Rating: 
Summary: Very good, but not flawless
Review: I've wanted a decent quality MP3 player with a reasonable amount of memory for some time. I also wanted to be able to store more than one hour worth of songs, and an FM radio. So, when I read about the Intel unit I ordered one. First impressions are very good. It is well made, having a solid, durable feel to it. It is predominantly brushed silver aluminium, with blue trim. Looks wise it is at least on par with other units, but this is of course subjective. Some users might not appreciate the "Intel" logo slapped on the front of it.Sound is good, although bass tends to sound a little rough. I suspect that this is as much to do with the mp3 quality as the capabilities of the player. The supplied headphones are reasonable, but again some people may be put off having an "Intel" logo stuck on the side of their heads. I use my own top-of-the-line Sony in-ear type, the same as for my CD player. The player is functionally very good, with the usual start/stop/pause, FF, rewind controls. Browsing tracks is straightfoward, but only the first 18 characters of each song name are shown, with no way (that I can find) to scroll across the rest of the name. This might be a problem for those people who prefix the name of all their songs with the name of the artist. My only real gripe with the controls is that the volume is on the top of the unit, and is a digital press-button type. There is a 'normal' analogue wheel on the side, but this is for navigating the simple menus. I would have prefered this to be the volume control. Being a UK user, there are two other minor issues. Firstly the FM tuner, which works well and has both auto and manual tuning mode (including 10 presets), comes configured for the US by default. This means it tunes to odd-number frequencies only. I could therefore get 95.7 and 95.9, but not 95.8. The unit has to be configured by the supplied full-featured Music Match software bundle. Second, there is no rechaging unit available in Europe so we are currently stuck with using two AAA size batteries. Highs: Function, simplicity, build quality, radio and 128 MB RAM, mp3 and WMA support (both upgradeable), lightweight. Lows: No docking cradle, annoying volume control, no battery recharger, cannot see full title of songs.
Rating:
Summary: Almost A 5 Star
Review: 1. The major problem I have with the player is that it will not play certain songs, downloaded from the internet, at a specific bit & sample rate. I have several songs that were downloaded and they can be successfully transfered to the Pocket Concert Player, but it will skip to the next song in the track list that the Player is "coded" to recognize. Even though MusicMatch will play the song on your computer, it will not play on the Pocket Concert. After several hours talking with Intel technicians, I learned that the palyer will not recognize songs that were ripped, or recorded at sample rates of 48KHz @ 196, 160, 128 kbps (and a few others). Now, everytime I download a song I make certain it is 128 kbps & 44KHz, since I've never had a problem with this rate (it seems to be a standard rate, however, newer software is increasing the quality of songs that are getting ripped from CDs). It is not possible to "recode" these songs before transferring to Player. I'll just have to hope Intel releases a firmware upgrade. MM does have a bit rate transfer mode on the "options", but it was unsuccessful in recoding my downloaded songs. 2. The MusicMatch version that comes with the Player is at least 2 editions old - but adequate for ripping CD's. Be careful when upgrading to a revised version of MusicMatch; I think it was the 6.01 version that the Player would not recognize "ripped" CD's. I believe MM has since upgraded to a later version. If you use the version of MM Intel provided, it will rip and play songs fine. 3. I can store almost 40 songs (128 kbps quality) on my Player - wonderful! 4. The sound quality is as good, or better, than any tape Walkman; I never owned a portable CD player to compare. 5. Get new headphones - the ones that come with the player are a little weak. With my new Headphones, the person on the plane next to me complained that my Player was too loud; volume is fine - could be a little more! 6. The player is small and compact; easily fits in your hand. Great for jogging / walking. I hope my sweaty palms don't hurt the Player. 7. The FM tuner is OK; I'm happy with the reception and quite glad I have this option; 10 pre-sets! It was another important option in my decision. 8. Once you laid out the track list on the software, you can't rearrange the songs; they will play in the order you select from the library. 9.The battery life is fine. It can last at least three plane trips - with room to spare - no problem (The pair that came with the player must have en old). 10. Get rid of your tape Walkman; digital MP3 palyers are awesome!
Rating: 
Summary: Love this new player
Review: Use this player every day for working out. It holds about 27 songs in best quality. I really like it. Working out about 1.5hrs a day, the batteries last about 1.5 weeks. The headset is also very good and comfortable and doesn't fall off like lots of them. The only complaint I have is that I set it in my pocket and it can sometimes hit the PLAY/PAUSE button turning off the music.
