Dell Pocket DJ (5 GB) MP3 Player
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- Number of Songs: 1200
- Usage: Music
- Interface: USB 2.0
- Screen Size: 1.62 inch
- Main Storage Type: Hard Drive
- Storage Capacity: 5 GB
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The Pocket DJ - Did Dell set the standard for entry-level mini-hard disk mp3 players?
Pros
Great size, sound quality, intuitive
Cons
No manual included (for me anyways), usb charging is flaky, no "extras"
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
An excellent MP3 player, great form factor, sound quality, ease of use. The additional features available for $50 more in the Zen Micro are worth considering, though.
The Dell Pocket DJ is Dell's recently released "almost in time for the holiday season" 5gb micro sized mp3 player, competing directly with the mini iPod, Rio Carbon, Zen Micro and a few others. I had recently purchased a Creative Labs Zen Micro for myself and was quite pleased with that model. When I starting looking around for a less expensive, less complicated model to give to a relative, I quickly narrowed my choices to the Pocket DJ, given its price ($180 during a recent 10% off sale), obvious Creative Labs heritage, and my success in buying previous products badged with the Dell name. Unlike the Zen Micro, the Pocket DJ is just an MP3 player, no FM tuner, no Voice recorder, etc. Key features and spec's for the Pocket DJ include
5GB hard disk
Nominal 10 hour battery life
USB hard drive option
MP3, WMA, and Wav support
Attractive design and intuitive user interface
Support for DRM protected WMA files (from Napster, Walmart and other pay music download services), including support for the monthly "all you can listen to" subscriptions from Yahoo! Music and Napster.
Dell DJ Explorer add on allows "drag and drop" file transfers using Windows Explorer.
USB 2 interface (I guess this is a given now…)
Up to 94 db s/n ratio
Headphones: 24hz to 20khz
Note that the micro drive mp3 players today are nearly as expensive as many of the 20gb or larger models. For just a few $ less you get only 4 or 5gb of storage space, equating to 1000-2000 tunes, which is enough for a lot of users, but not all. But, as a tradeoff, you get a player that is about half the size of the 20gb or larger models with all the other functionality intact.
Setup
In the box is the Dell Pocket DJ, power adapter, ear buds, usb cable, quick start guide, and product information guide (which is about 30 pages covering the warranty, software licensing, and safety guidelines).
Setup and installation is straightforward. Dell recommends you initially charge the player for 2.5 hours using the USB cable, but I used the included A/C adapter for the initial charge of the Pocket DJ. The on/off button on top of the Pocket DJ is back lit in blue, and this slowly turns on and off during the charging cycle. The battery status indicator in the upper left corner of the lcd display also cycles from empty to full during the charging cycle.
Before you plug the Pocket DJ into your PC to transfer tunes, the software should be installed. This includes the following...
- Dell DJ Explorer (a windows explorer plugin)
- Dell DJ/Pocket DJ Drivers
- MusicMatch Jukebox (the free Dell "light" version")
- Acrobat 5.0 Reader (and not v.6!???)
Dell DJ Explorer adds the Pocket DJ to the list of devices in Windows Explorer, as if it were another drive. The Pocket DJ has two "subdirectories", one for music and one for data. Once this is installed, you can drag and drop music or data files to the Pocket DJ nearly like it was another hard drive. Acrobat is version 5 of Adobe's free PDF reader. I was disappointed to see that the latest version, 6, as not included, not did the installer detect that I had a later version already installed on my PC. MusicMatch can be used create playlists, play cds, and rip tunes from cd's and convert them to mp3's. The limited version included here will only rip from your cd drive at a max speed of 5X, rather than at the max speed of your cd rom drive, meaning it will take 8-10 minutes to rip a cd's worth of music rather than 3 minutes or so. As a bonus, a popup window advertising the "plus" version of MusicMatch pop's up each time you rip a cd.
For $20, you can upgrade to MusicMatch Plus which allows high speed burning and ripping, Super tag, label printing, and the ability to record audio from your sound card's line in port and convert those recordings to MP3's. But, I was quite disappointed to see that Dell only included a functional, but limited version of MusicMatch to support the cd ripping and mp3 encoding required to convert cd's to mp3 format for this $200 mp3 player.
