3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Compaq iPAQ PM-1, a GREAT Buy
Date of Review: Mar 13, 2003
The Bottom Line: I definitely recommend you purchase a Compaq PM-1 Mini CD / MP3 Player. It is the best out there for its price and function.
I did a lot of research before I purchased and this was the best model I found, for its price and features.
I also looked at MiniDisc players, but there were many advantages that I found the Mini CD Players have. First of all, the price of Mini CDs is a lot cheaper than mini discs. I purchased 25 Mini CDs for $10. Another advantage of the Mini CD vs. Mini Disc is the rate that you can burn your music. You can burn a mini cd in any CD-R in less than 2 minutes. Most Mini Discs record at 1:1, so depending on how much music you are putting on there, you might be waiting a while.
A feature that I really like is the in line remote. It even has a clip so you can attach it to your shirt or pants. It is compatible with ID3 Tags, so the name of your song appears on the LCD screen. With this remote you can change the sound with the equalizer, set songs to play at random, and a lot of other things.
When you first pop in a mini cd it takes a little while to load the data. Once you start playing a song, it will load the whole song into its memory. At that time, the cd will stop spinning (to help save battery life).
The loading will not work good if you are moving (jogging) or the cd is at a big tilt. I find myself stopping for 3 or 4 seconds for a song to load, and then continue walking.
The quality of the music is very good. This thing really cranks, it is very loud. Sometimes I just blast the sound, and put the headphones on my neck. It is really clear.
I was a bit disappointed with the battery life. I pretty much have my player charging all of the time. Whenever I go somewhere and I am going to use it, I always
bring along an extra set of batteries. They usually last me 2 to 3 minutes.
