Review of the Emerson Music Stick

For $18.00 the Emerson Music Stick is an absolute steal. Use it as an MP3 player to play back your favorite audio formats or as a 1 gigabyte thumb drive to store music, pictures, documents and video files. It even includes conversion software that will convert unsupported file formats to MP3 during file transfer.

Features include MP3 and WMA playback, a backlit display, a voice recorder supporting up to 22000Hz, an equalizer with pop, rock, classical, jazz and bass settings, four play modes including repeat and shuffle play, advanced power settings and onboard folder management.

The Case

At first glance the case seems a little flimsy, but it's stronger than it looks. I carry mine in my jacket pocket where it scrapes against loose change, pocket knives and cell phones and it's still in excellent condition.

The only problem that I've run into so far is with the battery cover on the back of the unit. The end cap that protects the USB hub also helps to hold the battery cover in place. So while the USB cover is off the battery cover tends to fall off as well. You won't have this problem during normal operation. Just make sure the USB end cap is secure in place when you're not loading up the unit.

Ear Buds

I didn't like the ear buds that came with the unit so I replaced them with my own. The problem was that they just didn't fit snugly inside my ears. Instead they just kind of hung there on the inside of my ear lobes and kept falling out every time I moved my head. Thankfully I had another set that fit my ears better and worked perfectly with the unit. Strangely enough, they even sounded better than the original ear buds.

Battery Power

The unit runs off of one AAA battery. A battery indicator in the top right hand corner of the screen tells you when the battery is low. So far I have been able to get about six days of continuous use out of my unit before I have to change batteries. The voice recorder will suck more juice out of the battery, but normal playback mode doesn't seem to use much at all. The unit features an advanced menu that allows you to change the power settings to help conserve as much battery power as possible. So, if you're a heavy music listener like me, learn to use them.

Conclusion

I love this MP3 player. It's sturdy, lightweight and priced right. In the future I would love to see Emerson include an am/fm radio on the unit, but other than that the thing is amazing. Overall, I give the Emerson Music Stick a seven out of ten.