Listening to the Pocket DJ..
The included earbuds are average, perhaps the leading edge of average, approximating the $10-$15 models you'll find in stores. They black and silver earbuds themselves are slightly smaller than the earbuds included with the Zen Micro, and don't fit quite as tightly into my ears. Like most well made earbuds, there is additional metal and plastic supports on the earbuds, allowing you to pick them up and place them in your ears without grabbing the fragile cord. The jack which plugs into the Pocket DJ is a right angle version, also with additional support to lengthen the life of the earbuds.
I tried switching back and forth between three sets of headphones, those included with the Pocket DJ and the Zen Micro, as well as a pair of Koss KSC 35's. The Pocket DJ headphones rank last on this list. With the same volume setting, the earbuds included with the Pocket DJ are not as loud compared to the others. This is partly due to the fact that they do not fit as well, but I think part of it is they are just not as efficient. The Zen Micro's earbuds sound better also, a bit more bass, and the sound is cleaner and fuller across the spectrum, it seems to me. Not a lot of difference, and I think most users will find these earbuds acceptable for day to day use, but they're not a real strong point.
Just like the volume control on the Zen Micro, the Pocket DJ's volume can be adjusted from 0 to 25. The Pocket DJ's max volume is louder than most flash based mp3 players I've tried, but it doesn't get quite as loud as the Zen Micro (close, though). Settings of about 8-18 are comfortable for listening in quiet rooms and offices. Settings of 20-23 are loud, and 25 is uncomfortably loud in a quiet room, and is loud enough to hear over a running lawn mower or other noisy environments. The lowest volume that works for me in quiet rooms is about 6.
Like the Zen Micro and most every MP3 player I've listened to lately, I'd rate the sound quality as excellent, even at maximum volume. The Pocket DJ offers 8 equalization options (classical, disco, jazz, new age, rock, pop, vocal, acoustic), as well as a custom 4 band equalizer to adjust the sound to your taste. The equalizer does make a real difference in the sound quality, and is an appreciated feature.
Controls, User Interface, and Appearances.
The Pocket DJ software and on screen user interface is almost an exact duplicate of what's found on the Zen Micro. The button layout is different though, with a more convential layout lacking the "hi tech" multifunctional touchpad on the Zen Micro, which some might not like. The Pocket DJ user interface is very "usable" and the interface and button layout is intuitive.
The Pocket DJ is almost identical in size to the very slightly larger mini iPod, both of which are thinner than the feature rich Zen Micro:
Pocket DJ: 3.5" x 2.1" x 0.5", 4.4 ounces
Zen Micro: 2" x 3.3" x 0.7", 3.8 ounces
Mini iPod: 3.6" x 2" x 0.5", 3.6 ounces
The Pocket DJ is the color of stainless steel, with black trim and rounded edges. It fits easily into one hand, and the buttons are easy to access with one hand (except for the lock switch) The screen backlighting is blue, which I think makes the Pocket DJ a bit less easy to read than black text on a white background.
On top of the player are the headphone and usb ports, the on off button, and the increase and decrease volume buttons. A 1" X 1.25" LCD (160 x 104 resolution) occupies the top half of the front of the player, and is reasonably easy to read. The contrast is adjustable in 10 increments, to improve readability. There is a roller (barrel) style switch just below the screen to scroll though lists and menus. This roller moves in discrete steps, making it easy to step through items one a time, but a slow when scrolling down a long list. To the right of the roller is the "home" button, which takes you to the home menu, while to the left is the "back" button, which backs you up one step in the tiered menu system.
On the bottom of the front are three larger buttons, Play/pause, forward, and reverse. Pushing forward or reverse once takes you to the next or previous tune. Pressing and holding these buttons fast forwards or reverses silently within a tune.
On the back of the Pocket DJ is a recessed locking switch. You'll want to set this when you place the Pocket DJ in your pocket to ensure no buttons are accidentally pressed while you're listening. Though some early previews of the Pocket DJ mentioned problems with this switch, it has worked perfectly for me.
