| Rating | Where to buy |
 | Amazon.com *Same or similar item |
Transcend MP3 player MP330 comes in the shape of a pen drive. It has 8GB storage capacity, which means you can store about 1638 songs of 5 minutes average duration. The Mp3 player also features an FM radio. It comes with a sports clip so you can use the device for jogging or similar activities.
What is in the box?
MP330 comes in a nice transparent box. The box contains the MP3 player, a neck strap, an auxiliary 3.5mm audio cable, Transcend headphones, a sports clip, warranty documents, and user manual.
Design and features
Transcend MP3 player MP330 has nothing fancy about its design. It has a very simple look, much like any regular pen drive except for the display and the buttons. However, the black color with the curved edges gives it somewhat of a sober look after all. It sports a USB 2.0 male port, which has a cover that fits tightly on it.
MP330 features a monochrome display that is capable of showing ID3 tags for MP3 songs. It shows text in three lines. The first line shows icons for selected features, such as equalizer, song playing mode, battery life etc. The second line scrolls the name of the song, artist’s name etc. The bottom line shows the number of the song playing, how many songs in the folder, playing time, and duration of the song. The display is clearly visible, and the fonts are not that tiny either.
The playback controls and volume buttons are located right to the display. You can play, pause, forward, reward, fast forward, or fast reward a song, and volume up or down with these buttons. MP330 has two buttons on the top edge of it. One button is for recording, and the other one is for the menu.
Turning on the Transcend MP3 player MP330 requires you to press on the Play/Pause button for a couple of seconds. This will make the player initialize while its logo appears on the tiny screen. This takes about 2 seconds. Once the player is loaded, the menu appears. You can go to different menu options by clicking on the Forward or the Reward button. This menu contains the submenus named Music, Radio, Record, and Settings. To select a menu you need to press on the Play/Pause button. To go back to the main menu, you need to click on the Menu button with folder icon located on the top edge. If you click on the Menu button when viewing the primary menu, the player will show you current date and time (which you can set by going to Settings Menu).
The Music submenu contains ‘Now Playing’, ‘My Playlist’, ‘Playlist’, and ‘File Management’ submenus. ‘Now Playing’ takes you to the list of songs you were playing before. ‘My Playlist’ lets you begin with your playlist of songs. The ‘Playlist’ menu lets you import playlist, or see the other playlists that you may have stored in your mp3 Player. The ‘File Management’ lets you switch to songs residing under different folders including the root folder.
The Radio and Record menus do what the names suggest. The Settings menu has Record Source, Record Quality, Power Saving, Display, Volume Limit, Date & Time, Language, and Player Information submenus.
The record button serves a few crucial tasks. When you are playing a song or viewing a list of songs, pressing the Record button will take you to the menu with the items such as Repeat Mode, EQ Mode, SRS WOW, A-B Repeat, Add to My Playlist, Lyrics Sync, and Delete file. On the other hand, clicking on Record button when you are accessing the Radio feature of the player it presents you the menu with items such as Channel list, Save Station, Delete, Delete all, Auto Search, and FM Band.
Overall, MP330 comes loaded with many useful options and features. Configuring different options such as the equalizer or SRS WOW effect, or searching and saving radio channels are easy once you get acquainted with what the buttons do.
Performance
We were highly disappointed with Transcend MP3 player MP330’s performance as we played music for the first time. The music quality was horrible and the loudness of music was too poor. So, we started looking for the Equalizer option. It took us about 5 minutes to figure out how to reach the menu with EQ Mode, SRS and WOW Mode. With Equalizer enabled, we were able to hear clear and loud music with deep bass and high fidelity. The music was so loud that the leaked noise from the headphones (not the one that comes with Transcend MP330 player) could be heard from 7 meters away. SRS WOW effect made the base even deeper. Whereas, on EQ Mode, you can set your player to produce more treble and more base.
The Transcend headphones are poorly designed and do not stand up to the quality of the MP330 digital music player. The headphones were a little big to fit into our ears. Moreover, the sound quality through the headphones was not good enough. So, we replaced them with what we had in hand, the iPod headphones. And the sound quality literally surprised us.
The radio reception was good enough with a clear and loud output. We recorded voice and other audio; the recording quality was good. You can also change record settings in order to improve the recording quality.
The sports clip can be easily attached or removed from the MP330 player. You can take your MP330 player while you are jogging without worrying about losing it thanks to the tight grip of the sports clip to your clothes.
| Pros | Cons |
| Clear, loud sound with deep bass and high treble. Plays songs of mp3, WMA, and WAV format. Comes with an FM radio. Equalizer and SRS WOW effects settings. File Management settings. | The pair of headphones that come bundled with the player is of low quality and uncomfortable to wear. |
Conclusion
Playing and listening to a song with the Transcend MP3 player MP330 for the first time after purchasing it will disappoint you. But once you set the equalizer mode or the SRS WOW effect, the player outputs surprisingly better output. MP330 lets you play with many features and settings. The sound quality is good, if not great. But in order to get the best sound quality out of the player, you need to learn the use of the Record button and tweak the EQ Mode and SRS WOW effects. You can play songs for 12 hours before itsLi-Polymer battery runs out of juices. MP330 may not be the best mp3 player on the market, but it’s a good one and it is worth the try.
Specifications
Capacity: 8GB
Color: (White/Pink/Black)
Dimensions 85 x 25.5 x 11.5mm
Weight 25g
Display Type and Size: 1-inch White Monochrome OLED
Music Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV
Recording Format: WAV
Line-in Recording: Yes
FM Function: Worldwide – 87.5~108 MHz; Japan – 76~90 MHz
Battery Life: Music Playback Time 12hr (Fully Charged)
Max. Recording Hours: 20hr (Low Quality)
Battery Type: Li-Polymer
Compression Rates: 32Kbps to 320Kbps