An Affordable MP3 Player for Strict Budgets

We bought the MYMAHDI M350 so our professional reviewer might completely take a look at and assess it. Hold studying for our full product assessment.

The MYMAHDI M350 is a finances MP3 participant that has some nice advantages but in addition a protracted listing of foibles. We favored it for its minimalist design, expandable storage, and skill to get you away out of your smartphone. But it surely comes up brief in key areas together with its contact management interface, irritating navigation, and antiquated technique of loading music. However that’s the tradeoff you make once you get a reasonable MP3 participant.

Once we examined the M350, it took over common audio tasks normally dealt with by an iPhone. This had a peculiar affect on the best way we consumed media. It basically broke the tether we needed to our smartphone. We might really feel comfy leaving the iPhone in different rooms and even enterprise out into the world with out it. We discovered that after we had been disconnected from the fixed distractions a smartphone generates, we had been in a position to focus extra on the music and the world round us.

Design and Show: Flawed however workable

It is a merely designed MP3 participant. It’s sweet bar formed, measuring 3.5 inches lengthy,1.57 inches extensive, and simply 0.39 inches deep. It’s additionally fairly gentle, weighing in at simply 1.1 ounces. It suits completely within the coin pocket of males’s denims, which is especially good if you need as few issues in your pant’s pockets as doable.

Our take a look at unit was silver-colored. You too can get it in black, gold, purple, and white. Nonetheless, it doesn’t matter what shade you select, the included earbuds will probably be white. Its small kind issue means you don’t get a lot of a display screen—simply two inches. That doesn’t give it a lot use past checking which tune is enjoying. You’ll be able to load and think about footage on the system, however the low decision usually leads to pixelation and distortion. Video is even worse, straining the attention when watched too lengthy.

Moreover, you’ll be able to’t see the show very properly within the daylight. And in the event you’re carrying sun shades, you’ll be required to take them off as a result of the backlight simply isn’t shiny sufficient. Throughout testing, we needed to search out shade to see the menu clearly when outdoor.

Navigating the menu is considerably irritating at first due to the counter-intuitive bodily controls. Whereas the touch-sensitive interface offers it a extra refined feel and appear, that is the kind of MP3 participant that will profit from extra conventional buttons. The chief instance of that is the dearth of bodily controls for quantity. It’s a must to faucet the amount button for a digital show of the sound degree to come back up after which use the contact controls to regulate the amount. This works, however it takes some time longer than it must.

On prime of that, there’s no quantity management on the included earbuds. If you happen to want sooner quantity management (you do), we suggest getting a pair of headphones or earbuds which have bodily quantity controls that function independently of what they’re linked to.

MYMAHDI sells one other model of the M350 that has them included. It has equivalent specs and options to the mannequin we reviewed. We didn’t take a look at it, however based mostly on our expertise with the M350, we count on that its efficiency could be related.

Options: A blended bag

Exterior of enjoying audio, this MP3 participant has some easy skills that you could be discover sometimes helpful. The audio recorder is handy in the event you occur to wish one. The recordings are listenable, however simply okay quality-wise. It additionally has an alarm clock and a stopwatch, which work precisely the way you’d count on.

There are a couple of additional options on this MP3 participant that you just most likely gained’t ever use. They embrace the eBook reader, which is torturous on the eyes. The calendar, which is nearly ineffective since it’s important to manually enter all the things with no computerized updates. There’s additionally a reasonably aggravating model of Tetris that the system merely refers to as “The Sport.”

One factor this finances MP3 participant has that garden-variety smartphones don’t is FM Radio. It is a good contact because it’s a chore (generally not possible) to get well timed native information and site visitors studies from podcasts and different digital media. It additionally delivers simply the correct quantity of nostalgia for a time when FM radio was the one place you can discover new music and take heed to the hits you haven’t purchased the albums for.

Most likely essentially the most disappointing factor in regards to the M350 is its lack of wi-fi capabilities, which isn’t stunning. You’ll be able to’t count on a tool at this worth to sync your music through Wi-Fi or a mobile connection. Nonetheless, the addition of Bluetooth would definitely be doable and enhance its usefulness.