The software built into the Pocket DJ is reasonably intuitive and covers most of the features you need for everyday listening.. Play modes include:
-Normal, plays all tunes once in sequential order
-Repeat all, same as normal, but never stops
-Shuffle, randomly plays selected tracks once
-Shuffle repeat, randomly plays selected tracks repeatedly
-Track once
You can also tell the Pocket DJ to play all by an Artist, all by genre, a single album, or a playlists. Playlists can be created with MusicMatch or on the PocketDJ itself, though it's a little tedious.
Some of the advanced features you might like to see, but that are missing include "play most popular", "play least played", etc.
Downloading to the player
When I first started using this player, I immediately transferred about a dozen audio cd's that I had ripped to my hard drive, over to the Pocket DJ. I used the Dell DJ explorer option to do this. Once you install the Dell Pocket DJ software, the Pocket DJ shows up as device in Windows Explorer. I selected the previously ripped and encoded cd's one at a time and "drag and dropped" the music files onto the Pocket DJ device. Transfer rates were pretty fast, about 2.5 mb per second. I was able to transfer a cd's worth of music, 51mb, in just over 20 seconds. If your PC only has USB 1.1 ports, I'd expect transfer rates at 30-50% of this speed.
You can also use the MusicMatch software to rip cd's and transfer to the Pocket DJ. Ripping speeds are capped at 5X in this limited version of MusicMatch (about 7-10 minutes per cd). If you upgrade to the plus version, ripping times would be reduced to about 3 minutes per cd if you have a high speed (recent model) cd drive that supports digital audio extraction (almost all do now) Transfers from your PC to the Pocket DJ proceed normally using Music Match.
Using the Micro as an External USB drive (sort of)
The Pocket DJ can be used as a "usb drive" only on systems where the Pocket DJ drivers have been installed. Data files are kept in a separate area, in a "data folder". Files in this folder, even music, can't be seen by the Pocked DJ, and are accessed with the DJ explorer software. Though the drivers can be downloaded for free and installed on any PC, this really cuts down on how often you'll be able to use this mp3 player as a USB drive.
Large files can be written and read at fairly fast rates. I was able to transfer a 430mb video file to the Pocket DJ in 72 seconds, almost 6mb per second. I transferred the same file back to my PC in 71 seconds. I also copied 44 files averaging about 5mb (211mb) each to the data folder, which required 68 seconds, for a write speed of 3mb per second. These files were copied back to my PC in less an 50 seconds, for a read speed of just over 4 mb/second, pretty good. Read and write speeds for small files was much lower, as is common with usb drives, typically about 3 mb per min (not seconds) for files averaging 20-30kb.
Battery Life
The Pocket DJ comes with a power block charger that will provide a full charge to the DJ in about 3 hours, and works consistently well. The blue LED cycles on and off until charging is complete, after which it turns off. Dell also says you can charge with the USB cable, though Dell recommends using the USB cable to charge the Pocket DJ only when the battery level is 25% or more. Though our Pocket DJ connects to the PC ok, as far as downloading tunes goes, charging doesn't always appear to work correctly when the power level is low, so it looks like the warning is valid, if you run the battery completely down, and then try to charge using the USB cable, it doesn't work. In these situations, it looks like the battery is charging, based on the flashing blue on/off button and cycling battery indicator on the screen, but even after several hours, when you check the battery level, it still says zero. If the batter is 100% discharged, you must use the a/c adapter to recharge the Pocket DJ.
I've run a couple of battery life tests in the first week of ownership. With the volume set on 10, with the equalizer turned off, and with the player set to "shuffle" play the 128kbs mp3 files on my mp3 player, I got 8 hours and 50 minutes, and 8 hours and 40 minutes in two tests.
Interestingly, out of the box, the battery life indicator does not seem to predict battery usage very well. The battery indicator is a small battery shaped icon that sets in the upper corner of the Pocket DJ's screen. The indicator goes from 0-3 bars, with 3 bars indicating a full charge. After about 3.5-4 hours the battery status indicator is down to 1 bar, initially giving me serious concerns about the battery life of this player. Around 5 hours it went down to 0 bars, indicating imminent shutdown, I would have guessed. But after the indicator dropped to zero, I still got over 3 more hours of play time. Hopefully the battery indicatator will become better "calibrated" after a few cycles.
