Category Archives: Reviews

Note: This review was written July 2005.

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Conclusion
Features
Ease of Use
Durability
6 Months Later

Conclusion

The Creative MuVo Micro N200 (a mouthful, huh?) is a nifty little MP3 player jammed with great features and a great sound chip. Although, this is not the most durable MP3 player around, I do recommend the MuVo Micro N200 to people who need a compact, easy-to-use, and nice looking MP3 player. A word of warning though, the MuVo N200 doesn’t exactly seem like it’s built-to-last.

Now then moving along to the ratings:

For The MuVo Micro N200:
Features: (3 Good/ 3 Okay/ 0 Bad)

Ease of Use: (7 Good/ 1 Okay/ 0 Bad)

Durability: (0 Good/ 2 Okay/ 1 Bad)
6 Months Later: (2 Good/ 2 Okay/ 4 Bad)

Total: (13 Good/ 8 Okay/ 5 Bad)

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Features

For such a compact MP3 player, the N200 comes jam packed with more than enough features: a radio, voice recorder, customizable EQ, line-in recording, a folder-based organization system, and various play modes, which includes shuffle. That’s great, right? Well, it would be except a few of these features don’t really work that well.

Sound Quality: I’m no audiophile but the N200 sounds great. Although, remember to replace the stock ear buds, if you get one. $10 Sennheiser ear buds work great, by the way.

Radio: Contrary to several of the reviews I read prior to buying the N200, the built-in FM radio is pretty good. The reception is good enough for my tastes. The N200 can also scan the radio waves and save all the stations it finds as a Preset, so it’s very easy to channel surf.

Voice Recorder: The built-in voice recorder was very poor. I mean it’s not like I was expecting it work that well, but my recordings turned out flat and very soft. Don’t plan on using this to record lectures or speeches.

Customizable EQ: A nice touch. I don’t use it much, but it works well, none the less. The N200 also includes 5 built-in Preset EQ’s: Rock, Classical, Pop, Jazz, and Normal. I tend to use the Rock Preset EQ.

Line-In Recording: This feature, thankfully, works a lot better than the voice recorder. Line-In Recording (or is it encoding?, anyways…) allows you to record music from anything else that has standard headphone plug. FYI, the N200 ships with a headphone outlet to line-in outlet. The recordings themselves are perfectly fine. Although, they do sound a bit flatter than the original source.

Folder-Based Organization: While the folder systems gives you the ability to categorize your music, to me it’s a bit too basic. I would perfer playlists but I’ll take what I can get. The N200 in default will play the music in by folder then by alphabetical order. Alternativly, you may play music in various forms of shuffle. There is no way to change the order to your liking unless you manually rename practically every other song. It would be nice if the player could play playlists, but the folders suffice for now.

Play Modes: To sum it up the N200 can play you music based by folder, in various forms of shuffle, and in the normal default way. The shuffle in my opinion isn’t as random as I’d like it to be, but it’s good enough.

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Ease of Use

With only a single click-wheel, the N200 is pretty easy to navigate albeit tedious at times. It’s relatively easy to switch from various modes of use, ie. from FM radio to Music. However, trying to find a single song even with the folder system is a bit tedious.

Adjusting sound levels is very simple, on account of the + / – buttons on the side of the player.

Adding music is pretty much just plug in the standard mini-USB cord then drag and drop. You don’t even need to install that Creative Music Source software, that comes bundled, since the N200 acts like an external storage device right out of the box.

Replacing the AAA battery is a snap. Just snap the battery door cover off and pop in a new battery. Just in case you are environmentally inclined, the N200 will play just fine using rechargeable 1.2V AAA NiMH batteries. Um just to let you know, the battery door snapping thing tends to break off, so if it does just secure the battery door using a piece of tape.

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Durability

Here we have some issues. Many Amazon reviewers report their N200s arriving DOA (dead on arrival). Thankfully there’s a 3 month Warranty, which to some isn’t long enough. Creative isn’t exactly known for making built-to-last MP3 players, so, unfortunately, this isn’t that surprising. Mine thankfully came in working order, and still is in working order, albeit a bit diminished.

The plastic that the N200 is made out of is that glossy kind that scratches and smudges easily.

Also the N200 doesn’t feel too sturdy; I could probably pry it open with my finger nail. Y The battery door breaks off quickly, more on that next.

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6 Month Review

I originally wrote this for Amazon, but I’ve decided to revise it and make it ever so helpful.

Well it has been half a year, since I first got my Creative MuVo Micro N200. Right now the player isn’t so great anymore. I suppose I may have been a little rough on it; my regular jog might have jarred a few circuits.

So now then, here are the main functions that are still working well:

• Turn’s on, pauses, and plays. (Note the absence of

Okay so this isn't going to be the most scientific or comprehensive review, just to let you know. Anyways, the Trendnet 441pc is a 802.11g/b/Super G compatible PC card (32-Bit CardBus Type II Card); there is a PCI version called the TEW-443PI both adapters are pretty much the same, or at least should be considering the driver CD supports both. So, today we'll be testing how well the TEW-441PC, lovely name huh?, works on Ubuntu Linux 6.06 LTS.

Installing the TEW-441pc
Well thankfully for all of us Linux users, there are native drivers for the TEW-441pc, since the card contains a well supported Atheros 5212 chipset. In 'Ubuntu 6.06 the Madwifi drivers (that support the Atheros chip) are already installed so the card is pretty much plug and play. Enabling WEP was a breeze too. Well then let's see some pictures:

First up we have the backside of my TEW-441pc.

Here's what you get when you buy the whole thing. The design on the front of the card is a little tacky, but it's not like you ever see it. There are 2 little green LED's that light up when the card's operating. Also, if you're going to use the card on Linux, you don't need the operating manual or the drivers cd, instead head over to Madwifi, many linux distros already pre-install the drivers so you might not even have to do a thing.

Signal Strength
Okay here's where my limited technical skills start to come into play. In this test I will be using Ubuntu's Network Connection manager to test the signal strength. We will only be testing wireless B.

Test Setup:
Belkin 802.11b Wireless Router
Trendnet TEW-441pc

Distance (in Feet) :: Strength
4 ft :: 85%
10-15 ft :: 75% (through one wall)
25-30 ft :: 65% (through one wall and a refigerator)
50-60 ft :: 60% (through one door)
50-60 ft :: 55% (one floor down)
10 ft :: 80% (directly one floor below)
10 ft :: 80% (directly one floor above)

As you can see the TEW-441pc has a fairly good range, going through walls and doors. If I had a wireless G, or Super G enabled router, the results probably would have been much better.

Conclusion
The TEW-441pc is a solid wireless card with good Linux support, which is the only reason I bought it. For the price of around $30, including shipping, this thing is a great deal.