NOMAD II MG

Magnesium

While the NOMAD II looks to be a very solid product, it lacks the slick, professional look of the original NOMAD. Part of the success of the original NOMAD can be credited to its stylish appearance. The NOMAD II doesn't stand apart appearance-wise from all the other MP3 players we've seen on the CES exhibition floor. Fortunately, Creative has the NOMAD II MG for those of us who value ascetics in addition to functionality.

The NOMAD II MG features a sleek magnesium case similar to the casing of the original NOMAD. The unit has a completely smooth face with only a small circular, back-lit LCD display, and unit controls are located on the sides of the case.

NOMAD II MG next to a business card

MG from the back

The Features

In addition to the compact magnesium case, the NOMAD II MG offers the same features as the NOMAD II along with a couple of extras. The MG offers time-scaling for better control of voice playback. The unit also features 64MB of memory onboard, along with an additional SmartMedia memory slot -you can buy a 64MB SmartMedia card to increase storage capacity to 128MB.

The MG comes bundled with the docking station for PC connectivity and battery recharging. Instead of a single AA battery, the MG uses two AAA batteries. The MG will be available in Spring 2000 and will likely carry a retail price between $400 and $500.

MG in the docking station

MG next to the docking station

The SmartMedia goes here

Specs:

Size: 58x90x18mm
Memory:
- 64MB built-in
- removable memory: 1 x SmartMedia slot
Interface: USB
LCD Display: 85x51 EL back-lit
Standard Playback Usage: 2 x AAA NiMH battery 8 - 10 hours for MP3/voice playback

What? You want more than 128MB? You might want to take a look at the NOMAD Jukebox…