My battery tests give an indication of battery life at optimum conditions. In normal use, with more searching for songs, playing louder in noisy locations, using the equalizer, etc, I'd expect battery life to be 6-8 hours.
The Dell site offers a few tips to maximize battery life and longevity. One key point to note is that if you store your Pocket DJ in the car or other hot location in the summer, battery life (playing time after recharging) and longevity (how long till you replace the battery) will both be affected. Dells tips on battery usage include:
- Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.)
- Short battery life (…in laptops and other portable battery powered devices) is mainly caused by heat rather than charge/discharge patterns
- Although memory-free, apply a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges to calibrate batteries with fuel gauge. Running down the battery in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate. The battery life will not be affected
- Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level
- Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing date. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices
- The battery can be charged using the USB connection. In order to charge the battery using the USB connection the battery must have at least a 25% charge.
The Pocket DJ battery is not user replaceable, at least nominally, and you'll need to send it back to Dell for replacement. The warranty should cover the battery for the first year. Third party sites sell replacement batteries for older models of the Dell DJ, along with instructions for taking apart the case and replacing the battery. I expect third party options to be available for the new Pocket DJ in a few months.
Support and Documentation
I was a little disappointed with the lack documentation. I didn't get a user guide with my Pocket DJ, though I eventually found a pretty good one (PDF) on the Dell website. The quickstart guide does a good job of getting you going, but there was basically no other hard copy documentation, and the software help files were only somewhat better. I wish the PDF manual had been included on my cd, or better yet, a hard copy of the manual.
I've have very good luck with Dell support in the past. (When a Dell monitor I owned started to fail, it was replaced quickly, and Dell paid to ship the old one back). The user forums on the Dell site are very active, and are a good source of information. Dell also offers downloads on their website(such as the missing manual). The Pocket DJ comes with a 1 year warranty.
Points to Remember
1. The Pocket DJ supports mp3, wma (w/drm licensing), and wav files. Supports subscription based content, like that from the Yahoo! Music subscription service.
2. Real world battery life is 6-8 hours. Uses a replaceable lithium ion rechargeable battery.
3. Windows compatible only
4. Other than the necessary cables and earbuds, no accessories are includes.
5. The earbuds are ok, could be better.
6. The Pocket DJ can be used as a USB drive on PC's where the free Dell Pocket DJ drivers have been installed. Data is stored in a separate folder. You can't play music files from this folder.
7. Sound quality and volume are excellent.
8. Once the Dell software has been installed on a PC, you can "drag and drop" music files from the PC to the Pocket DJ without using any other software. The included MusicMatch software is a "lite version". Ripping and burning speeds have been capped at 5X.
5GB hard disk
Nominal 10 hour battery life
USB hard drive option
MP3, WMA, and Wav support
Attractive design and intuitive user interface
Support for DRM protected WMA files (from Napster, Walmart and other pay music download services), including support for the monthly "all you can listen to" subscriptions from Yahoo! Music and Napster.
Dell DJ Explorer add on allows "drag and drop" file transfers using Windows Explorer.
USB 2 interface (I guess this is a given now…)
Up to 94 db s/n ratio
Headphones: 24hz to 20khz
Note that the micro drive mp3 players today are nearly as expensive as many of the 20gb or larger models. For just a few $ less you get only 4 or 5gb of storage space, equating to 1000-2000 tunes, which is enough for a lot of users, but not all. But, as a tradeoff, you get a player that is about half the size of the 20gb or larger models with all the other functionality intact.
Setup
In the box is the Dell Pocket DJ, power adapter, ear buds, usb cable, quick start guide, and product information guide (which is about 30 pages covering the warranty, software licensing, and safety guidelines).
Setup and installation is straightforward. Dell recommends you initially charge the player for 2.5 hours using the USB cable, but I used the included A/C adapter for the initial charge of the Pocket DJ. The on/off button on top of the Pocket DJ is back lit in blue, and this slowly turns on and off during the charging cycle. The battery status indicator in the upper left corner of the lcd display also cycles from empty to full during the charging cycle.
Before you plug the Pocket DJ into your PC to transfer tunes, the software should be installed. This includes the following...
