The i2go eGo is the first MP3 player that doubles as a car-based email appliance. Not only does it play your MP3s, but it also syncs to your personal email account, turns your messages into MP3 files, and lets you listen and verbally respond on the go. It sounds amazing on paper, but this novel MP3 player suffers from less than reliable performance. From the beginning, we experienced trouble with the translucent blue eGo. The MP3 player often powered down in the middle of a song or displayed an incorrect title on its bright, red scrolling display. Perhaps the most unnerving glitch was when it repeated a small section of audio, forcing us to turn the player off completely and restart.
When the player was working, the music was hiss-free, thanks to an astounding signal-to-noise ratio of 100 dB, the best we’ve heard on any MP3 player. However, the music sounded a bit tinny; separate bass and treble controls helped round it out.
When it comes to storage, the eGo gets lots of stars. Our $299 version came with a 64MB CompactFlash cartridge that holds about an hour’s worth of music. But for a financially debilitating $1, 220, you can pick up an eGo, an expansion slot that lets you load two CompactFlash cards into the player, and two 340MB IBM microdrives. With that setup, you can haul more than 11 hours’ worth of music on your next road trip. Keep in mind, however, that those costly microdrives use so much energy that the player must be plugged into a cigarette lighter or wall outlet.
The included MP3Agent software makes for quick and easy file transfers from your computer to the player’s CompactFlash cartridge via USB cable. Unfortunately, the software will not work with anything but Windows 98.
There are plenty of MP3 players out there with more modest features but that play music well.