MobiBlu B153 audio player reviewed

By now, you probably already know the MobiBlu B153's claim to fame: it's got a battery life that is so impressive that it's in the model number. That's right; this flash player will last about 153 hours, or over six days of continuous use. That might be great if you're off on a camping trip or too lazy to charge your player more than once a week, but how about the player's other features (you know, like its UI and how it sounds)? CNET checked out the B153, and found that, other than the battery life and its ability to automatically download podcast subscriptions, the player is just so-so. Its interface is strictly folder-driven -- forget about sorting by artist or genre. The screen is also small, and support for DRM is limited to purchased WMA files (no subscription support). Oh, and CNET's testers found the battery life to be a mere 146.5 hours. Hey, we're not complaining. That'll still give us six full days of music.

[Jack B @ May 26th 2006 9:48PM]

I wish you would stop posting worthless comments in order to promote your crappy website.

Your pathetic attempts at 'contributing' to this website are seen by everyone as spam. I wouldn't mind if you actually had something interesting to say.

However, evidently since you don't have anything interesting to add, how about you purchase some advertising space on Engadget, shut the fuck up, or get lost?

[mb @ May 26th 2006 9:52PM]

It must be playing a Sony Music mp3...

[HarryC @ May 26th 2006 9:59PM]

Was it really necessary to have "Digital Audio Player" emblazoned under the screen. Surely if you bought one of these you would know what it was.

That kind of thing really annoys me.

[Moordryd @ May 27th 2006 1:04AM]

CNET reviews tend to suck. A lot of good products have gotten bad reviews from them. I have one of these and, although it's not perfect, it's the best DAP I've owned so far. Check out these other reviews:

http://www.dapreview.net/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.268.1

http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/mobiblu_b153?PHPSESSID=1f864a527d7e3e38b62e9bcc80c6b2bf

[DJ Bunny Eggs @ May 27th 2006 2:46AM]

hey, Jack B, doesn't it link to your website when we click the W in your screen name? do you really feel a need to post it again?

Also, all you do in your posts is state the obvious, I think we all already knew that 150hrs of battery life might be a bit much. Stop promoting your stupid website because nobody wants to see it.


P.S. I hate you and your wierd nipples

[Jack B @ May 27th 2006 9:30AM]

To W

You are obviously deluded, so I will elaborate:

Your comments are worthless because you type crap (ie. you state the obvious) simply as an excuse to link to your website.

However you like to justify it in your small brain, this is SPAM. Which makes you a scum-bucket SPAMMER.

As I said originally, if your comments were actually interesting or had something to add I would not mind. However, you INTENTIONALLY make a post with the purpose of ADVERTISING. This means that more often than not you have to make up a pathetic comment stating the obvious in order to exploit the opportunity to advertise in a blog entry. In other words, you are abusing the courtesy Engadget provides you by allowing posters to link to useful and RELEVANT websites within the context of the article.

Links to your commercial website are NOT RELEVANT to any of the articles.

So stop abusing the privilege given to you and STOP SPAMMING. What you are doing is offensive to Engadget readers and if you continue, and others like you do the same, then links in comments will disappear at the detriment of the readership.

Blog spam is a cancer to useful information and you are a part of it. Think about it. There is a link to the right that says ADVERTISE. If you want to advertise your website, click on it.

[Gojo @ May 27th 2006 3:38PM]

Although Jack B came on too strong, I have to admit that the "W" (or whatever username you chose to use) does seem to post for the sake of advertising (isn't a link on your name enough?). Regardless, whenever I see your posts, you generally state the obvious.

[Drillbit @ Nov 17th 2006 2:33AM]

I bought this Mobiblu B153 player because it says it has resume and bookmark functions and targest podcast playing. Bad Bad move.

1. The podcasting software on the device can be put on any flash player - it's a gimmick.

2. Worst of all, 32 kbps MP3 podcasts are highly DISTORTED. There's something seriously wrong with this.

Mobiblu didn't respond to emails. But I did manage to get someone on the phone in America (I'm in Jakarta). He sent me an overly complex program to "upgrade" the firmware. My firmware went down from M1.11 to M1.10, the only version on any Mobiblu download site is M1.10, now I can't get back to M1.11 and Mobiblu on the phone claims M1.11 doesn't exist. The firmware "downgrade" helped the distortion problem slightly - but it's still bad. Mobiblu promised to keep an Email dialog going on this, but nothing back. Can't get any support in Asia. The store where I bought it refuses to give me my money back.

The worst of it is that the batter in the B153 is the same size as a AA battery and is only 1650 mAh. Why didn't they increase their margin and help the users by just making the battery a AA removable. That way I could stick in a 3000 mAh AA rechargeable, get almost twice the life, and not worry about a battery recharge lifespan of 500 cycles as specified by Mobiblu. Why you ask... because Mobiblu WANTS the battery to fail eventually!

Day 2 of Mobiblu Hell... begins. Argh.