Umax Vega 203

Umax Vega 203

Milind Bandekar, Aug 04, 2005 1849 hrs IST

The Vega 203 is a portable digital music player featuring 256 MB of flash memory

Compact and lightweight, good sound quality, 256 MB space with an SD/MMC card reader slot

Slightly overpriced compared to the 512MB Shuffle

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EXPERT REVIEW

I had reviewed the Umax Vega 107 two weeks ago and I had complained about almost everything in it. However, things looked a lot different the moment I saw this other release in the Vega series - the Vega 203. This assembly and its packaging looked very impressive and catchy.

The Vega 203 is a portable digital music player featuring 256 MB of flash memory, a high quality digital voice recorder, a built-in stereo FM tuner with 8 pre-set stations, an SD/MMC card reader, earphones, USB 2.0 support, a multi-language display and a larger high resolution monochrome backlit LCD display.

Ergonomics

The Vega 203 MP3 player is compact and lightweight, with dimensions as small as 8cm x 4cm x 1.8cm, making it fit easily in your hand or slide down your pockets with the same ease. It weighs not more than 45 grams. It comes with a trendy metallic look with a combination of silver and black with the earphones blending well into its scheme. The earphones again have a trendy look to it with a glossy shiny feel. The Vega 203 comes with a joystick as a replacement to the regular up/down and previous/next buttons, making it easier in the navigation section. Most of the player functions are assigned within the joystick for quick and easy access.



Functionality

The Vega 203 plays MP3 and WMA. It comes with 6 preset equalizer settings (Normal, Classic, Pop, Rock, Jazz, Bass) for maximizing your listening pleasure, of which I found "Rock" as the best performing. You might find the other presets good depending upon the type of music you listen to, but Rock gave the best effect for pretty much anything I played back on it. With 256 MB and a high speed USB support, file transfer from your PC onto it, is a piece of cake. As usual, the Vega 203 needs no additional software installed for you to get started. It directly gets detected as a USB mass storage device when connected and appears as a drive for you to drag and drop files directly. Its improved interface shows detailed information of the music files right onto its 128x64 pixels backlit LCD display, along with some really cool graphical animations during playtime. The earphone bundled along with this player seems to be powerful and is quite impressive in sound output compared to the ones in their earlier models. There is a vast difference in the sound quality with well balanced lows, mids and highs. However the quality of output certainly doesn t fall in the league of iPod/Shuffle or for that matter the MuVo. The Vega 203 stands tall in playing audio formats of constant as well as variable bit rates with perfection.

The 256 MB built in flash memory can hold round about 50 to 60 of your favorite songs which alternately also acts as a portable storage medium. It also can be upgraded thanks to its SD/MMC card reader slot. All music files stored within the memory card can be recognized as a continuous play list.

Its built-in stereo FM tuner is an added perk. This high-sensitivity tuner offers unmatched sound quality with a crisp clear and a sharper sound output. It comes with 8 in-built presets. Its quick seek feature picks up the frequencies quite swiftly.

The digital voice recorder - an added benefit in the Vega 203 is very useful for individuals who like to record interviews, meetings, lectures or even radio.

The Vega 203 runs on a 1.5v AAA battery. The heart of Vega 203's controller IC offers solid enhanced performances with the low power consumption, extending the play time up to 10 hours of non-stop music.

Conclusion

The Vega 203 is a good solution for your personal enjoyment, be it music or portable storage. The Vega 203 comes at a price not more than Rs 4500/- with a one-year warranty, which seems to be slightly expensive when compared to the iPod Shuffle 512 MB selling for around 5.5-6Kon eBay. Some may argue about the lack of a display and expandability on the Shuffle, but to me when it comes to pure sound quality, there is no comparison. The Shuffle wins hands down. However, the Vega 203 is a pretty decent player by Umax, and not a bad buy considering its feature set. But I'd still be tempted to go for the 512 MB Shuffle instead.

