1. Introduction
Apacer has a good reputation with flash products, including memory devices and MP3 players. The AB320 is the latest of a series of MP3 players offered by Apacer with a stylish, colourful and above all, compact and portable. Apacer kindly offered us the opportunity to put the 512MB AB320 MP3 player through its paces and in this review, we reveal what you can expect from such a tiny device.
- Features/Package
Apacer describes the AB320 MP3 Player as a Stylish Treasure design "...elements were based on the graceful lines of a seashell, one of the most beautiful and pure objects found on earth. The smooth layers and wave-like contours give the AB 320 a natural, organic style as well as a comfortable, pleasing feel when held next to the body or in your hands.
The AB320 is a stylish MP3 player for users that not only demand great MP3 functionality, but also tasteful design. It is easy to use, with a large LCM display that clearly shows sound tracks and functions. The ocean blue backlight adds a nice feel to the player and allows the displayed information to be easily seen in bright sunlight and at night..."
The AB320 is a portable
audio device offering high capacity storage for your music, photos and data, while combining the functions of an MP3 player, a USB
hard drive, FM radio and voice/FM recorder into one easy-to-use device.
• Playback MP3 /WMA /WAV format files
• Loop phrases with A-B repeat—ideal for language study
• Store data files such as photos and text
• Record voice with the built-in microphone
• FM radio with 20 preset channels
• Record FM broadcasts
Very lightweight at only 37 grams, the device provides maximum portability with a
host of powerful play and record features. Below are the product specifications as found on Apacer's website:
USB Interface |
Compatible with USB 2.0 |
Support format |
MP3, WMA, WAV format support |
Screen display |
128x64 Full Dot Matrix with blue LED
backlight |
Digital FM tuner |
Supports world-wide FM broadcast
frequencies 76MHz ~ 108MHz and 20 station
presets. |
Memory capacity |
128MB/ 256MB/ 512MB/1GB |
Audio output |
3.5mm earphone jack |
Power source |
AAA (x1) 1.5 volt alkaline
battery |
Battery life |
Over 12 hours of playing
time. |
Weight |
29g without battery |
Dimensions |
(L) 62.5 x (W) 44.3 x (H) 23
mm |
OS support |
Supports Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP/Mac OS
10.X.
Driver included for Windows
98. |
The AB320 retail package that arrived at our labs contained:
- The USB2.0 MP3 Player
- A Quick Guide
- A USB cable
- Stereo Earphones
- One AAA battery
- Driver & User Manual CD
2. Using the device
The Apacer Steno AB320 is a very small MP3 device. Below we can see the front, left and right side views along with an explanation of the various functions:
We also present several photos below, showing the AB320 player in all its glory:
On the back, we find the product brand name, the "Audio Steno AB320". Opening the back cover reveals the compartment where the AAA battery is installed:
To start the device, you have to press the "Play/Pause" button for more than 3 seconds, after which a welcome screen appears with the Apacer logo and we can immediately start using the player's capabilities. The LCD screen is backlit in a blue colour with black for the foreground characters. Its resolution is 128x64 pixels, which is a medium resolution, especially under little light. The LCD display's layout can be seen below:
By pressing the <> button, we enter "Mode Selection", where the user will find several important settings for playback mode, select the playback folder, enter the FM Radio mode, start recording from the MIC and set various other settings such as screen brightness, equalizer, play mode, power saving, screen saver, etc.
When the device is connected via the mini-USB with a host PC, the USB/PC icon appears on the display to indicate that the device is in USB connection mode. The AB320 is recognized as a flash memory device and the user can use drag & drop to transfer his/her favorite MP3/WMA/WAV files for playback, as well as data files.
3. Flashing with new firmware
The Apacer Steno AB320 supports firmware updates. Access the Apacer website, locate the newest firmware release and after downloading, run to install the firmware.
Installing the firmware is simple. After running the Firmware Update software, just press the "Start" button:
Before flashing with the new firmware, we looked at several details for the player as reported by the software:
Note that after flashing with the new firmware, all data will have been destroyed, so backup first :-)
Firmware updating takes less than a minute. Our AB320 player had already been installed with the latest firmware version (001.002.044):
4. Perfromance tests
In order to test the reading/writing performance of the Apacer Steno, we used two well known benchmarking applications, HD Tach and Sisoft Sandra 2005 SR1. All tests were conducted under the WinXP x64 environment with an ASUS P5GD2 Premium motherboard (USB2.0 compatible).
HD Tach Results
Sisoft Sandra 2005 SR2 Results
Sisoft Sandra has two series of tests.