- Dell DJ Explorer (a windows explorer plugin)
- Dell DJ/Pocket DJ Drivers
- MusicMatch Jukebox (the free Dell "light" version")
- Acrobat 5.0 Reader (and not v.6!???)
Dell DJ Explorer adds the Pocket DJ to the list of devices in Windows Explorer, as if it were another drive. The Pocket DJ has two "subdirectories", one for music and one for data. Once this is installed, you can drag and drop music or data files to the Pocket DJ nearly like it was another hard drive. Acrobat is version 5 of Adobe's free PDF reader. I was disappointed to see that the latest version, 6, as not included, not did the installer detect that I had a later version already installed on my PC. MusicMatch can be used create playlists, play cds, and rip tunes from cd's and convert them to mp3's. The limited version included here will only rip from your cd drive at a max speed of 5X, rather than at the max speed of your cd rom drive, meaning it will take 8-10 minutes to rip a cd's worth of music rather than 3 minutes or so. As a bonus, a popup window advertising the "plus" version of MusicMatch pop's up each time you rip a cd.
For $20, you can upgrade to MusicMatch Plus which allows high speed burning and ripping, Super tag, label printing, and the ability to record audio from your sound card's line in port and convert those recordings to MP3's. But, I was quite disappointed to see that Dell only included a functional, but limited version of MusicMatch to support the cd ripping and mp3 encoding required to convert cd's to mp3 format for this $200 mp3 player.
Listening to the Pocket DJ..
The included earbuds are average, perhaps the leading edge of average, approximating the $10-$15 models you'll find in stores. They black and silver earbuds themselves are slightly smaller than the earbuds included with the Zen Micro, and don't fit quite as tightly into my ears. Like most well made earbuds, there is additional metal and plastic supports on the earbuds, allowing you to pick them up and place them in your ears without grabbing the fragile cord. The jack which plugs into the Pocket DJ is a right angle version, also with additional support to lengthen the life of the earbuds.
I tried switching back and forth between three sets of headphones, those included with the Pocket DJ and the Zen Micro, as well as a pair of Koss KSC 35's. The Pocket DJ headphones rank last on this list. With the same volume setting, the earbuds included with the Pocket DJ are not as loud compared to the others. This is partly due to the fact that they do not fit as well, but I think part of it is they are just not as efficient. The Zen Micro's earbuds sound better also, a bit more bass, and the sound is cleaner and fuller across the spectrum, it seems to me. Not a lot of difference, and I think most users will find these earbuds acceptable for day to day use, but they're not a real strong point.
Just like the volume control on the Zen Micro, the Pocket DJ's volume can be adjusted from 0 to 25. The Pocket DJ's max volume is louder than most flash based mp3 players I've tried, but it doesn't get quite as loud as the Zen Micro (close, though). Settings of about 8-18 are comfortable for listening in quiet rooms and offices. Settings of 20-23 are loud, and 25 is uncomfortably loud in a quiet room, and is loud enough to hear over a running lawn mower or other noisy environments. The lowest volume that works for me in quiet rooms is about 6.
Like the Zen Micro and most every MP3 player I've listened to lately, I'd rate the sound quality as excellent, even at maximum volume. The Pocket DJ offers 8 equalization options (classical, disco, jazz, new age, rock, pop, vocal, acoustic), as well as a custom 4 band equalizer to adjust the sound to your taste. The equalizer does make a real difference in the sound quality, and is an appreciated feature.
Controls, User Interface, and Appearances.
The Pocket DJ software and on screen user interface is almost an exact duplicate of what's found on the Zen Micro. The button layout is different though, with a more convential layout lacking the "hi tech" multifunctional touchpad on the Zen Micro, which some might not like. The Pocket DJ user interface is very "usable" and the interface and button layout is intuitive.
The Pocket DJ is almost identical in size to the very slightly larger mini iPod, both of which are thinner than the feature rich Zen Micro:
Pocket DJ: 3.5" x 2.1" x 0.5", 4.4 ounces
Zen Micro: 2" x 3.3" x 0.7", 3.8 ounces
Mini iPod: 3.6" x 2" x 0.5", 3.6 ounces
The Pocket DJ is the color of stainless steel, with black trim and rounded edges. It fits easily into one hand, and the buttons are easy to access with one hand (except for the lock switch) The screen backlighting is blue, which I think makes the Pocket DJ a bit less easy to read than black text on a white background.
