Review: Creative MuVo T100

First, let me explain why I like to buy small, cheap DAPs like they're going out of style.....which they are. These things get thrown around with the rest of my daily possessions like my keys, wallet, and mobile phone so I put them to work pretty hard. If one breaks, it's no big deal as they're fairly inexpensive and I don't get attached to them at all. I've used a few different usb-stick form factor DAPs in the last few years and the MuVo T100 is the best to date.

The form factor and design of the T100 are really nice despite a few flaws that are easy to get over. The player is very solid feeling despite its tiny footprint. The plastic is extremely scratch resistant and the little thing is durable - I've dropped it several times on the pavement with little to no scratching and no damage to the function. The player is light and the usb cap snaps into place firmly and easily (it's never once come off by accident). There are only a few buttons. The front of the player is mapped exactly like the first generation iPod Shuffle (play, pause, volume up/down, and track forward/backward). The right side has a "Bass Boost" button that has three settings, all of which I find similar and somewhat useless on a player like this. The left side has a toggle switch that will put the player in shuffle mode or cycle through folders stored on the player. The folder cycling can actually be extremely useful if you simply drag and drop several folders of music into memory provided that your music collection is nicely organized on your computer to begin with.

The T100 has 2GB of memory and it doubles as a flash drive so you can store all sorts of files it. Compatible audio formats (MP3 / WMA / WAV / Audible) are simply found by the device and played back despite their folder location. At 2GB, it holds around 500 songs. The player charges quickly over usb and battery life is pretty good rated at around 10 hours, which I've found to be pretty close to actual usage. No software is required to use the T100 as it just works drag and drop style like a flash drive. I find the attached usb interface extremely useful as I can load podcasts on the fly from any computer as they are published through the day as well as charge the player without having to remember a cable or dongle.

A few gripes include some bugs that occur after using the player with a Mac and some buttons that could have been designed better. Deleted files still play back until a format after interfacing with a Mac and the set of buttons on the face of the T100 are too flat and occasionally invite undesired button pushes. One nice feature of the player is that it remembers stop points of audio tracks really, really well. Even after loading more data into memory or deleting data, the player will retain a memory of where it left off.

For $39 the durability and versatility of the T100 are hard to beat for a small, light player to compliment workouts or abusive, daily use.