RCA is one of the those brands that keeps on pumping out new DAPs year after year but never gets much attention because their stuff has been largely sub-par next to the major players in this field. But we keep an eye on them as we do all DAP-makers, especially after their last effort, the RD2850, which proved that someone else besides Rio could manage gapless MP3 playback (read that review HERE) - an impressive feat it seems considering how rare it is. Anyway, last week I took a tour of eBay and found an RCA RD2765 for sale, RCA's newest. We havn't heard a single spark of interest on this one but curiosity got the best of me as it usually does. I put in a cheap-bastard bid on esnipe and a couple of days later it's mine. It still has that RCA-ish look and feel, meaning a generic design and plasticky build but they've done a pretty good job with the operational aspects. Initial impressions are positive.

Good Small dimensions, average build-quality Shiney, polished-metal style materials (plastic, actually) 5Gb MicroDrive 5-way joystick plus a mechanical wheel-scroller for zooming quickly through lists Charges over USB Color screen (the duller type... CSTN?) File/Folder browsing AND iD3 based browsing (Artist, Album, Track, Genre, Year, etc) Profiling (can scan tracks and self-databased iD3-tag info like Rio Carbon, no software required) View photos 5-band custom EQ Choose MSC or MTP complient in the Settings Menu. First time we've seen this ability. Might as well stick with the Mass Storage Complient option unless you're a big fan of WMP10 Damn near gapless MP3 playback Hella-cheap ($ 117 on eBay, YMMV)

Bad No dedicated play controls, use the joystick instead Color screen is small (1-inch), colors are washy No FM radio or recording Can't view photos and listen to music at the same time

DAPreview members can click on the "Read More" link below to see a few more pics.