On top of the player are the headphone and usb ports, the on off button, and the increase and decrease volume buttons. A 1" X 1.25" LCD (160 x 104 resolution) occupies the top half of the front of the player, and is reasonably easy to read. The contrast is adjustable in 10 increments, to improve readability. There is a roller (barrel) style switch just below the screen to scroll though lists and menus. This roller moves in discrete steps, making it easy to step through items one a time, but a slow when scrolling down a long list. To the right of the roller is the "home" button, which takes you to the home menu, while to the left is the "back" button, which backs you up one step in the tiered menu system.
On the bottom of the front are three larger buttons, Play/pause, forward, and reverse. Pushing forward or reverse once takes you to the next or previous tune. Pressing and holding these buttons fast forwards or reverses silently within a tune.
On the back of the Pocket DJ is a recessed locking switch. You'll want to set this when you place the Pocket DJ in your pocket to ensure no buttons are accidentally pressed while you're listening. Though some early previews of the Pocket DJ mentioned problems with this switch, it has worked perfectly for me.
The software built into the Pocket DJ is reasonably intuitive and covers most of the features you need for everyday listening.. Play modes include:
-Normal, plays all tunes once in sequential order
-Repeat all, same as normal, but never stops
-Shuffle, randomly plays selected tracks once
-Shuffle repeat, randomly plays selected tracks repeatedly
-Track once
You can also tell the Pocket DJ to play all by an Artist, all by genre, a single album, or a playlists. Playlists can be created with MusicMatch or on the PocketDJ itself, though it's a little tedious.
Some of the advanced features you might like to see, but that are missing include "play most popular", "play least played", etc.
Downloading to the player
When I first started using this player, I immediately transferred about a dozen audio cd's that I had ripped to my hard drive, over to the Pocket DJ. I used the Dell DJ explorer option to do this. Once you install the Dell Pocket DJ software, the Pocket DJ shows up as device in Windows Explorer. I selected the previously ripped and encoded cd's one at a time and "drag and dropped" the music files onto the Pocket DJ device. Transfer rates were pretty fast, about 2.5 mb per second. I was able to transfer a cd's worth of music, 51mb, in just over 20 seconds. If your PC only has USB 1.1 ports, I'd expect transfer rates at 30-50% of this speed.
You can also use the MusicMatch software to rip cd's and transfer to the Pocket DJ. Ripping speeds are capped at 5X in this limited version of MusicMatch (about 7-10 minutes per cd). If you upgrade to the plus version, ripping times would be reduced to about 3 minutes per cd if you have a high speed (recent model) cd drive that supports digital audio extraction (almost all do now) Transfers from your PC to the Pocket DJ proceed normally using Music Match.
Using the Micro as an External USB drive (sort of)
The Pocket DJ can be used as a "usb drive" only on systems where the Pocket DJ drivers have been installed. Data files are kept in a separate area, in a "data folder". Files in this folder, even music, can't be seen by the Pocked DJ, and are accessed with the DJ explorer software. Though the drivers can be downloaded for free and installed on any PC, this really cuts down on how often you'll be able to use this mp3 player as a USB drive.
Large files can be written and read at fairly fast rates. I was able to transfer a 430mb video file to the Pocket DJ in 72 seconds, almost 6mb per second. I transferred the same file back to my PC in 71 seconds. I also copied 44 files averaging about 5mb (211mb) each to the data folder, which required 68 seconds, for a write speed of 3mb per second. These files were copied back to my PC in less an 50 seconds, for a read speed of just over 4 mb/second, pretty good. Read and write speeds for small files was much lower, as is common with usb drives, typically about 3 mb per min (not seconds) for files averaging 20-30kb.
