Aigo's A215 touts 50 hour battery life

There are those of us who want a portable music / media player that does it all, and lasts an unnecessarily long time on a single charge, but since that probably ain't happening anytime soon (without costing a small fortune), Aigo figured it might as well go all-out in one particular department for those who don't mind reaping the longevous benefits associated with simplicity. While the A215 can't play video clips, only sports a three-line LCD display, lacks an FM tuner, and can't be recharged through a USB port, this minuscule audio player does manage to outlast those feature-ridden competitors by pumping out the jams for 50 solid hours. The design here seems decent enough, and we're genuinely relieved that it doesn't borrow from the styling cues found on their MP3-playing (and opposite-gender-deterring) wristwatch. A notable limitation is the inability to play back any formats other than your basic MP3 and WMA files, though it apparently will play nice with WMA-DRM. Curiously enough, the spec sheet claims that legendary "50 hour" figure only applies when tapping your foot to MP3 files; if your collection happens to be in WMA, you can "only" count on 35 hours, for whatever reason. Nevertheless, if you're looking for a pocketable way to carry a few tunes around, and don't mind its sheer inability to do anything over and above play them back for an erroneously long time, the 2GB A215 can maximize the utility of that spare AA battery for £69.99 ($132).

[Via MobileMag]

[Thai @ Aug 20th 2006 12:39AM]

The Sony NW-E507 also lasts 50 hours on a charge

[Me @ Aug 20th 2006 12:43AM]

I wouldn't buy a sony it might explode in my pocket.

[Nikolai @ Aug 20th 2006 1:21AM]

There is no mention here of its capacity...?

[Silver R. Wolfe @ Aug 20th 2006 1:25AM]

@Nikolai

Look at the picture. :D

It's 2GB.

[pneumeric @ Aug 20th 2006 2:19AM]

erroneous

er·ro·ne·ous

adjective
Definition:
incorrect: incorrect, based on an incorrect assumption, or containing something that is incorrect

[Nikolai @ Aug 20th 2006 2:37AM]

Thanks Silver. :)

Are there any other formats for the device?

[lol @ Aug 20th 2006 2:38AM]

This China Brand is Sucks!

[lol @ Aug 20th 2006 2:43AM]

and do you know 'aigo' means?

aigo = 愛國者 = Patriot = a chinese patriot


LOL

[tom @ Aug 20th 2006 4:32AM]

@lol,

when did it become so "funny" to point out obvious/unneccessary facts?

[Ben @ Aug 20th 2006 8:56AM]

The reason that the batteries only last 35 hours for WMA files is because the algorithm requires more processing power to decompress (the trade-off for smaller files and/or better sound quality).

[Paolo @ Aug 20th 2006 9:58AM]

All right, nice gadget... but can I know how is the quality of the sound it plays ? Do you know an indipendent site comparing all this mp3 player by the quality ? Thanks

[LeDoubleD @ Aug 20th 2006 11:32AM]

Hooray for Cowon's iAudio G3. 50 hours of playback, plays pretty much every format under the sun, and it's cheap for 2GB. On top of all that it doesn't look too bad either.

[Sriram @ Aug 20th 2006 11:34AM]

And then how can ATRAC(even though proprietary) have good quality AND have O-M-freakin-G battery life...
Sometimes I wish Sony would reveal the secrets of the long battery lives of their players, till then we're either tied to their players or compromise on the battery life...frankly I'd rather have more battery life than anything else on my player...Ultimately once there's no juice left, no video playback, or calender or a big colour screen is going to allow you to listen to your collection...

Aigo has taken steps in the right direction by creating a product that competes with a brand name at a lesser cost...I hope that other manufacturers also proceed in the same direction ie Microsoft, Creative, Samsung...
Well there's the mobiblue b153, but it's not half as widespread or known as a say...Samsung yepp, or a creative zen

[~JP~ @ Aug 20th 2006 1:00PM]

Thank you pneumeric for pointing out the erroneous use of the word "erroneously".

The people who write for this blog really need to learn how to speak English.

[Spike @ Aug 20th 2006 2:11PM]

Sriram, Sony makes their own semi's used in their DAP's, especially the main ARM CPU one, its a no brainer that their battery life can last very long, as they are designing it from the ground up, not just buying chips off some other company *cough* ala Apple. I have a NW-E307 1GB that gets about 48 hours on a single charge, and thats playing MP3's!

[Spike @ Aug 20th 2006 2:15PM]

Actually mine is an NW-E407, its the tiny lighter shaped one, *not* the Bean.

[Paco @ Aug 20th 2006 2:40PM]

I have the sony NW-E407 too. I mought it because of the neat features this new product lacks. Like the usb rechargable battery, oled display, and 50 hour battery life. I only need to charge it about every two months since it is just for when I go to the gym. The only yhting I don't like about it is after about a year the heaphones are starting to get a bit buggered up. I expect this since from soemthign I'm sweating on all the time though.

[Paul @ Aug 9th 2008 12:36AM]

What about the Cowon D2 player? Audio playback is up to 50 hrs and has a SD slot for expansion. It also plays video on a 2.5" screen.