The Nike MP3 Sport PSA220/Nike MP3 Max PSA250 digital music players were designed in a partnership between Nike and Philips. The portable MP3 players they offer here are both a great option for athletes, sports lovers or any music lover that simply wants a compact and skip-free player to take out and about with them.
The Nike MP3 Sport PSA220 offers 256MB of memory. This is enough for 8 hours of WMA and 4 hours of MP3. The Nike MP3 Max PSA250 has 512MB. This will give you 16 hours of WMA and 8 hours of MP3. The rechargeable Li-ion battery will run either player for up to 12 hours, so you won’t need to worry about them staying the course either!
It’s hard to see what you cannot do with this range of players in tow. Nike and Philips have created robust and compact machines here; jogging won’t make them jog (they have no moving parts) and they’ll work fine no matter how energetic you get! These players come with a load of extra benefits, for example, they have a built-in FM radio with 10 pre-sets, a useful dedicated stopwatch function and a strobe light design so that they will light up your exercising in the darkest of circumstances!
These sleek little players come with a back-lit LCD screen and they are real easy to set up and to control. You also get very good audio quality - you can use a 4 band graphic equalizer and Dynamic Bass Boost to customize your listening experience. The look and feel of the players is very tactile, the beauty of it is that they are also robust enough to withstand the average work-out!
These players use USB technology for rapid transfers via your computer. You’ll also get a copy of the Music Match software suite in the box which will make it easy to manage your audio files and transfers from your PC.
Standard accessories include:
- Sport Headphones
- Sport Armband and Waistbelt Remote Control Extension
- USB Cable
- CD ROM Software
- Adapter
You can also purchase accessories for the players including flight headphones. You can get a big discount on this range if you shop around. Some online stores will sell the PSA220 for under $100 and the PSA250 for around $130. It’s worth shopping around to find the lowest price.
Pros:
- Size - Size is important if you’re playing sports or exercising with music; these units are small and unobtrusive.
- Technology - There are no moving parts here so you won’t have skip problems.
- Features - In addition to the MP3 abilities of these players you also get a radio and stopwatch built in.
- "Wearability" - You can wear the players on an armband or on a waistbelt extension with remote control, so you have a lot of flexibility here.
- Dynamic Bass Boost - This audio option really does improve your listening experience, so you’ll get maximum bass without distortion at every volume.
Cons:
- Software - Some users find the supplied software hard to use, inflexible and buggy.
- Headphones - Some users have reported problems with the headphones and also with the way that they connect to the player.
- Storage - If you want to carry a lot of music round with you then these players probably won’t be big enough for you.
Usage Tips and Tricks
Earlier versions of this series were unable to support copy protected music (the stuff you might have purchased from an online downloads store). This shouldn’t be an issue here but if your player does have problems with this you can visit the product website for a firmware upgrade.You don’t need to stop listening to your music/the radio when you use the stopwatch on this player. Your timings will simply show up at the bottom of the screen.