Mobiblu takes on America in style with the DAH-1500i!

Overview

The Mobiblu DAH-1500 first took the gadget world by storm when photos appeared comparing it to the supposedly super-miniature iAudio U2. Three of the cubes were piled up to equal the height of the U2. It was an amazing sight for all of us DAP-geeks. Never before had we seen such a tiny player. Couple that with its high-quality looking finish and smart-looking LCD, and Mobiblu seemingly had a mega-hit on its hands.

This 24mm cube player took a while to get to the United States. It had already been imported by a few who complained of slow transfer speeds and lack of Wma DRM support. Well, Mobiblu decided that Americans deserved better and released the DAH-1500i which added USB 2.0 and Wma DRM support. The DAH-1500i has now made it into the mass-market store that is Walmart. It's too early to tell if the player is a hit or not, but if Walmart and Mobiblu play their cards right, they could be raking in the dough.




Features + Specifications

.94 x .94 x .94 inches
.63 ounces
OLED display
1gb flash memory (also comes in 256mb and 512mb versions)
Built-In Lithium-Ion Battery (charges via USB)
Audio playback: Mp3, Wma, Wma DRM
Voice recording:
FM Radio
FM recording
Clock
5-Band Custom Equalizer and 5 preset settings
USB 2.0 connection
Folder navigation

Design

The DAH-1500i has been one of the most talked about flash players in recent memory. Obviously, that is because of its miniature cube design. Most of us have never seen an mp3 player so small. Technically, it may not be the smallest player in the world, but at 24mm all around, its really quite a remarkable feat achieved through a “rigid-flex printed circuit board”.

The cube itself was obviously designed to be rather clean and smooth with as little clutter as possible. The OLED display blends in with the black face surrounding it. This black face really attracts fingerprints, but thats not totally surprising. Mobiblu seems to have wasted quite a fair bit of space for the screen. I would have rather seen them stick their company name somewhere else on the player and enlarge the screen. Another side of the cube is used for the controls in the typical circular manor with the play/pause in the middle, rewind/fast-forward on the left/right, and the volume up/down on the top and bottom. The other 4 sides consists of headphone/usb port, reset, menu/lock, and the white FCC/product name side. The reset side is kind of odd. There is a sticker with a strange number near the bottom. I guess its the serial number, but why not put that with the product name and FCC information? It dilutes from the generally pleasing simplicity of the player. It is also important to note that the headphone port doubles as the usb connector (it comes with a special cable).

Most reasonable people would realize that a cube design is not really the most practical way to design a DAP. Operating the controls was really a pain. I do not know how to describe why it was difficult. It just felt sort of strange and awkward trying to use the controls while looking at the screen. With the cube design, however, there probably is no way around this sort of awkwardness. Also, as one might have predicted, the cube design is not meant for pocketability. Mobiblu wants you to wear it around your neck, but who does that? Luckily, the player is so diminutive that its sharpers corners do not present a problem for those who want to store the player in their pants.








24 x 24 x 24mm 18 grams: Mobiblu DAH-1500
60 x 34 x 14 mm 30.5 grams: Safa Q100
83 x 45 x 15mm 54 grams : Samsung YP-T8X
62 x 37 x 15mm 36 grams: Samsung YP-T7X
86 x 36 x 17mm 25 grams: Transcend JetFlash
84 x 25 x 8 mm 22 grams: Apple iPod Shuffle
76 x 33 x 20mm 28 grams: SanDisk Digital Audio Player
66 x 33 x 13mm 23 grams: Creative MuVo Micro N200
64 x 46 x 18mm 37 grams: JetAudio iAudio G3
74 x 25 x 18mm 34 grams: JetAudio iAudio U2





As you can tell by the comparisons, the DAH-1500i is plenty small. Its the smallest on the list above, and it really makes an impact when you first open the box. My jaw literally dropped, and I screamed for other people to come look. Its hard to believe that someone could fit an mp3 player, radio, voice recorder, etc all into one tiny little cube.

Accessories

Earphones – What is with all of the white earphones? I know it looks very appealing, but white earphones are actually dangerous now. Many thieves target people with white earphones because they believe the person owns an iPod. I guess since the player's buttons and a side are white that it is excusable, but I really would prefer non-white earphones so I am not a target of every common thief in the United States. The cord for the earphones is also really small. I can't even put the player in my pocket. They were obviously hoping everyone is into the necklace thing. Bottom line: just use your own phones.
Necklace – Yes, it has a necklace. Do I want to try it out? No.
[i]Cables[i] – The audio and usb cables do their respective jobs. I suppose its of note that it is mini usb on the Q100 to the computers usb 2.0 port.
Case – I was sort of surprised to find out that the DAH-1500i came with a case. Its a translucent rubber case that covers the corners of the object. No screen protection to be found here, but its still nice to have. It takes a little bit of work to slide the cover over the player, but its worth it to keep the corners protected.



Controls

Playback buttons – One of the major negatives of the player. They all feel rather cheap and require a real solid push to activate the function. They make a unsatisfactory click sound that also screams “cheap!” I really expected better since the rest of the player is so eloquently designed.
Menu button – Same material as the playback buttons, so it is just as disappointly cheap feeling.
Lock button – Same feeling as the playback and hold buttons. Would have preferred a slider to be on the safe side, but the menu and lock buttons both seem to be slightly embossed into the player so that seems to help protect against accidentely presses.



