Digital Trends

MPIO DMK 128MB

March 7th, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Introduction

Once in a while we get our hands on a product so innovative in design and function that everyone here in the office cannot wait to get their hands on it. The MPIO-DMK MP3 player is one of those products. In the past year MP3 players have been shrinking in size and growing in storage. You can now store gigs of information on an MP3 player that fits in your shirt pocket. For those of you who do not like carrying such an expensive and technical MP3 player on the go, there is an alternative. The MPIO-DMK does not have in internal hard drive, or an expansion slot, but we feel it was meant for a different audience.

Design and Features

The MPIO-DMK is a cross between a women's lipstick tube and something out of Star Trek. This mp3 player is literally the smallest we have seen to date. The MPIO-DMK measures 3.2 inches long and weighs a mere 1.1 ounces with the battery (single AAA) installed. There is a small LCD screen on the front of the player with a button that resembles an eye of sorts and functions as the power/play/pause controls. On the side of the play is a round toggle switch that functions as the skip forward/backward and next song controls. When you push the toggle button in, the display changes to show either the song name/title or song length and sample rate. Holding in the button for 1 second reveals a 3rd layer of controls where you can change the equalizer settings, change the light timing, and switch to random or repeat modes. We found the 5 band equalizer to be more than adequate with very audible differences in the various equalizer settings. All of us agreed that the “rock” and “x-bass” equalizer settings sounded best.