Consolation: Unremarkable

The earbuds included with the M350 are essentially the most fundamental we’ve seen in a very long time. The buds are made fully of plastic, however they do match properly in your ear. You may use them long run with out chafing. Nonetheless, it’s a good guess which you could get larger high quality and extra comfy earbuds for lower than $10 on the grocery retailer checkout line.

Setup Course of: It’s gonna take some time

Getting music and different onto this MP3 participant was a little bit of a blast from the previous. As an alternative of syncing with applications like iTunes and Spotify, it’s important to manually copy your songs onto the participant. Which includes connecting it to a pc and mounting it as an exterior exhausting drive, then navigating the right folders (Music, Video, and many others) and dragging within the media information you need.

That is how issues had been executed 15 years in the past. And lots of people most likely don’t bear in mind how to do that – or by no means knew in any respect. And the person handbook is simply marginally useful with its directions.

Storage: All of the music you’ve ever heard

The MYMAHDI MP3 participant comes with 8GB of onboard storage, akin to an entry-level smartphone. However since there are not any apps or different storage-hog options, you will get quite a lot of music on there. Once we stuffed up our MP3 participant to capability, we acquired about 1,000 songs and three audiobooks into it. Nonetheless, that quantity was significantly diminished after we began loading video and picture information onto the exhausting drive.

If 8GB isn’t sufficient for you, the M350 system has an expandable storage slot on the facet. You’ll be able to load microSD playing cards with as much as 120GB storage capability, probably permitting you to suit your total music library onto the system.

Battery Life: Days to die

The one declare about battery life that we discovered on-line was from the Amazon product description, which says the M350 will final about 40 hours. To check this, we used a male-to-male aux cable to attach the MP3 participant to the JBL Cost 4 and let it play repeatedly play till the battery died. We began on a Monday morning and it performed till late Tuesday night, which kind of lives as much as the Amazon description.

After we drained the battery, we timed how lengthy it took to realize a full cost. This got here out to about 80 minutes. It needs to be famous that all through the remainder of our testing, we by no means ran out of energy except we intentionally drained the battery.

Sound High quality: Stick to the earbuds you have already got

The sound produced by this MP3 participant is fully depending on what you utilize to take heed to it. Once more, the earbuds are simply okay for informal listening, however a far cry from what audiophiles demand. They merely lack the flexibility to provide the wealthy, deep sound that you just’d get from higher-quality earbuds.

After a day or so of utilizing the system with its personal earbuds, we dug out some outdated Apple EarPods with the old-style 3.5mm connector and used these for the rest of the testing interval. The distinction was dramatically higher. You probably have a male-to-male aux wire, you can too join it to any speaker with that audio-in port. Once we hooked it as much as the JBL Cost 4, we skilled strong, high-quality sound that was on par to utilizing the speaker with the iPhone X through Bluetooth.

In idea, you don’t must have earbuds, headphones or audio system in any respect to take heed to this MP3 participant. It has an in-built speaker, however the sound it makes is an assault on the senses—when you’ll be able to hear it.

We used a sound meter to see precisely how loud the built-in speaker can get. At its loudest, it solely acquired as much as 85 decibels in a quiet room. That’s advantageous once you’re indoors and close to the system, however step outdoor or right into a room with ambient sound, and also you gained’t hear it from quite a lot of toes away.

Value: Discount basement

You’ll be able to decide the M350 up for about $23. That is cheap and sounds about proper for what you get.

Competitors: Sony NWE395 Walkman vs Mahadi M350

We examined the MYHADI M350 alongside the Sony NWE395 Walkman. The massive distinction is the worth. The Walkman’s 16GB mannequin is priced virtually 4 instances larger than the M350. Nonetheless, the Walkman lacks an expandable storage slot, a voice recorder, and an exterior speaker. Upsides to the Walkman embrace its bodily controls, extra intuitive navigation, and brighter display screen.

If a cut price basement worth is what you’re after, the M350 is the clear selection. The one compelling purpose to decide on the Walkman is if you need the nostalgic feeling the model title brings with it.