Creative CD MP3 Slim 600
There's one word to describe the Slim 600. That word is "Shiny".CD Based MP3 players are quite thick on the ground, so a player has to be quite exceptional in order to stand out. The Slim 600's claim to fame lies in three areas; as its name suggests it's quite thin, it's the single shiniest player in our roundup, and it has an exceptionally good four line LCD remote.
The Slim 600 is powered by two supplied 1.2V NiMH batteries that slot in underneath the CD mechanism, meaning that if you did have to replace them, you'd need to remove the CD first. Given that they're rechargeable, however, you shouldn't need to do that all that often. The flipside of custom batteries is that if you do lose the charger, of course, there's no easy way to slip in some more common batteries in their place.
The supplied headphones are of the bud variety, and we're still not fans of bud headphones. What we are fans of, however, is the cabled remote that Creative supplies with the Slim 600, which boasts an impressive 4 line LCD screen that displays track name, bit rate, playing time and even the next scheduled track all in a screen with a resolution of only 128x64 pixels. If we were simply testing cabled remotes, the Slim 600 would lead the entire pack by a long margin.
In terms of file format, the Slim 600 works with MP3 and WMA files, and the menu system on either the remote or face of the unit allows for easy track selection and directory browsing. It's not quite as powerful as the iPod's interface, but it's perfectly workable. Four equaliser presets and the ability to create one user preset should be acceptable to most musical tastes, although those with poorer hearing (or those that prefer their music to be eardrum shatteringly loud) may want to look elsewhere; at top lick the Slim 600's audio is relatively soft.
The biggest single strike against the Slim 600 is the ticket price; at AU$369, even with the funky cabled remote, it's not entirely cheap. Then again, the more budget-minded Philips Expanium 213 lacks a lot of the functionality of the Slim 600, so it's still a reasonable buy if your budget permits it.
Creative CD MP3 Slim 600
Company: Creative Australia
Price: AU$369
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: (02) 9666 6500
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Hi! I recently put a Sony MZ-N510 on layby of $350. It's my first update sine a discman. Should I keep it or find another one? Any comments are more than welcome! Thanks!