trance. On most of the albums, tracks are in the right order (01, 02, ...) but in rare cases they are not (e.g. 02, 01, 04, 03, ...). Maybe it's not alphabetic sort, but the order that the files were copied onto the memory card? I'll have to do some experiments to investigate this. There is nothing in the settings to adjust this. I find this to be the most annoying part of the device. - I couldn't find a way to make the device navigate you to the directory containing the currently playing track. E.g. you choose a track and hit play. You listen for a while, or perhaps you use the "next" button multiple times, ending up playing a track from a different artist/album. You press the "back" button but the player shows you the directory you were in last time, not the one where the current track is. You can navigate around, press the "menu" button, there is a "now playing" option that takes you to the play screen with the current track, but I didn't find any way to navigate to the now playing item in the folders view. I find this rather annoying. The cons I listed, while annoying, don't significantly interfere with my usual use of the device. When I go out to exercise, I usually pick an album and let it play during the activity. The device works fine in this way. Nothing in life is perfect, so I didn't deduct any stars for these, as the device checks all the "must-have" boxes for me. Still, if the manufacturer would release a firmware update that fixes these software-only problems, I would be quite happy about it. But at this (low) price, I kinda doubt they would bother to follow up with firmware updates. Likely they will just release some new model. I don't know how long the device would last, but considering its low price, I am much less concerned about dropping/breaking it, as I was with my Cowon (which costed me over 100 EUR back in 2011). Read more

This is a cheap mp3 player that feels cheap. However it stores loads of music, produces fairly good sound and has a clip so it's perfect for exercising. The perfect thing for a run with music. I used to carry my phone now I wouldn't dream of it. Read more

The Pros: 1. Easy to Use interface. Once you get use to it, you can get from point A to B quickly. 2. Works well with iPod Pro 2. My other MP3 players will not work with the iPod Pro earbuds. Big plus in my book. 3. Customizable EQ. Easy to optimize for differences in different ear buds or headphones. 4. Decent connectivity on Bluetooth. No complaints here. 5. Easy to read screen when out of the sunlight. Cons: 1. Internal memory is slow when writing to it. I use the internal memory for content that I will never erase. Filling the 64Gb memory took many hours. 2. When outside in the direct sunlight, the screen is almost impossible to read. This is common to most MP3 players. Overall impression? For the size and dimensions of a Zippo Lighter, this player has earned my vote. Adding an additional 128Gb memory card, most of my music collection can be with me. As I’ve only had the player little over a month, I can’t vouch for the other things that other reviewers have mentioned. For me, so far…so good. Read more

Tried this on 4 different laptops and couldn’t get it to pair. It’s got a very unhelpful interface as well. Overall the design is bad and the product doesn’t work as intended. Find a different MP3. Read more

Ultra petit avec un clip. Le son est nickel, la possibilité d’extention de memoire est parfaite. Il est ultra solide et le son est très très bien. Le bluetooth a une bonne portée. Les touches physiques sont tops. Bref, bel article (casque offert plutôt bon). Je recommande. Read more

works good and looks good Read more

الصوت غير واظح السمعات رديئه وبعد استخدام 3 اسابيع لم يعد يشحن السعر مبالغ فيه والشىئ الوحد الجيد هوه انه خفيف الوزن Read more

bluetooth keep disconnecting Read more

I cannot carry a phone while running. This thing is great and no touch screen nonsense I use it with Bluetooth earbuds, just keep it close to the earbuds so you don't experience disconnects Highly recommended! Read more

I use this mp3 for Run > Jbl peak 3 Cycling > Shokz open run Sound is great is the JBL peak 3, this is a customizable equalizer where you can adjust the music bass and treble. Overall value for money. Also the is strap you can just wrap it around your arms. Read more