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An MP3 player from MSI, now that was something that we didn’t expect to see any day soon. However, we were pleasantly surprised by the Mega Stick 1 as it has a lot going for it.

It comes in a very flash green and gold metallic box, so it should be easy to spot if you go shopping for one. The device itself is finished resplendently in pearl white and silver, which looks good but also makes it prone to dirty marks.

The general feel of the Mega Stick 1 is that it could have been sturdier, but the overall built quality is not terrible. The only real complaints are with the cap that covers the USB connector on the end of the unit and the battery hatch that comes off a little too easily.

The device itself is fairly straight forward and features a Play/Pause button on the front next to a small backlit LCD display. On The right hand side you’ll find an integrated microphone, a function button, a record button, a jog wheel and a volume button. On the opposite side is a single hold slide that disables the buttons.

On the top of the Mega Stick 1 are headphone and microphone sockets as well as an attachment for a carry strap. The supplied carrying strap is quite novel and features integrated headphones. This means that you only need one strap from the MP3 player which minimizes tangles. The headphones attach with a standard 3.5mm connector and are integrated with the carry strap.

The ear buds are connected towards the top end of the carrying strap and this positions them exactly where you would want them. Unfortunately the sound quality from the supplied ear buds is a little disappointing. With a normal Walkman it’s easy enough to use different headphones than the ones supplied, but with the Mega Stick 1 you’re pretty much stuck with them as they’re integrated with the strap. It’s a shame that MSI didn’t spend as much time on sound quality as it did on innovative design.

The Mega Stick 1 is pretty straightforward to use and it’s a good thing since the supplied manual is more of a quick overview than a proper instruction book. It explains the basic features, the controls and the display icons. There is however a full manual on the driver CD in PDF format that provides more detailed instructions.

The Mega Stick 1 is simple to install; you just have to pop the driver CD in your PC and install the drivers. From that point on the Mega Stick 1 os recognised as a removable drive just like a normal USB memory key.
In the event that you can’t fit the Mega Stick 1 into your USB port, MSI has supplied a USB extension cable that allows you to connect it to any USB port on your PC.

It took three minutes 12 seconds to copy 119MB of MP3 files to the Mega Stick 1. This isn’t super fast, but it’s roughly the same amount of time it would take to copy that much data to a USB memory key. The transfer rate is a limitation of the USB interface rather than the Mega Stick 1. The review sample featured 128MB and if you intend to bring any amount of music with you, there is little space left for anything else.

Pressing the play/pause button will turn the device on. To switch it off, you press and hold the play/pause button and after approximately 5 seconds the device powers down. The function key switches between the MP3 and radio functions, but it’s not very responsive at times which can be annoying. Press the jog-wheel down activates the menu. The options are Music, Voice, FM Radio, Setting, Delete File, About, Record and Exit.

The Music option takes you to the MP3 player, Voice to the recorded voice messages and FM Radio to the radio. The Settings menu contains equalizer settings, repeat options, backlight on/off (which is very bright and blue), contrast settings, auto power off, recording rate for the voice recorder and language options.

The Delete menu contains options for deleting single music or voice recorder tracks or to delete all music or voice memo files. The About menu has information about free memory and which firmware version is loaded.

And finally the Record menu takes you to the voice recorder. The voice recorder can also be accessed directly from the record button. There is an integrated microphone but also a 3.5mm port for an external microphone.

The sound quality is generally good, but as the Mega Stick 1 was one of the loudest portable audio devices we’ve ever encountered, the supplied headphones just couldn’t cope with the volume cranked all the way up. Using a set of Koss Porta Pro’s showed off what the Mega Stick 1 was capable of and it is very loud indeed.

The main advantages with modern MP3 players is their size and weight and the Mega Stick 1 is not what you’d call heavy at 40 grams with battery. One complaint however is the battery life, which isn’t great, but as you’re limited to a single AAA battery this is expected, but you’ll still get between five and six hours on a fresh battery.

Verdict

The Mega Stick 1 is a isn’t the best MP3 player you can buy but it does offer a lot of added functionality. The build quality and battery life could be improved, but it’s still a great MP3 player at a reasonable price.

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