The Apacer Steno AB320 is overall a good proposal for all those who need a portable, lightweight and nicely designed MP3 player. The device won't have any problems playing back all your MP3/WMA files, or picking up your favourite radio station with its built-in FM tuner and can also be used to record either with the built-in microphone or directly from the FM tuner. The AAA battery will provide around 12 hours playing time. FM sensitivity is adequate but not great, while for the recording functions, the built-in microphone is also of average quality so don't expect crystal clear sound. Perhaps an external line-in jack would have helped here.

The reading/writing performance when connected with the PC wasn't as good as we had hoped, since the device only managed 3.2MB/s and 2.9MB/s reading and writing performance respectively. Other flash devices can reach up to 8MB/sec.

There are some minor drawbacks that should be solved by Apacer since the player is firmware upgradable :-)

- The Good

• Comes in capacities up to 1GB
• Uses USB2.0 interface
• Includes 128x64 Dot Matrix screen
• Includes FM radio tuner
• Can record either from FM tuner or built-in Mic
• Supports all possible combinations for MP3/WMA files
• Supports display of lyrics
• Supports firmware upgrades

- The Bad

• Some minor navigation problems
• Doesn't display FM RDS information
• Reading/writing performance of USB connection is rather slow

- Like To Be Fixed

• Better FM sensitivity

Retail Package
Design/Build Quality
GUI/Use
Performance
Value For Money