Product Review: USB Chocolate MP3 Player from Brando

For those of us who can't afford the latest iPod, but you want something inexpensive that just plays MP3 music files, there are several options. You could go with the iPod Shuffle or Creative Zen Stone, or you could just you might want to opt for something like the Chocolate.

Clearly, there is no accounting for originality for naming in the electronics industry, for Chocolate is also the name of a certain music playing phone from LG. I suppose you can't trademark something that is just so sinfully sweet, but you can use the association to sell electronic products.

Anyway, Chocolate is made by Brando, a Hong Kong company who makes and ships many electronic products from their website. When it arrived, I was actually surprised with how much goods came with the product. The Digital Player came well packaged with the player, earphones, USB to mini-USB cord, wrist strap, and an AC adaptor.

The instructions were written in both Chinese and English, and they were not complex as I thought that they would be. Then again, who wants really complex instructions? Charging was the first step, and I wasn't able to listen to it while it charged, but that was no real big. After all, it didn't take long to charge using the USB or AC adaptor. I suppose that this would be as good as a time as any to give kudos to the one who made the AC adapter with retractable prongs.

Oddly enough, it already came with some tunes. Both of them were some techno music, and only one was in English. Another kudos to whoever wrote the techno hit "Walking In The Sun" that I will keep on this Chocolate forever.

Unfortunately, the Chocolate was not very compatible with iTunes, but Windows Media Player is a wonderful little adaptor, and adding and removing my tunes was not much of a problem.

The Player itself was pretty neat as it had four multi-colored LEDs that flashed like some old school Star Trek tech. My only question was the symbols on the four front buttons. The chocolate has a button with a man facing right which equals forward and the man facing left equals backward. That almost makes sense, and I was down with that. However, there is a chicken on the top button which means volume up, and a dog for volume down. I am not at all sure why those two symbols would signify volume. Especially when the chicken has an obscenely long neck and the dog looks like its lifting its leg. Clearly, something is getting lost in translation.

Still, $39 USD is a pretty good price for a 2GB MP3 Player. If you want it, get it on Brando's website now.