First Look: Gateway MP3 Photo Jukebox

Chicago (IL) - Just in time for Christmas : Gateway offers the MP3 Photo Jukebox as an alternative in a segment carved out by Apple’s iPod mini. Its unique feature is a color screen and direct connectivity to digital cameras to serve as storage extension. Here is our first impression.

Portable audio players are a necessary element in the portfolio of large computer manufacturers. Extending the value chain, the devices do not only offer additional revenue opportunities but also function as a tool to retain customers. Dell has its Digital Jukebox and Hewlett-Packard adopted Apple’s iPod, the player which widely is considered as the benchmark in this product segment.

It was just a matter of time when other manufacturers follow the trend. Gateway recently announced its debut and a few days ago has begun shipping its MP3 Photo Jukebox. The opportunity for firms such as Gateway is the enormous consumer interest for portable audio players that mainly the iPod has created. However, the iPod also is a dilemma : Apple’s players dominate the space. According to various analysts, three million iPods will be shipped this holiday season alone.

Joining a crowded product field always is a challenge with a task to identify new features customers are looking for. Gateway thinks that a reasonably priced music player alone is not enough anymore to attract customers. The MP3 Photo Jukebox extends the usual feature set by a color screen and comes with cables allowing users to directly connect the device to a digital camera and download pictures to the player’s four GByte harddrive.

Design always is a matter of taste, but it is clear that the player, slightly smaller than a deck of cards, will have a hard time advertising a stylish appearance. Not that the casing would be a boring box, but the design stops short of making a bold statement or offering the amount of styling elements many customers are looking for in this segment.

Look behind the casing and the Photo Jukebox, priced at $250, and it not only offers entertainment but also some clever solutions for weekend trips or short vacations. A supplied USB cable set can connect the device to a PC and a digital camera. Digital photographers running out of storage card space are able to bridge the player and the camera and download pictures without the need of a PC. Even if there is just one MByte left on the Photo Jukebox and you are taking Five-Megapixel images, there should be plenty of room to cover a one-week vacation of snapshots. Its so simple in its nature, we wonder why this feature is not a standard functionality of every audio player out there.

We are not so sure, if the color screen in itself makes so much sense, considering its $50 premium over comparable players without a color screen. There is some reasoning behind the thought to view images, if they are already stored on the device. But the tiny 1.6" screen is even smaller than what some digital cameras offer and can only provide a glimpse of what the picture actually shows. It is rather a nice add-on than a feature what offers real world usability.

Navigating through the content of the device is a bit challenging at first. The five-button layout and functionality is not the last word in ergonomics and should be easier faster to use. Playing around a few minutes however clarifies mysteries such as the absence of a dedicated "select" button and the unusual navigation through the hierarchy of the menus. A nice feature of the software is a file manager which allows users to copy files from one location to another or to delete certain files without the connection to a PC. Again, the color screen does not offer any added value when playing music or organizing files, while we admit that a user interface certainly looks much more appealing in color than in plain black and white.

Gateway does not supply a file management software for desktop PC and relies as most of its competitors on the Windows Media Player as standard application to move files from and to the Photo Jukebox. It is no secret that Microsoft still has work to do to make the software more convenient to use. Simple connectivity and a synchronization feature of playlists are simply not enough anymore. In fact, we found that the Photo Jukebox was much easier to use the old fashioned way - by drag and drop using the Windows Explorer.

There is little to complain about the audio quality and the earphones Gateway supplies. The device offers basic equalizer functionality to frequencies to personal taste. However, the player only offers 25 preset adjustments ranging from "Bass Boost" to "Latin", "Hip Hop" and "Punk".

Gateway’s MP3 Photo Jukebox represents an overall decent debut in the compact portable audio player field and is certainly worth a look. There is no doubt that other available players offer more ergonomic design. The concept of the color screen needs rethinking, since the $50 premium over comparable devices without color screens is hard to justify at this time. The greatest asset of the player certainly is its ability to connect to other USB devices and function as external storage.