Sumvision Ice 1000 8GB review

An extraordinary feat of cost-cutting, the Ice 1000 MP3 player serves up a 2.8-inch touchscreen, video playback, recorder, FM radio and even some Java games for less than the price of a medium-sized family meal at Nando’s.


Pros
Well… it’s certainly cheap. Sound quality is pretty good, at least once you’ve added your own earphones. Video could similarly be best described as “okay, we suppose”. Really, for the money, it’s amazing that there are so many features. There’s even a microSD card slot to supplement the 8GB capacity – again, that’s more than generous for the 50 or so quid you can pick this up for. Oh, and there’s a tinny little speaker on the back. Anti-social posse and crew, big up your chests!

Cons
The touchscreen is about as responsive as a cat in a bad mood, video has to be converted to some idiotic proprietary format, and the arse-about-face menu system will make anyone who’s used to smoother-running devices such as iPods weep bitter tears of frustration and hatred. You will have noticed we said above that sound quality was okay once you’d added your own earphones. What do the supplied ’phones sound like, you ask? Imagine filling your ears with sand and then listening to the announcements at Charing Cross station. They’re a wee bit like that.

In summary then…
The iPod Touch won’t exactly be looking over its shoulder in fear of this device. We salute Sumvision for fitting in so much for so little, but if you’ve got any taste and discernment whatsoever, you’ll give this a wide berth. The Sandisk Sansa has a few quirks, but it handles video better than this, sounds a lot better and doesn’t have an interface that could drive a monk to drink.

Main formats supported
MP3, WMA

Sound quality

Style

Build

Features

Overall

Like the sound of this MP3 player? Get chatting about the Sumvision Ice 1000 8GB on the PriceRunner forums.

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