Dell DJ Ditty

Dell's latest flash-based MP3 player, the Dell DJ Ditty, is basically a 512MB USB thumb drive with an LCD screen and a built-in FM radio. The industrial design looks nice, the sound quality is good, and documentation is ample. The sight of a player unencumbered by a ton of extras is even refreshing, although we'd like the option of browsing our collection by artist or album instead of only by skipping tracks. Usability is tolerable, mostly because the features are so limited.

The magnesium case has a black plastic cap to cover the integrated USB plug (the Ditty also ships with a blue cap, and other colors are available), measures 3.3 by 1.1 by .5 inches, and weighs just 1.3 ounces. The three-line monochrome LCD is backlit and shows basic information about what's playing. The analog controls are very simple, and include a power/menu button, track skip, and play/pause. A scroll wheel controls volume and selects menu items.

Unfortunately, pushing the wheel straight in without accidentally going to one side or another is difficult, so we sometimes found operation frustrating. The included earbuds are quite good, and the cords are made of fabric instead of rubber, so they don't tangle as easily. We do wish, however, that the player shipped with a USB extender cable and an AC charger to use when you're away from a computer for extended periods of time.

Menus are accessible via the home button on the front. Although they're easy to understand, they lack any sort of polish, and using the scroll wheel to get around in them can be quite frustrating. Many of the menus have one too many levels, forcing you to use the scroll wheel even more. And since you can't browse by artist or folder, you have to skip from track to track. The lag time involved in skipping is significant enough to be annoying, and there's no indication of where you are in your collection (for example, track 1 of 50).

The player supports MP3, WMA, Audible, WAV, and protected WMA, as well as online music download and subscription services. The integrated FM tuner supports only 10 presets, but has very good strength—we were able to pick up more stations with a clear signal than with most comparable players.

On our battery rundown test, which uses a real-world mix of MP3 files encoded at 128 to 320 Kbps, the Ditty turned in a fairly respectable 13 hours of audio playback time, though this pales when compared with the Sony NW-E505's 50 hours. (Check back soon for our of the NW-E505.)

Subjective audio quality using the included earbuds is good, with clear highs and a strong midrange, though there's the usual weakness beginning in the middle of the upper bass. Our formal testing confirmed this and showed that the Ditty puts out a very clean signal. Output power is sufficient for most situations: We measured a sustained 99 dB peaking at 103 dB on default settings with our rock test track and the included earbuds. The equalizer presets actually help the sound somewhat—partly by simply amplifying the signal—only adding distortion when we pushed the volume too high. Luckily, the earbuds can handle the fatter bass when the player is set to the Rock or Jazz presets.

At $99 for 512MB, the Ditty is designed for people who want a simple player with a screen and an FM tuner. Unfortunately, despite a nice design, a powerful FM tuner, and decent earbuds, it is marred by the frustrations of navigating with the scroll wheel and by the tedious lag time involved in browsing tracks.