Test Unit sourced from Neoteric Infomatique Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai



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USER COMMENTS

can it record voice for four hour?

by harshad, Mumbai, on Jan 09, 2008 12:57 PM, Report abuse   Reply

I want to buy a mp3 player( umax vega 203) and I want to get further information about it mainly, price Furthermore, I am from Nepal and want to know that who can I pay for the player

by Akash, Kathmandu, on Aug 04, 2007 11:54 AM, Report abuse   Reply

my vega 203 playaer is not working when I try to switch it on the backlight glows and immediately a red led in the back glows and the backlight goes off.please give me a solution to correct this.

by jayakrishnan, palakkad, on Aug 28, 2006 12:54 PM, Report abuse   Reply

How do I compare between VEGA & COWON products ?

by shirroz, Ahmedabad, on May 09, 2006 07:30 AM, Report abuse   Reply

what is the cheapest mp3 music stick?

by Vinod, Delhi, on Jan 28, 2006 07:30 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Pl. tell me where can I buy Umax Vega 203 in Delhi. Thanks.

by bhushan, New Delhi, on Jan 13, 2006 01:57 PM, Report abuse   Reply

wat is the thing u used to store the voice?? what kind of memory

by tushar, delhi, on Dec 15, 2005 07:40 PM, Report abuse   Reply

have anybody heared about gmini402..........check it out u will fall in love with it

by sam9s, New delhi, on Aug 24, 2005 12:57 PM, Report abuse   Reply

where is itavailable, for 512 mb version, any reviews

by vijayshimla, Shimla, on Sep 27, 2005 12:07 PM, Report abuse

There seems to be a Gemini 512 MB player with color oled display, FM, and chargeable battery Rs. 3999-00 on http://cgi.ebay.in/512-MB-Gemini-USB-MP3-Player-with-FM-Rechargeable-Batt_W0QQitemZ5814113479QQcategoryZ80019QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem-- is this a good thing ? any feedback on this wll be welcome members., need a MP3 Player 512 MB with FM for my son, before Diwali- but not iPod ( no FM )

by vijayshimla, Shimla, on Oct 01, 2005 12:46 PM, Report abuse

Too expensive at Rs. 4500-00 this should be the price of 512 MB model, now that Ipod 512 is Rs. 4500, these companies will also have to reduce or perish wth all the inventory staying & rotting in godowns.

by vijayshimla, Shimla, on Oct 01, 2005 12:41 PM, Report abuse   Reply

I have heard the iPod mini and the creative MuVo FM and I can say that I personally prefer the creative for sound. Specially the lows in the creative are excellent. Regarding this review, Milind makes a statement that the FM tuner "offers unmatched sound quality". Hope he understands the implication of his statement. Unmatched means there is none better. In his conclusion, he says about the iPod shuffle "when it comes to pure sound quality, there is no comparison. The Shuffle wins hands down." Now this is a clear contradiction. Milind please state clearly what you mean. Such contradictions definitely do not help a person who is trying to decide what to buy.

by Emil, Mumbai, on Aug 05, 2005 10:34 AM, Report abuse   Reply

There is no FM tuner in ipod shuffle and that certainly is a drawback. But primarliy its an mp3 player and so is Vega 203 and hence more focus is given on mp3 sound rendering engine, which ipod outperforms.

by Techtree Test L, Mumbai, on Aug 05, 2005 10:56 AM, Report abuse

All branded flash based players in capacities upto 1 GB, be it creative, Umax, IRiver et al are over priced at present in Indian market, creative is good but too high, guyz wait, i picked up a Creative muovo TX-512 in Us for $ 80 shpped (app Rs, 3500), which is the good price for a good player, Flash based MP3 players are in a price freefall, and in India too prices will fall, and rates will become more reasonable. Then only can the market expand, Creative Muovo TX 512 MB for Rs. 7500 ( supposedly official price by Creative ) is nothing short of banditry, and hence creative is taking losses, becuase of it,s adament attitudes, and not facing the reality, in market place. I need another Mouvo for my son, anytime any body comes across a good bargain in 512 MB player, please email vksood@sancharnet.in

by vijayshimla, Shimla, on Sep 27, 2005 10:58 AM, Report abuse

can u give it free of cost to me if u do it god bless u plz

by jeet, mumbai, on Sep 18, 2005 07:07 PM, Report abuse   Reply

i want to buy i-pod but it must be below 6000..can u tell me which is best

by gopi, chennai, on Aug 31, 2005 07:12 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Go for IPOD shuffle 512 MB, Decent sound but no display.

by POwerslave, Mumbai, on Sep 04, 2005 03:33 PM, Report abuse

Go for IPOD shuffle 512 MB, Decent sound but no display.

by POwerslave, Mumbai, on Sep 04, 2005 03:34 PM, Report abuse

check here for good pricing http://www.indmall.com/cat/ipods_1.htm

by Rahul, Mysore, on Sep 13, 2005 06:05 PM, Report abuse

sir i want buy it. so please tell me that which city or location i can buy

by madanmohan, jaipur, on Sep 09, 2005 07:50 PM, Report abuse   Reply

can u tell me the price for creative?

