The slotMusic Player, shown in Figure 4, is small and well-built. At 2.84” x 1.45" x 0.6” (72.1 x 36.8 x 15.2 mm), it is a compact little device. Although the cover (black part) is molded plastic, the rest of the device is metal. It feels sturdy and somewhat heavy in the hand. The weight and curved sides reminded us of an oversized cigarette lighter. The slotMusic Player is a very basic device. There is no internal memory. All the music is played from microSD cards.
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Figure 4: The slotMusic Player.
The controls are large, obvious and easy to use. The bottom of the player, shown in Figure 5, has a Previous/Rewind button marked with a back arrow. Pressing it allows you to skip to the previous track or you can press and hold this button to rewind. In the middle is a larger button with the play and pause icons on it. As you might expect, this allows you to play and/or pause the music. You can also press and hold this button to turn the player on or off. To the right is the third button, marked with a forward arrow. This button lets you skip to the next track or fast forward the music. Next to this button is a small LED status indicator that shows a blue light when the player is turned on or a flashing blue light when it is on hold or when powering down. The player powers down automatically after a few seconds on hold or when the ear phones are removed. This is a nice feature that adds to the battery life, which is rated at about 15 hours.
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Figure 5: The bottom of the player.
The slotPlayer runs on one AAA battery, which can be accessed by sliding off the taco-shaped plastic cover, as shown in Figure 6.
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Figure 6: Remove the plastic cover to reveal the AAA battery.
The side of the slotPlayer has the opening where you slide in the microSD card, shown in Figure 7. Like most slots of this type you simply push in the card. When you are ready to remove it, you press down on the card and it pops up.
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Figure 7: The side of the slotPlayer.
The other side of the player, shown in Figure 8, has a simple up/down volume control and a standard headphone jack. You may be using the volume controls of this device more than you hoped for since the player always starts at the middle of the volume control. We found ourselves having to turn down the volume every time we started the music. It would be nicer if the device would remember the last volume setting and start at that level.
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Figure 8: The other side of the slotPlayer.
The minimal controls make the slotPlayer very easy to use. It is the perfect player to ease someone into the world of digital music. Another plus is that because it is thicker than some of the music players that subscribe to the “thin is in” device design, the slotPlayer won’t be as easily lost in a pile of papers. And if you do lose it, you won’t cry too much because at $20, it can be more easily replaced than expensive players.
