Tries to be an iPod competitor, unsuccessfully

Author's Rating:

Pros: Some neat features, radio, nice design.

Cons: Nice design does not always make up for lackluster functionality.

The Bottom Line: 
This is not for your average user, you need to be pretty sophisticated to use this.

Author's Review
I received the Mpio HD-300 as a gift, primarily because it was not an iPod, and the hope was that it was better than the mainstream product. It, unfortunately, was not. Oh, sure, there are some great features about the product, but a number of drawbacks as well.

Pros:
* Adding files and folders to the HD-300 is a snap. The menu is based on the Windows Explorer system, and there is no additional software needed. Just drag and drop into the portable hard drive, and off you go. Edit the ID3 tags if you want the songs to show correctly on your player

* File types were plentiful. MP3 and WMA files played flawlessly. Even VBR WMA files played fine. You can even transfer CD Audio tracks uncompressed (not sure why you would want to do this, but you could). The iPod won't let you use different file types.

* Size of HD - 20GB is more than enough space for most people to contain their entire music library. There's no need to be selective even. 20GB equals about 5000 songs. Although I never had more than 4GB on the player at any one time, I knew I never needed to be selective.

* FM tuner - I liked this one, but you can't get radio on the subway, and since I already had a radio in my car, it was more of a "nice-to-have" rather than a necessity.

* Menu - The scrolling on the menu was quite interesting, and provided some novelty at first.

* Sound quality - Although I use other earphones in place of the prepackaged earphones, the sound quality was fine.

* Battery life - Seemed to be neither a pro or a con. Upgrading firmware, however, takes a LOT of battery power.

Cons:

* Menu - but I never figured out whether the two buttons on the side of the "scroll bar" were supposed to be push/click buttons, or heat-activated buttons. They didn't always react when I needed them to.

* Durability - This piece of equipment is not durable. There are NO accessories that you could readily purchase for it, and so you are left on your own to treat it as if it were an egg - gently, gently, gently, or else. I had a bad experience with gravity, which ruined my player. Basically, should you be accident prone or not, never ever ever let this thing even hit a pile of blankets, let alone anything else.

* Manufacturer - Mpio products are made in Korea, with very little US support. Their website was not impressive, and the firmware updates were slim. Although I do like the idea of firmware updates and constantly expanding the capabilities of the product, I found the entire firmware process clunky and basically miserable. I ended up calling their tech support hotline for assistance, and was assured that everything was fine, when I myself was not so sure.

* Availability - When I returned the product under the Extended Service Plan, the giant big-box electronic retailer was not able to give me what I would consider my "best buy", but for a few dollars more (make that about one hundred dollars more), I was able to purchase an iPod with service plan (although the service plan did not transfer over).

* Lockups - Always carry a paperclip around with you. I had no idea when this player was going to freeze, and it had done so a frustrating number of times.

Overall:

Generally, it's supposed to be an out-of-the-box plug-and-go type of player. The instructions weren't great, and it took a good bit of tinkering. Overall, though, I wasn't all that satisfied. True, it had a number of features that the iPod does not, but more isn't always better. There may be some potential in this line of products. Seems like they just need to take it back to the workshop. It seemed like their beta release ended up being their final product, without all the kinks worked out.

I'm not sure if this player is available through any major retailer anymore. If you're considering purchasing this from the secondary market, i.e., online auctions, etc., be careful. My recommendation would be to stay away.