Reader review: Sumvision MP4 player

Not too long ago, we asked you whether you Yay'd or Nay'd the Sumvision MP4 player, and it was a resounding Yay from most of you. But, several people pointed out the lack of reviews around for this particular device. Enter Kathryn. This selfless reader went out and bought herself one of these, and was lovely enough to email us her thoughts on it. And here they are, for your delectation.

Kathryn Jones writes...
This player is absolutely tiny (although admittedly I could have found that out from actually thinking about the dimensions….), prohibitively so, unfortunately. It’s very cute and shiny, but not really that useful. It’s not even big enough to rest in the palm of your hand, so you have to really grip it to hold it still to watch a video. The picture quality is really good, though, and it comes with software to transfer video files into the appropriate format (it doesn’t actually play MP4s).

The navigation system is a bit confusing, and on my player the buttons tended to skip through the whole menu, so it was a bit hit and miss as to whether you got the icon you were aiming for. The screen also distorted at the bottom when playing videos, which isn’t great. The on-off switch was also a tad temperamental, and the USB slot has a fiddly rubber cover that I can see breaking in a week. Other features, such as the e-book reader that would only be of use if you wanted to read one word at a time, and games (minesweeper only on mine), aren't really worth the price.

I’d say that it's worth the £50 you pay for it – but if you want to watch videos for any extended period I wouldn’t recommend it. Take away the video function and its quite pricey for a (not very good) MP3 player that looks like it will scratch easily and isn’t all that user friendly.

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