I picked up a new toy for myself, a Nueros mp3 player. I chose the Neuros after much consideration, in fact I even went so far as ordering an iPod and then cancelling it before going with the Neuros. Now that I’ve had several days to play with it I can make a few observations about it.

Firstly, the main reason I chose it over the iPod is because it is both a solid state flashram based player and a hard drive based player. The unit consists of multiple pieces, the ‘brains’ of the unit and then ‘memory’ modules, which can be solid state or hard drives. I read and heard a number of horror stories from folks with dead iPods warning that jogging with an iPod leads to premature death, and my main use for this thing was for excercising, hence the cancelled iPod order.

Things I like about it:

• Expandable – you can buy additional modules to your heart’s content
• Best of both worlds – exercise safe, but tons of storage also available
• built-in fm receiver
• built-in fm transmitter – tune it and broadcast your mp3 collection to your car or home stereo – this works really well
• handles voice and line-in recording – this also works really well

Things I don’t like:

• USB 1.1. Yup, it is frigging SLOW. Fortunately they’re moving to USB 2.0 so soon I will be able to trade in my 20gig usb 1.1 drive for a USB 2.0 one, but for now, it is fricking slow. And I would greatly prefer firewire.
• The software bundle so desperately wants to be iTunes on steroids but it’s really pretty weak compared to the real deal
• Swapping modules is a real pain in the ass. The mechanics of it are simple enough but getting the solid state module to remember the music you have in it is a slow, awkward struggle
• It’s big. Really big. Compared to an iPod, it’s ridiculously large. Fortunately the solid state module is small enough, but with the hard drive module attached the thing is huge
• Like the iPod, it has no user servicable parts, meaning you can’t swap the battery yourself, you have to send it in for service. At $12 this is not expensive, but it’s a pain in the ass nonetheless

So. On balance, I’m pleased with the purchase, though I will reserve final judgement until I have a USB 2.0 module on the thing. Now to find the perfect pair of ‘earbud’ headphones.

Oh and I should mention that these things are on sale right now, the bundle I bought usually goes for just over $400, but they’re 50% off as they clear inventory to make room for the USB 2.0 models, so if you’re at all tempted, now’s the time to go for it.