SanDisk slotRadio Player Bundle

By: Joel Evans http://www.geek.com

when we want to work out and not have to think about which songs you want to take with you on your music player? How about if you just want some music to “chillout” to? If either of these sounds like it could be your nirvana, then the SanDisk slotRadio Player may be the device for you.

We first brought word of the SanDisk slotRadio Player back in January and previously reviewed the slotMusic Player, which features the same slotMusic playback mechanism.

Now the slotRadio Player is shipping and we’ve been putting it through its paces for a few weeks and have detailed our experience below.

The SanDisk slotRadio Player is a music player that comes with a slotRadio mix card that’s preloaded with 1,000 songs from artists on the Billboard charts. The slotRadio mix card is actually a specialized microSD card so you can use your own microSD card, too, once you’re done listening to the 1,000 tunes (more on that later).

The slotRadio Player itself is a very cool looking device. It’s made from die-cast aluminum and features a 1.5-inch OLED screen. It also offers a built-in FM radio which can display the song and artist as well as call letters from participating radio stations. As for navigating the player, you are presented with left and right navigation controls that can be triggered by pressing to the right or left of the screen. This allows you to go through different genres / playlists. Once you find a genre you like you can pause the song in that genre or skip the song entirely. You can also navigate left or right again to switch to a different genre. The slotRadio Player also has a clip built-in for clipping it to yourself for working out, walking around, or just enjoying your music and ships with both a USB cable and a plug that lets you charge the slotRadio Player in a standard AC outlet.

For my tests the slotRadio player worked without fail. I took it out of the box, plugged in the headphones, plugged in the slotRadio Mix card, and was listening to the slotRadio mix card in seconds. I also flicked the slotRadio player to FM and that’s when I noticed it showing me the song and artist that was playing on the radio–nice touch! After I was done listening to FM, I switched the slotRadio Player to PLAY mode. The player started playing music immediately and also showed a variety of animations while the music was playing. For example, during “Rock” you are treated to an animation of a rock band and while in “Workout” you see silhouettes of people running. The display also cycles between which song is playing and which song is coming next in the playlist.

I also tried to drag my own music over. According to SanDisk, there’s about an album’s worth of space available on the slotRadio Mix card. I dragged over two Billy Joel MP3s and when I wanted to access them I navigated to the “MyChannel” playlist. From there I was able to cycle through each song.

I mentioned navigating the slotRadio Player earlier in this review. One thing I didn’t highlight was the player’s inability to allow the user to go back to a song previously played. In order to hear a song that you have already listened to in your playlist, you have to cycle all the way through again. This is done for business reasons. Basically it’s a “legal thing” and that’s how SanDisk can deliver 1,000 songs so cheap. I should also mention that the songs are DRM’d and there’s no way to access them aside from playing them on the SlotRadio Player.

That said, legal or not, it’s still troubling, though most people probably won’t even be bothered by it, especially since it’s touted as a feature and it’s supposed to deliver a “laid back experience” since you can just let the slotRadio Player play the playlist or skip a song if you don’t like it.

After playing with the slotRadio Player for a while I can now see its appeal. If I just want to take a player with me for a good workout, the slotRadio Player has a workout theme already made, and I didn’t have to hook up the player to my computer to get it. This goes for many other genres / playlists. Whatever mood you’re in, there’s already a playlist ready and waiting to be listened to. If you want additional music you can purchase another slotRadio Mix card or make your own on a microSD card–it’s just that easy.

The slotRadio Player is currently $99 and comes with 1,000 songs. At that price it’s a bit pricey but when you consider that it comes with 1,000 songs, and also allows you to use your own microSD card, it’s not too hard to stomach.