Product Review of the Sylvania SMPK4233 MP3 / Video Player

Memory: comes in 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB versions (4 GB model reviewed).

Screen: 2.4-inch TFT display, 320 x 240 Pixels

Battery: 3.7V Lithium Rechargeable Battery

Audio Formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, APP

Recording Formats: MP3, WAV

Picture Formats: JPG, GIF, BMP

Video Formats: MPEG, AVI

SMPK4233 Features

As a music player, the unit features a digital equalizer with 7 presets plus a customizable user setting. Playback options include various repeat / random / sequence modes and synchronized lyrics display (with accompanying .lrc files). Music can be selected by album, folder, genre, tags, or via up to 5 custom play lists.

The video player plays AVI movies at 320 x 240 resolution. The device includes software (for Windows) which can convert videos from most formats to AVI with the appropriate resolution for the player. The software can also capture video and pictures from a connected camera.

The picture viewer lets you preview pictures with a gallery-like interface, manually cycle through them, or display them in a slide show.

Player Controls

The main controls are similar to those of other portable media devices. There is a main square button on the front of the player, centered under the screen. Pressing the top of the button selects an option or sub-menu. Down exits to a parent or previous menu. Right or left cycles through available options. '+' and '-' buttons on the side of the device increase or decrease numeric parameters during preference or option setting, and controls the volume during playback.

Upon power-on, the user can opt to play music, play a video, display pictures, read an e-book, record audio, select Games and Tools, or settings. The settings include backlight time (defaults to 30 seconds), language, and local date and time.

The player charges via a supplied USB cable connected to a computer. It can also charge with independent AC or 12 volt chargers intended for phones and similar devices (not included).

Strengths of the SMPK4233 Media Player

The music and video playback of the device is impressive for a low-cost device. The frequency range is good, especially when the DBB feature is enabled. The video is surprisingly smooth and crisp. Battery life seems adequate - achieving at least 5 hours of continuous play between chargings. Although the unit comes with media management software, it isn't necessary for moving media files between a computer and the player. Simple Windows file copying works fine.

Weaknesses of the SMPK4233 Player

As with all devices with a non-replaceable rechargeable battery, long-term continuous dis-connected play is impossible. Once the battery is drained, it has to be recharged before the player can be used again. With players utilizing standard batteries, dead ones can simply be replaced with new or re-charged ones with little interruption in playback. Note that it is possible to use this player while it is connected to a USB charging port, but the battery won't take a charge while the player is in use.

The SMPK4233 features a "random" play mode, but not a "shuffle" mode. That means there is an equal chance for any song in the playlist to be played next, even songs that were played very recently. There doesn't seem to be a way to force it to not repeat songs while in random mode.

The e-book reader function of this device works, but only supports plain text files, not PDFs or any of the proprietary formats used by Amazon, Sony, or Google. Furthermore, word-wrap is not supported, so reading a plain text file is cumbersome because lines frequently break in the middle of a word.

An Interesting Surprise - the "Games and Tools" Menu

This media player came with a few undocumented features. 3 games are available: boxman, snake, and tetrix. These games use the volume control to move the player up and down, and the 'next/previous' controls (right and left on the square button) to move back and forth.

In addition to games, the SMPK4233 has a couple of utility programs, including a calculator, a calendar program, and a stopwatch. The calculator and stopwatch are fully functional. The only drawback to the calculator is that the visual keypad that appears on the screen has to be navigated via back-and-forth and up-and-down controls as with the games, and numerals selected. There is no direct number entry.

The calendar programs seems to be useless, because it doesn't display a day with the date, and there is no way to add events or notes associated with dates.

Recommendation for the Sylvania SMPK4233 Media Player

The great sound, crisp video, easy navigation, and low cost outweigh the few disadvantages of this device. While the text reader cannot replace a real e-book reader, it is functional and could be useful in some circumstances. The addition of the games, the calculator, and the stopwatch move this player firmly into the positive end of the spectrum. This player is a great buy.