News   Forum   Reviews   Articles   Where to Shop   Links   Polls   Submit News   DAP Shop  
DAPreview takes a First Look at the Coby MP-C951
comment: 15 | Monday, October 09 (2006) 03:09PM | Posted by Michael
Coby, a company that has become synonomous with generic products, have put out some pretty plain looking DAP's in the past. The MP-C951 was a quantum leap from those however when it was revealed a few months ago at CES. I've been checking their site every so often to see when it was coming out. Even today, their website still states "*Coming Soon - SUMMER '06", For a while, I thought this may end up as vaporware, but to my surprise I spotted it at J&R's in New York City.



The MP-C951 is very nice looking in person, and appears to be inspired by past players like the Olympus m:robe MR-100 and DyneTel Tuny 8. It has a 20GB capacity with a 2" screen, it plays back Ogg files (MP3, and WMA as well), has an FM tuner, line-in recorder and even does video (AVI format). On the bad side it only gets 12 hours of battery life which just doesn't cut it today. A good deal of these specs are fairly outdated now, but for just $209.99 I've seen worse. If anyone is really interested in it, we would be willing to do a full review of it.

Check out the COBY MP-C951 at JR.com
icon
Click the link below for my initial impressions of this player

[ Read the rest ... ]
Comments

dap_pad

Comments: 519
 		Oct 09 (2006) 04:30PM  

looks like a 2006 version of the M:robe MR-100... i like the design of the buttons but it is a bit outdated by today's standards.



Anthony7

Comments: 98
 		Oct 09 (2006) 04:37PM  

Looks nice, it does look like an M:robe, but it looks (kind of) like a Zen Micro too.
Everytime I hear Coby, I think cheap headphones . I used to see those all the time in small electronic shops in th 90's.



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Oct 09 (2006) 04:42PM  

^haha I also associate the name Coby with cheap stuff like headphones.

It's going to be hard to break that actually, but this is a start. If they come out with something that meets todays standard (2.5" or bigger screen, longer battery life, better GUI, etc..) then I think they will defintely be on their way. Just remember Sandisk used to be associated with really crappy and plain players, yet today they are #2 in the DAP industry. There's no way Coby will get that far, but this one player shows the slightest of potential.



4vo

Comments: 160
 		Oct 09 (2006) 04:49PM  

Aww man, that battery life really does disappoint..


Saijin_Naib
Location: Warren, NJ
Comments: 893
 		Oct 09 (2006) 04:50PM  

Meh, not soo bad. I kinda like how it looks!



Steve

Comments: 1197
 		Oct 09 (2006) 05:45PM  

It looks like an mr100, but that's not necessarily good. The more i've used the mr100 the less i've liked it. It's just about my least favorite except maybe for the Nexia, which i've come to realise is a genuine piece of crap.

But back to this Coby player. Just because it looks like an mr100 doesn't make it one, it might have better, more user-friendly features, I hope so. I have a Coby player I actually like: the MPC-641. It's a cheap little thing with 256MB, but it has a card slot, uses one AAA battery, it has GOOD voice recording for lectures, and decent sound. It pretty much matches the features of the Nexia, but it kicks its ass in performance, so for what I paid for it, it's great.

$210 may not seem like much but when you can get the likes of the ZVM for $250, I think ths would get a lot more attention if it came in well under $200, like around $180.



vidas7de7jesus7

Comments: 52
 		Oct 09 (2006) 06:23PM  

The second USB port is for USB otg. Actually, as I read on, the one USB port is for MSC and the other is for MTP transfers and USB Host. However, it only has 12 hours of battery. It does support Xvid.



ratbird
Location: Bronx, New York
Comments: 35
 		Oct 09 (2006) 06:52PM  

OMG! lol what did the guys at jandr say when you took pictures of this thing?
i still remember passing by and asking them, are you sure this is a coby...
good review as always



Michael
Location: New York City
Comments: 2786
 		Oct 09 (2006) 07:00PM  

haha, I told them I'm an editor and just want to take some pics, and I just started doing so really quickly. After like the 5th pic the lady started taking it away (that's the pic above). The other worker then told me I can't just take pics of their players without the managers permission (although it really is advertising their store, sooo).

Anyways I had to find the manager and he needed proof of my position, so I handed him a business card. He said it was okay and then walked back with me to the DAP section and told them it was cool. They still weren't too fond of it, but maybe next time it'll be smoother
[ edited Oct 09 (2006) 07:01PM ]



Lone

Comments: 973
 		Oct 09 (2006) 08:32PM  

Good reporting Michael! I wish I had someplace in my hometown/region where I could scope out the latest DAPs.



[ edited Oct 09 (2006) 08:33PM ]



Utew
Location: Oregon USA
Comments: 351
 		Oct 09 (2006) 08:37PM  

Looks interesting.. the price is right and it's shiny... what's not to like?

Michael, you may just have a future in Industrial Espionage ahead of you.. but I'd go for one of those itty-bitty spy cameras.. Minox? perhaps? There has to be one of those shops carrying Spy stuff in Manhattan somewhere.....
[ edited Oct 09 (2006) 08:38PM ]



Design Fabulous

Comments: 1038
 		Oct 10 (2006) 02:52AM  

It's still a Coby though.



Steve

Comments: 1197
 		Oct 10 (2006) 07:10AM  

I downloaded the manual. It's clear and well-written, and the player has some nice features, but it doesn't mention the power output.



Allen
Location: Dub Vee Ooo
Comments: 1511
 		Oct 10 (2006) 03:38PM  

It looks nice, Im just bummed its only a twenty gig player. With my collection of ogg vorbis pushing 26 gigs...



Donnie

Comments: 247
 		Oct 15 (2006) 12:53AM  

Coby's products seems to be always a day late and a dollar short. When I think of Coby, I think of $3 radios and really horrible sounding $35 expandable daps (their earlier versions).

At least this is a step up, but the price isn't going to cut it.



You must be logged in to make comments on this site - please log in, or if you are not registered click here to signup
Welcome
Username:

Password:


Remember me

[ ]
[ ]

Online
Guests: 51
Members: 1, DaHarder
On this page: 1
Members: 9194, Newest: woody

Chatbox
You must be logged in to post comments on this site - please either log in or if you are not registered click here to signup



TheDarkSide
Personally, I didn't buy any of those clips, great deal nonetheless - enjoy!!!!

DaHarder
TDS...

I couldn't help myself - In for 3 of those WOOTs - LOL!

DaHarder
Yea! It's here Android 2.1 for the DROID

TheDarkSide
Sandisk Sansa Clip 8GB MP3 Player for $32.99 on woot: [Linky]

Dominic
lol

Step666
[Linky]

TheDarkSide
Forgot the link: [Linky]

TheDarkSide
OMG!!!! I can't post the meaning of my name, but #2 & #3 is actually me. But, I did get a decent amount of action cause I'm great @#1,............

Dominic
That's great...my skills are average at best

Step666
Yeah but my one's true


Staff
Senior Editor:
Michael aka ssjmichael

• DAPreview N. America
• Publisher
• Marketing and Advertising


Contributing Editors:
Dominic aka Dominic

• DAPreview Europe
• Forum Moderator

Andrew aka DF

• DAPreview Asia
• Design consultant


Click on names for email and user ID for Member Profile

RSS Feeds
Our news can be syndicated by using these rss feeds.
rss1.0
rss2.0
rdf
DAPreview WebRing

Fan site for the Creative Zen brand of MP3 players


Fan site for the Cowon iAudio brand of MP3 players


Subscribe in a reader
User Reviews   Privacy Policy