Creative Labs

Personal Digital Entertainment

Building on the success of the original NOMAD MP3 player, Creative is ready to launch three more MP3 digital audio devices: the NOMAD II, NOMAD II MG, and the NOMAD Jukebox. We couldn't be happier to see more personal MP3 devices ready hit the market. In fact, MP3 related electronics had a respectable showing on the exhibit floor. Yes, the majority of MP3 exhibitors were smaller, unknown companies, but several established manufacturers such as Sony, Panasonic, and Pioneer also had their own "solid-state" digital audio devices on display.

NOMAD II

Creative has improved on the original NOMAD and is now ready to introduce the NOMAD II to the market. The built-in FM tuner and voice recording capabilities of the original NOMAD are still present in the NOMAD II.

The NOMAD II also features a USB connection for faster data transfers, and you'll be able to connect the NOMAD II to your PC without having to reboot your system. A back-lit LCD display, and wired remote control round out the rest of the physical features. There is also an optional docking station that will allow users to easily connect the NOMAD II to the PC and recharge batteries along with adding an infra remote control and a stereo output.

The NOMAD II comes with a single 64MB SSFDC (Solid State Floppy Disk Card) compliant flash memory card that allows users to exchange memory cards with other flash memory devices such as digital cameras without having to reformat the card for each device. The NOMAD II only has one memory slot, which will make upgrading the memory complicated -you won't be able to just "add" another memory card to increase storage capacity. The NOMAD II will likely retail between $300 and $400.

NOMAD II

Wired Remote

The Specs:

Size: 65x93x21mm
Weight: 88g w/o battery
Memory Type: 1 x SmartMedia™ slot
Maximum Memory: 64MB SmartMedia card (also supports 32MB card)
Interface: USB (using standard USB cable or via optional docking station)
LCD Display: 132x64 bitmapped back-lit
Standard Playback Usage: 1 x AA Alkaline 8-10 hours for MP3/voice playback
Signal to Noise Ratio: 95dB
Frequency Response: 20Hz-20kHz
Maximum Output: 5-7 mW
Harmonic Distortion Output: 0.05% @ 1kHz with 32ohm load
DSP: 4 presets and 1 user setting: bass and treble control
Audio Codec Support: MP3 and future formats, WMA
Firmware: Flash based, upgradable
SDMI Compliance: Hardware ready
FM: 87.5 to 108MHz
Voice Recording: G721 ADPCM encoding at 32kbps. Up to 4 hours on 64MB.

Notes

Creative likes to claim that the NOMAD II is "future-proof" because users will be able to flash the firmware and add future codecs as needed, but we feel that the 64MB memory capacity will likely make the NOMAD II obsolete long before the MP3 format dies. Nevertheless, the NOMAD II still looks promising, but the NOMAD II MG looks even better, both literally and figuratively.