Battery Life
The Pocket DJ comes with a power block charger that will provide a full charge to the DJ in about 3 hours, and works consistently well. The blue LED cycles on and off until charging is complete, after which it turns off. Dell also says you can charge with the USB cable, though Dell recommends using the USB cable to charge the Pocket DJ only when the battery level is 25% or more. Though our Pocket DJ connects to the PC ok, as far as downloading tunes goes, charging doesn't always appear to work correctly when the power level is low, so it looks like the warning is valid, if you run the battery completely down, and then try to charge using the USB cable, it doesn't work. In these situations, it looks like the battery is charging, based on the flashing blue on/off button and cycling battery indicator on the screen, but even after several hours, when you check the battery level, it still says zero. If the batter is 100% discharged, you must use the a/c adapter to recharge the Pocket DJ.
I've run a couple of battery life tests in the first week of ownership. With the volume set on 10, with the equalizer turned off, and with the player set to "shuffle" play the 128kbs mp3 files on my mp3 player, I got 8 hours and 50 minutes, and 8 hours and 40 minutes in two tests.
Interestingly, out of the box, the battery life indicator does not seem to predict battery usage very well. The battery indicator is a small battery shaped icon that sets in the upper corner of the Pocket DJ's screen. The indicator goes from 0-3 bars, with 3 bars indicating a full charge. After about 3.5-4 hours the battery status indicator is down to 1 bar, initially giving me serious concerns about the battery life of this player. Around 5 hours it went down to 0 bars, indicating imminent shutdown, I would have guessed. But after the indicator dropped to zero, I still got over 3 more hours of play time. Hopefully the battery indicatator will become better "calibrated" after a few cycles.
My battery tests give an indication of battery life at optimum conditions. In normal use, with more searching for songs, playing louder in noisy locations, using the equalizer, etc, I'd expect battery life to be 6-8 hours.
The Dell site offers a few tips to maximize battery life and longevity. One key point to note is that if you store your Pocket DJ in the car or other hot location in the summer, battery life (playing time after recharging) and longevity (how long till you replace the battery) will both be affected. Dells tips on battery usage include:
- Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.)
- Short battery life (…in laptops and other portable battery powered devices) is mainly caused by heat rather than charge/discharge patterns
- Although memory-free, apply a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges to calibrate batteries with fuel gauge. Running down the battery in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate. The battery life will not be affected
- Keep the lithium-ion battery cool. Avoid a hot car. For prolonged storage, keep the battery at a 40% charge level
- Avoid purchasing spare lithium-ion batteries for later use. Observe manufacturing date. Do not buy old stock, even if sold at clearance prices
- The battery can be charged using the USB connection. In order to charge the battery using the USB connection the battery must have at least a 25% charge.
The Pocket DJ battery is not user replaceable, at least nominally, and you'll need to send it back to Dell for replacement. The warranty should cover the battery for the first year. Third party sites sell replacement batteries for older models of the Dell DJ, along with instructions for taking apart the case and replacing the battery. I expect third party options to be available for the new Pocket DJ in a few months.
Support and Documentation
I was a little disappointed with the lack documentation. I didn't get a user guide with my Pocket DJ, though I eventually found a pretty good one (PDF) on the Dell website. The quickstart guide does a good job of getting you going, but there was basically no other hard copy documentation, and the software help files were only somewhat better. I wish the PDF manual had been included on my cd, or better yet, a hard copy of the manual.
I've have very good luck with Dell support in the past. (When a Dell monitor I owned started to fail, it was replaced quickly, and Dell paid to ship the old one back). The user forums on the Dell site are very active, and are a good source of information. Dell also offers downloads on their website(such as the missing manual). The Pocket DJ comes with a 1 year warranty.
Points to Remember
1. The Pocket DJ supports mp3, wma (w/drm licensing), and wav files. Supports subscription based content, like that from the Yahoo! Music subscription service.
2. Real world battery life is 6-8 hours. Uses a replaceable lithium ion rechargeable battery.
3. Windows compatible only
4. Other than the necessary cables and earbuds, no accessories are includes.
5. The earbuds are ok, could be better.
6. The Pocket DJ can be used as a USB drive on PC's where the free Dell Pocket DJ drivers have been installed. Data is stored in a separate folder. You can't play music files from this folder.
7. Sound quality and volume are excellent.
8. Once the Dell software has been installed on a PC, you can "drag and drop" music files from the PC to the Pocket DJ without using any other software. The included MusicMatch software is a "lite version". Ripping and burning speeds have been capped at 5X.