- The "File system" which tests how your drive(s) and controller(s) compare to other devices in a typical system:
· Read Test: Buffered, Random, Sequential
· Write Test: Buffered, Random, Sequential
· Seek Test
The "Drive Index" mark is a composite figure representing an overall performance rating based on the average of the read, write, and seek tests, and file and cache size. The Drive Index is intended to represent drive performance under typical use in a PC. A larger number means better performance. The weighting of the results is not equal, it represents the distribution of different files sizes as used on these devices (obtained through field research).
The AB320 showed a rather slow performance with "only" 3033 Kb/s, while other flash drives can do up to 8MB/s..
- The "Compact Flash", the typical usage model for these devices is File operations, such as Writing a file to the device, reading a file from it, and deleting a file, this benchmark exercises the devices in terms of these operations (to measure the “raw” cluster level performance of the device, it is recommended to also test it by means of the File System Benchmark module). The following characteristics are measured for each of the four representative files sizes of 512 Bytes (representing a minimal single data cluster file), 32kB, 256kB and 2MB. The weighting of the results is not equal, it represents the distribution of different files sizes as used on these devices (obtained through field research). For each of the four file sizes a Combined Index is then calculated, stating the combined performance in terms of Combined Operations Per Second, with respect to a mix of write, read and delete operations.
- Combined Device Index: is a composite figure representing an overall performance rating based on the average of the Combined Index figures over the four file sizes. (Higher is better, i.e. better performance)
- Endurance Factor: is a figure representing the Wear and Life Expectancy of flash devices; this is obtained by dividing the average performance (normal condition, i.e. sequential write) to the lowest performance (high-stress condition, i.e. same block re-write). It measures the relative improvement of endurance caused by the wear leveling or flash management algorithm; the absolute endurance of a device (i.e. its expected life-time) is directly dependent, in addition to this Endurance Factor, on the nominal manufacturer rating of maximum erase/reprogram cycles, which is typically 100,000+ for SLC and 10,000+ for MLC devices. (Higher is better, i.e. longer life-time for the device)
The Combined Index factor is rather low, with only 982 operation/min, while the endurance factor the highest compared with the other flash devices.
5. Playback impressions
For our playback tests, we used almost all possible formats of MP3, MP3Pro and WMA files. The AB320 didn't have any problem recognising all the tested files and playing them back perfectly. That's a big plus for the device. The device can show ID3 tags (rotating) or the filename (if ID3 tag doesn't exist). By pressing the > < buttons, the user can skip to the next or previous track, while the current folder is also displayed. Here we met with a small problem, there being no way to jump directly from one folder to another, having instead to traverse all files before proceeding to the next folder. A workaround is to enter the device menu, select the desired folder (from the folder menu) and press the "Play/Pause" button. The AB320 can also display lyrics if present, from *.lrc/ Lyric3/ Lyric3 V1.1 files. Lastly, the device has an A-B repeat function, where you can mark the beginning and end of a portion of a track which is then repeated.
The device can also be used as a recording device (either using the MIC or from the FM radio). In both cases, the saved files produced are .WAV files. The FM radio function can be accessed directly by pressing the AB/FM button. By pressing the AB/FM button for 3 seconds, the device will auto search for and then save 20 stations as presets. Of course, you can search manually for your favorite stations. Notice that the device doesn't display RDS information...
6. Conclusion
The Apacer Steno AB320 is overall a good proposal for all those who need a portable, lightweight and nicely designed MP3 player. The device won't have any problems playing back all your MP3/WMA files, or picking up your favourite radio station with its built-in FM tuner and can also be used to record either with the built-in microphone or directly from the FM tuner. The AAA battery will provide around 12 hours playing time. FM sensitivity is adequate but not great, while for the recording functions, the built-in microphone is also of average quality so don't expect crystal clear sound. Perhaps an external line-in jack would have helped here.
The reading/writing performance when connected with the PC wasn't as good as we had hoped, since the device only managed 3.2MB/s and 2.9MB/s reading and writing performance respectively. Other flash devices can reach up to 8MB/sec.
There are some minor drawbacks that should be solved by Apacer since the player is firmware upgradable :-)
- The Good
- Comes in capacities up to 1GB
- Uses USB2.0 interface
- Includes 128x64 Dot Matrix screen
- Includes FM radio tuner
- Can record either from FM tuner or built-in Mic
- Supports all possible combinations for MP3/WMA files
- Supports display of lyrics
- Supports firmware upgrades
- The Bad
- Some minor navigation problems
- Doesn't display FM RDS information
- Reading/writing performance of USB connection is rather slow
- Like To Be Fixed
Retail Package |
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Design/Build Quality |
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GUI/Use |
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Performance |
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Value For Money |
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