by Akshay, new delhi, on Aug 10, 2005 12:53 AM, Report abuse   Reply

Hey,it is 199$, 5GB with FM Tuner, 10 Hrs voice recorder and we can allot 2 GB of memory to removable device (I mean we can copy data upto 2GB and transfer) and the audio quality is amazing. It is called creative Micro ZEN

by Sam, Bangalore, on Sep 08, 2005 09:39 PM, Report abuse

FOR PURE SOUND QUALITY IPOD SHUFFLE IS MILES AHEAD OF OTHERS. FULL STOP.

by ravi pratap, dumka, on Sep 04, 2005 10:48 AM, Report abuse   Reply

I purcagsed Digtal audio player vie order no. 4768442 dated 12.11.2004, thse saem is not working since the date of pruchse, once it was repaired, kinldy give me nerest adres in mumbai

by Jagdish Patel, Mumbai, on Sep 04, 2005 05:32 AM, Report abuse   Reply

Please send me the dealers address in chennai

by Rajendiran, Arakkonam, on Aug 23, 2005 10:14 AM, Report abuse   Reply

hi! will u pls tell me where is it available in kanpur

by Gaurav Agnihotr, kanpur, on Aug 21, 2005 12:29 AM, Report abuse   Reply

can u tell me where is it available in new delhi at the above mentioned price

by Akshay Bansal, new delhi, on Aug 12, 2005 11:35 AM, Report abuse   Reply

hi milind can you tell me how long can i record on it via the microphone and the radio

by Akshay Bansal, new delhi, on Aug 12, 2005 11:34 AM, Report abuse   Reply

can u tellme where is it available in vadodara-gujarat?

by pranav, vadodara, on Aug 11, 2005 01:31 PM, Report abuse   Reply

can someone tell me other options b/w 3500-4000 rs.

by Akshay, new delhi, on Aug 10, 2005 01:00 AM, Report abuse   Reply

creative is the best u can get

by krish, hyderabad, on Aug 04, 2005 11:19 PM, Report abuse   Reply

hi can u tell me the price for it?

by Akshay, new delhi, on Aug 10, 2005 12:51 AM, Report abuse

hi can u tell me the price for it?

by Akshay, new delhi, on Aug 10, 2005 12:52 AM, Report abuse

i like it. but memmory too low

by shan, calicut, on Aug 09, 2005 10:56 PM, Report abuse   Reply

its not expensive i have Iriver-ifp-880 for rs 6000 which is only 128 MB...

by pratik, mumbai, on Aug 09, 2005 07:20 PM, Report abuse   Reply

Buy a mobile phone with most of these features (like Nokia 6230i) and when ever you get a call, the music (from FM or MP3) is automatically stopped and restarted when the call ends. Alsoyou carry just one device.

by Murugan, Chennai, on Aug 06, 2005 09:35 PM, Report abuse   Reply

milind, using a 512 MB ipod shuffle without a display is pure patience & lots of idle time. Imagine finding your song amongst a list of atleast 100. I think, apple got this model made first & then tested it for market feasibility instead of other way round. I think any other MP3 with display is better. I would pay Rs.700 - 1000 extra for a Shuffle with display

by ramesh mehta, mumbai, on Aug 05, 2005 12:22 PM, Report abuse   Reply

ipod shuffle doesn't even have a display....

by Goobimama, Goa, on Aug 04, 2005 09:18 PM, Report abuse   Reply

who cares? it is a ipod afterall and nobody else compares to its sound quality.

by raghav, mumbai, on Aug 04, 2005 10:30 PM, Report abuse

hey raghav, try listening to portable music players by creative, ipod sound is only abt 70% in quality to theirs.

by subiet, living in the cyber trance, on Aug 04, 2005 10:46 PM, Report abuse

I did not hear Ipod but I have a creative muvo slim 256KB which I purchased for around 2800 Rs in Japan. This has FM / Voice and FM recording fn and WMA and MP3 play back facilities. I am very well satisfied and the sound quality is excellent

by rahul, bangalore, on Aug 05, 2005 09:23 AM, Report abuse

Sorry.. Creative 256MB..

by rahul, bangalore, on Aug 05, 2005 09:24 AM, Report abuse

subiet, creative stands 3rd according to me. 1st : ipod 2nd: sony 3rd: creative

by raghav, mumbai, on Aug 04, 2005 10:53 PM, Report abuse   Reply

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