Digital Trends

MSI MEGA Player 515

May 26th, 2004 | by Ian Bell

Features

As we mentioned in the introduction, there are several features unique to this product that need to be pointed out. The first feature is the OLED display. For those of you unfamiliar with this technology, OLED was designed initially to be used primarily in displays such as a computer monitor, cell phone or in this case an MP3 player. There are a number of definitions and terms for this technology, but the most common are “Organic Light Emitting Device” or “Organic Light Emitting Diode”. OLED displays can be created using two different methods. One way is make it using small molecule weight organic materials and the other by using polymer-based materials. The difference between an OLED display and an LCD display is that the OLED display offers bright, colorful images with a wider viewing angle and lower power consumption than an LCD display. But the biggest difference between the two technologies is that an OLED display does not need a backlight like LCD based displays. This gives the image being displayed deeper and more tone rich colors, including a truer black. OLED technology is still in its infancy which is why we are surprised to see it being used in an MP3 player manufactured by a company that specializes in computer hardware.

The second feature that stands out with the MSI Mega Player 515 lineup is the integrated lithium-ion battery. Power sources of this type for flash based MP3 players are usually unheard of because of the costs associated with them. Lithium-ion batteries can be found in digital cameras, cell phones and other high-end consumer electronic devices. The main advantage of a lithium-ion battery is that they can be charged quickly and does not have a memory build up like you would find on ni-cad based batteries. So to find one of these batteries used in the MSI Mega Player 515 is pretty exiting since you do not need to constantly replace the player's batteries.

MSI brands the Mega Player 515 as a multi-function drive because it can be used in a number of ways. First and foremost the Mega Player 515 is a digital audio player capable of reading both MP3 and WAV audio files. It also doubles as a removable hard drive allowing you to transfer files to and from the player using the included USB cable. MSI also added FM tuner and voice recording capabilities to the Mega Player 515 making it a true multi-function device.

Packaged with the Mega Player 515 is a set of wrap-around style headphones, a carrying case and manuals both located on the software installation CD and in the form of a quick guide mini-poster. Overall the Mega Player 515 package seems to have everything covered.