COBY MP-C883 MP3 Player

Full product Review

By Qwert  Jul 22, 2008 | 6 out of 6 found this COBY MP-C883 review helpful

Pros: It plays music and stores a good deal of it

Cons: Few features, freezes up sometimes, no screen, shuts off randomly

I bought this product back in December of 2007 and am reviewing it now in july of 2008. I have felt this was enough time to fully understand the products workings and such. I originally bought this product for Christmas and have used it heavily eve...r since. It came in a nice, sealed package as I would expect. Earbuds were also included, but they needed to be replaced like every set the manufacturer provides you with-it is understandable. The player will fit 200 songs EASILY and can hold large files like adoibooks and podcasts nicely. The battery life is not terrible but it is not great. If you like to use the player a lot on a high volume you may have to replace it every few days-so I recommend a cheat pair of rechargeable batteries for the thing. The price is probably the best thing about it-you can find the product on different sites for as low as 20 bucks and even lower on some other online distributors-and that is the one gig model. You can't really beat it. Also, the UMS type is nice (USB mass storage) All you do is place the device in your USB drive and drag and drop files inside the player. No cabes-no software... and it can double as a device to store photos and word documents if you ever need to store a file. On the downside, the item has periodically shut off in the middle of songs when playing even know the battery was full of juice. The device also has an odd way of turning on-you have to hold the button in for atleast 5 seconds before a red light comes on. The unit's headphone jack which is a standard 3.5mm also got a bit misfunctional about 6 months into having the unit-so I have to hold the headphones in an awkward position to hear sound. Despite those defects, the unit is remarkably sturdy. And I say this with confidence. I live down the shore and have dropped this unit while walking into two feet of water. A wave came buy and dragged it into sea a bit before i was able to pick it up. The thing was submerged for a good 15 seconds atleast. Then while drying it off outside in an attempt to revive it, I dropped it off a two story deck. It STILL WORKS. Not like new-sometimes it powers up and sometimes it does not, but the bottum line is it can take quite a beating and still play music-which surprised me as many mp3 players barely work on their own. It always starts on the "Pause" option so you need to click play every time you start it up. Minor-yes, but not the most thought out. Another thing to consider is that the fast forward option is barely useable. In fact, I have never been able to actual get it to fast forward, it seems to go 3 seconds ahead and just pause while you hold the F button. Also, when you shut the device off, it resumes at the beginning of the audio file. Coupled with the no FF option and resuming audiobooks and podcasts from where you left off is nonexistent. Bottom line: This coby player is by far a great bang for your buck. It is, quite simply, the jitterbug of mp3 players. You don't get voice recording or an OLED screen..... but you can an affordable machine that will play a lot of music. For people who don't like to watch their movies on 2 inch screens (I like mine on a nice flatscreen) or store their entire life on a portable 80gig harddrive, this makes sense. I recommend it for begginers and penny-pinchers. Read more Less