Screen

The 1.5 x 1cm OLED screen is very clear and is relatively easy to read, but you just wonder if Mobiblu couldn't have moved their logo somewhere else and made the screen larger. They did manage to fit all the required information onto the screen without it appearing to cluttered, however. Obviously, in the super-portable DAP genre, its just a blessing to have a screen at all. Yes, that was a subtle snipe at the Shuffle.



GUI

Creating a GUI for a microscopic player is pretty tricky for any company. Its even harder when the screen is not in color. Mobiblu's system seems easy enough, but a lot of the functions are hidden via presses and holds. For example, when in radio mode, you press “menu” and it brings you to the FM radio options such as FM recording. Hold down the “menu” button, and you are sent to the main menu with the music, radio, settings, recording, and “listen.” One scrolls through these primary options horizontally using the fast-forward and rewind buttons. As I mentioned earlier, these buttons are a pain to use effectively because of the cube design.

Navigation through songs is rather difficult due to the folders music organization. The DAH-1500i does indeed support id3 tag information, but I would have much preferred id3 tag organization as well instead of the folder system.. Text seems to be too large and not allow enough characters to make tracks easily recognizable when scrolling through lists.

The GUI's speed is just fine. It reacts how you expect it to react. No loading times or anything silly like that.

All in all, I really feel that the player's GUI does indeed have a small learning curve due to all the “hidden” functions. Not everything is self-explanatory like many people would expect. Of course, I do not see a way around this, as players with such small screens simply do not have the room to label every function.

I have two digital cameras are both are totally worthless. They could not capture a screenshot even with a tripod. I have a few pictures in this review that have the screen fairly well focused so check those out instead. If I ever get a decent digital camera, I will post pictures as soon as possible.

Equalizer

Surprisingly, this player actually has a fair amount of equalizer options. Most people really don't fiddle around with the EQ settings, but for those who do, you will be happy to hear that it has 5 Preset modes, and a bass/treble 5-band custom setting. There is not too much range to fiddle around with at +- 7db, but it is still a nice feature to have especially on something so small.

Output

Sound Quality – Most flash players sound really good especially when compared to hard drive players and this player fits right into that mode. I am not sure if its quite up to the standard of my Rio Karma, but the DAH-1500i does provide a nice listening experience. The gaps seem pretty long, and I guess its sort of irritating coming from a Karma, but, at least for me, its not a make or break deal.

Power - This thing is so small it has to be quiet as a mouse. They must have taken short cuts somewhere, right? Wrong. Volume goes from 1 to 30. 30 is sort of an odd number to end with, don't you think? Anyway, 30 is plenty loud enough, and I usually have it set around 15.

The headphone output power 16 ohms / 15 mW. Statiscally, this should not work very well with those big, meaty, and power-hungry headphones a lot of audiophiles wear. I do not actually own really good headphones, but being the loyal servant that I am, I tried some out with it, and it worked fine, but you never know.

Software

The DAH-1500i does come with a little mini-cd, but the software that it installs is only used to update firmware. Otherwise, it is just drag and drop with windows explorer.

Firmware updating is not really that simple despite the included software. You still have to manually download, unzip, copy, and paste before running the software. It would have been really nice to have a one-button update system instead of this complex scheme.

Battery Life

Sadly, the battery life is the weakest point of this player. Mobiblu advertises 10 to 12 hours of playback time, but I honestly received around 8.5 hours with my songs encoded mostly at 160kbps mp3. I would have definitely liked to see more, but, for the target audience, I think 8.5 is just fine, but it really is frustrated that yet another company overstates their player's battery life.

The lack of an ac adapter hurts as well, but you find a cheap usb to ac adapter if you travel a lot and need to consistently charge the DAH-1500i.

Special Features

FM Radio – It does not seem to pick up that many stations using the seek feature, but the stations it does pick up seem to actually be of pretty clear quality.

FM Recording – Unlike its inferior sibling, the DAH-1500, the DAH-1500i does have FM recording. It works, and its easy enough to use. What else is there to say?



Customer Support

I have not heard of any problems with Mobiblu, so you should be all clear, but Mobiblu is new to the game is the United States, so only time will tell.

Value

Since they managed to fit so much technology into such a small package, it must be expensive, right? Wrong again! The DAH-1500i is nearly exactly the same price as the iPod shuffle in both 512mb and 1gb versions. Around $100 for 512mb, and $130 for the 1gb at your local Walmart. Great value!

Pros	Cons
Duh, its freakin' tiny.	Akward shape for navigating
Unique and cool look	Battery life could be better
OLED screen	Only file-tree organization
FM Radio and Recording	Gaps are too long
Main screen is packed with info	Controls feel a little cheap
Drop and drag transfer system	Screen's size makes navigating tracks difficult
DRM support	No ac adaptor (only USB 2.0)
Equalizer options	Button lock instead of slide lock
Useful Case	No Line-in recording
Great value	Upgrading firmware could be easier
Playlists

Conclusion

Well, well, time for the conclusion I guess. Nothing really too much to complain about. Sure its not perfect, the buttons are a little bit cheap, the cube shape isn't ideal, and the battery life kinda sucks, but, all in all, I really like this product. Mobiblu truly has a winner on their hands with the DAH-1500i. It is incredibly unique, ridiculously small, and just so damn cool!