- Joined
- Nov 24, 2002
- Location
- New Jersey & NYC
I got my Dell DJ20 last week, I've been playing with it over the weekend and now I feel like I could write a short review. Keep in mind that this is my first MP3 player that I owned and that I have used an iPod before and experimented with its controls.
To start off, I'll talk about construction. The brushed aluminum exterior looks great and feels solid. I like that it doesn't feel cheap and the exterior is one solid piece. The buttons are well placed for quick and easy use, although the scroll wheel may take a few uses to adjust to, after that it becomes second nature. The screen is nice, very readable. It becomes a little less readable in the dark when it is illuminated blue. I don't know why Dell chose a blue illumination, white would keep more contrast and not introduce any fuzziness. On this one issue I like the iPod better. This fuzziness is very minor though and definately did not make me like the DJ much less.
Another thing, the supplied earbuds are complete crap. They're definately one of the worse supplied earphones i've heard. My old Sony earbuds that i've been using with my laptop proved to be much much better for a measly $10 I spent a year or two ago... which makes the pain of crappy Dell earphones not significant at all.
The interface is as simple as you'd expect from a product designed to be used by anyone. Even the most technologically inclined could pick it up, pick a song or album, or even playlist and play it to his/her heart's content.
Computer integration / interaction: The only product that I bothered using was the supplied Dell DJ Explorer. This program, again, is very simple and easy to use.. as long as you know where your music files are located on your hard drive. DJ Explorer allows you to drag and drop your music into your DJ. You can add the songs individually as well as by the folder (yes, you can add everything at once, even if files are in sub folders)
The other supplied program, MusicMatch Jukebox 9, is one of the worst music programs I've seen, utter crap, so I stayed away from it.
Last week, Dell released a new fimware for the DJ20 and DJ30 that supports Micro$oft's new PlayForSure system. This allows the DJ to work with Napster To Go subscription service. I haven't tried this upgrade yet, but with time I might. I do know that this firmware upgrade completely cleans the drive of the DJ and makes it incompatible with the DJ Explorer software. It does make it compatible with Windows Media Player 10 though, and I believe Napster's software as well. I'm not 100% sure, but this firmware may also make the DJ be recognized as an external drive by Windowx XP SP1+.
Feature wise, this MP3 Player is very simple and plain. You can play music by album (in the album's correct order), artist, genre, playlist. With additional accessories you can record voice and FM radio. You can also create your own playlists on the DJ, though its not as quick as it is within DJ Explorer.
I haven't had any battery life problems, with normal use the DJ seems to get 10-12 hours of life, which is just fine. The battery does drain faster when you're uploading songs to it though, so it may be a good idea to have it plugged in while loading it with your files.
My conclusion: For the $199 I spent on this 20GB player I definately got my money's worth. I don't know if I'd spend the current price of $249, but Dell has sales going on for this player a lot, so its usually not much of a wait to find a good sale on it (like the $50 coupon I found on techbargains.com)
The Dell DJ20 is definately a keeper.
To start off, I'll talk about construction. The brushed aluminum exterior looks great and feels solid. I like that it doesn't feel cheap and the exterior is one solid piece. The buttons are well placed for quick and easy use, although the scroll wheel may take a few uses to adjust to, after that it becomes second nature. The screen is nice, very readable. It becomes a little less readable in the dark when it is illuminated blue. I don't know why Dell chose a blue illumination, white would keep more contrast and not introduce any fuzziness. On this one issue I like the iPod better. This fuzziness is very minor though and definately did not make me like the DJ much less.
Another thing, the supplied earbuds are complete crap. They're definately one of the worse supplied earphones i've heard. My old Sony earbuds that i've been using with my laptop proved to be much much better for a measly $10 I spent a year or two ago... which makes the pain of crappy Dell earphones not significant at all.
The interface is as simple as you'd expect from a product designed to be used by anyone. Even the most technologically inclined could pick it up, pick a song or album, or even playlist and play it to his/her heart's content.
Computer integration / interaction: The only product that I bothered using was the supplied Dell DJ Explorer. This program, again, is very simple and easy to use.. as long as you know where your music files are located on your hard drive. DJ Explorer allows you to drag and drop your music into your DJ. You can add the songs individually as well as by the folder (yes, you can add everything at once, even if files are in sub folders)
The other supplied program, MusicMatch Jukebox 9, is one of the worst music programs I've seen, utter crap, so I stayed away from it.
Last week, Dell released a new fimware for the DJ20 and DJ30 that supports Micro$oft's new PlayForSure system. This allows the DJ to work with Napster To Go subscription service. I haven't tried this upgrade yet, but with time I might. I do know that this firmware upgrade completely cleans the drive of the DJ and makes it incompatible with the DJ Explorer software. It does make it compatible with Windows Media Player 10 though, and I believe Napster's software as well. I'm not 100% sure, but this firmware may also make the DJ be recognized as an external drive by Windowx XP SP1+.
Feature wise, this MP3 Player is very simple and plain. You can play music by album (in the album's correct order), artist, genre, playlist. With additional accessories you can record voice and FM radio. You can also create your own playlists on the DJ, though its not as quick as it is within DJ Explorer.
I haven't had any battery life problems, with normal use the DJ seems to get 10-12 hours of life, which is just fine. The battery does drain faster when you're uploading songs to it though, so it may be a good idea to have it plugged in while loading it with your files.
My conclusion: For the $199 I spent on this 20GB player I definately got my money's worth. I don't know if I'd spend the current price of $249, but Dell has sales going on for this player a lot, so its usually not much of a wait to find a good sale on it (like the $50 coupon I found on techbargains.com)
The Dell DJ20 is definately a keeper.
