Olympus M:Robe MR-100

Life

29 August 2005

The 5Gb M-robe is a compact and slim device featuring a pearl white body. It also sports a beautifully designed black glass front as its face, which houses the touch sensitive controls and attractive retro red LCD display. In many ways, it’s quite retro 80’s as it sure to remind you of Kit from Night Rider. Make sure that you’ve got some Harold Faltemayer classics in your collection!

The player stands out as one of the more stylish on the market but says something about the market for portable solid state players where it seems to be more about brand and style rather than substance. This is certainly true of the M:Robe. While it looks great, it’s a bit thin on the ground when it comes to tech specs. The 5Gb hard drive should be able to store over a thousand tracks but there are players out there than can support up to 60GB. Also, the player only MP3 and WMA files and not other formats such as Ogg Vorbis, WAV and AAC – that used by the Ipod. As with the Apple MP3 players there is no radio included, which for the price seems like an oversight. The touch control menu functions located on the front panel are tricky to use at first and can be a little sensitive to use.

That said I soon got the hang of it. Hold and power buttons are located on the side and top. The sound quality is good from the white Ipod-style headphones, which provide clear playback, but an asymmetrical split in the lead, can be awkward and annoying to wear. The inclusion of a remote control on the lead would have made the player easier to use especially for the commuter. A soft leather carrying pouch is included. Installation of the M-robe software ripping and cataloguing software is straightforward. Transferring songs to the device is controlled by synchronisation just like the Ipod Shuffle, and annoyingly there is no drag and drop facility. To upload songs from your collection you need to click the songs that you want transferred to the device, removing any that are not needed. MP3, WMA are supported.

At €249 it is a style-conscious alternative to the Ipod Mini.