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Cheap or advanced - Acer MP-330 or Packard Bell Vibe 300?
comment: 0 | Wednesday, July 13 (2005) 07:57PM | Posted by Robert Sinke
Right, one of the few cool things about Europe's position within the DAP market is its versatile assortment of players.. Not just the iPod, some Creative stuff and a random RCA, iRiver or iAudio - we get to see the weirdest players from time to time. Not as often as the Koreans, of course. Plus, our prices suck balls.

Anyway - 149 Euro for a 5GB player with USB Host doesn't sound too bad, now does it? Acer doesn't make it a secret that they're out for the more flat-walleted type of persons, as we've seen before with their 20GB MP-320 player.

The Acer MP-330 is a 5GB unit, comes with 128 x 128 pixel LCD and built-in voice recorder. USB-Host (1.1) is a nice addition to the standard set of MP3/WMA support and a 12 hour battery life. As its 20GB brother, the MP-330 is fully drag&drop, USB2.0 compliant. Not much to look at ("ugly" would be a solid description), but 149 Euro is extremely cheap to our standards.
Take the other player's price, for instance. Packard Bell, the rather notorious company sometimes referred to as "Packard Hell" for whatever reasons, has come up with something called the "vibe 300". Retails at about 229 Euro, so there you have it.

The Vibe 300 offers 6GB worth of storage capacity, a touch pad, 1.8-inch TFT color screen for watching pictures & videos on, USB On-the-Go 2.0, and an SD/MMC memory card slot. Probably has more stuff to offer as well. Very creative, Packard Bell, or is it? We suspect the "Vibe 300" is nothing more than a 6GB-rebrand of the MP-536. Didn't think we'd track that, now did you? Well, we're *that* obsessed when it comes down to DAPs. Y'all know it.
(Both players found at Cyberport (German webretailer))
Comments

Fryhole

Comments: 137
 		Jul 13 (2005) 09:02PM  

Well this is one time I'm definately glad I live in the States...149 Euro for the MP-330? Crazy. I'm an ignorant fool...so someone please inform me, why are mp3 players and the like so much more expensive in Europe?



Anonymous

Guest
 		Jul 13 (2005) 09:38PM  

Because of crazy taxes + the fact that people in europe tend to buy less electronic stuff making it "more" exclusive and posibility to charge more ...
loz of people believe they've a "BIG" MP3 player when they've 1Gb down here ... so funny :s:d



pedro

Comments: 20
 		Jul 13 (2005) 10:02PM  

the vibe 300 looks very cool but i think 6gb isn't a great memory capacity for devices that store videos and musics... and 229 euro for 6gb is a bit too much



chicubs

Comments: 915
 		Jul 13 (2005) 10:56PM  

I remember Packard HELL *shudders* ...Glad they dont import them to the states.



FucktardHell

Guest
 		Jul 14 (2005) 04:13AM  

oh my... Packard Bell sucks so hard i can't belive it.

Their OEM computers... don't want to talk about it. (I had one as a child... me and computers really got off on the wrong foot because of that...).



Dark Leth

Guest
 		Jul 14 (2005) 09:57AM  

...

Packard Bell has much improved now. Quality-wise.



Don

Guest
 		Jul 16 (2005) 10:20PM  

Bad experience with Packard Bell machines. Luckily overseas they've improved, but in 1995/1996 the machines were the cheapest priced box on the shelf that many had their bad experiences with PCs began. A PB Legend 890C sat in my basement for several years and I finally got rid of it by way of donation. The PB monitor was made by LG, and they've made monitor sections for the 2nd Gen iMacs, which were known to screw up frequently. PB also installed used refurbed parts stating they were new, causing the company to leave the States. Good riddance!

I believe Dell will be next, their low-tier loss-leader notebooks are similar in quality (DOA).



John

Guest
 		Aug 18 (2005) 04:23PM  

PackardBell are a good brand they provide quality for cheap prices. If you have ever checked the spec of some of the machine you would relize that..

It's not that Packardbell that are problem, it is the fact that there are to many people out there today thinking that they KNOW ALL about PC's (A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing). and that is these people that spend little cash on a PC that is great quality and then go mad when they can't get a CD to AUTOPLAY (Work it out you bloody Retard). this is the only reason Packardbell have a bad name.

And i have had the luck to test the new range of Packardbell and i must say they do give you way more bang for your buck.



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