Rating:
Summary: Great player but ditch the "neckphones"
Review: The player is awesome and is so much easier to work with than a similar product I purchased a couple of years ago. However, the headphones that are included with the Pocket Concert are completely useless. I cannot seem to be able to keep the headphones on my head while in a stationary position much less while in motion. Who would ever think that a head/neckphone design with absolutely no possible adjustments (entire assembly is rigid--even the earpad location and angle) would fit the general public? Delivering a great product like the Pocket Concert with less than substandard headphones puts an incredibly bad spin on the product. What good is a great MP3 player if you cannot listen to it? It makes me wonder how a big, successful company such as Intel can spend so much money doing their research and designing a superior product and then let an inexpensive accessory ruin the appeal.
Rating:
Summary: Disapointed traveller
Review: This is a fantastic product - bar five things - 1. The FM radio only works on even frequencies (eg. 98.0FM) and is therefore useless in the UK, NZ or any other country using even frequency FM (of which there are many many countries) 2. The headphones although great sounding, look stupid (personal opinion) 3. The slider switch that locks the buttons, is also the on/off switch - try unlocking the buttons to skip a track while running without turning the unit off! 4. You can't plug-in a charger without buying the base unit - there is not seperate DC plug. 5. Whiling playing - you have to press the roller dial twice, then role, then press again to select a new track (thats for a track more than one away). This requires you to look at the screen & coordinate. It would be much better to just roll through to another track. Apart from these wee things (which i hope Intel will fix in a software upgrade where possible) this is a truely fantastic device. Well worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Good performance, but has some serious problems
Review: There are a lot of good things about this player: Plenty of memory, no buggy performance (like the Sonicblue players), good control layout, good sound quaulity, etc. However, there are a few issues that would prevent me from recommending this. First of all, Intel seems to have a quality control problem. Just like the folks who reviewed it at CNET, the outlet that the headphones plug into on my player broke within in matter of hours of purchasing it - rendering it useless. Secondly, the MP3 transfer software it comes with has some major flaws. Neither Music Match nor Intel Audio Manager have the ablity to load MP3 files at reduced bit rates. By this I mean being able to load a 256kbs track onto the player as a 96kbs track in order to extend playing time (with most headphones you will not notice the drop in quality). This may not sound like a big deal, but if you have a lot of tunes encoded at high bit rates or want to take your Intel Pocket Concert on vacation you will be needing this feature. Even Sonicblue's terrible transfer software has this feature. Another problem is that Music Match ignores the directory structure of your MP3 collection and lumps all your MP3s into one impossible to manage list. The fact that Music Match is so "popular" is certainly a testiment to the power of advertising. I would be singing praises of this product if did not break so quickly and have such bad transfer software. Sadly, I have nothing to recommend instead. Some of the micro drive players look very promising, but I have doubts about the durabilty MP3 players with moving parts (keep in mind I have never actually owned a micro drive type player). Perhaps some smaller manufacturer will build what MP3 freaks have wanted for years: A DURABLE player with LOTS of memory and good transfer software.
Rating:
Summary: ATTN: Hikers, Language Learners & Audiobook Fans
Review: I love my pocket concert. I've had it for a few months, and I take it with me everywhere. It's durable, the sound quality is excellent, and it's easy to operate (even while driving). I do have two small complaints however. My biggest problem is that there is only one bookmark for the entire playlist. I use mine almost exclusively for learning languages and I could really use a bookmark for each file. Audiobook lovers will probably find this anoying also. I'm hoping that they can fix this in a (near) future software update. Also, the belt clip is basically useless. I dropped mine while hiking so many times that now I just always wear cargo shorts and I put the unit in a big pocket. As a side note, it sure can take a lot of abuse. All in all, I'm very impressed with the Pocket Concert. If I had to get another MP3 player, I would definately consider this one. The overall quality of this unit almost makes up for the fact that it's missing multiple bookmarks. If you don't need the bookmarks, then get it. Especially if you plan on dropping it.
Rating: 
Summary: great buy - terrible headphones
Review: I would recommend this product to anybody who is looking to store a good amount of mp3 files. It has a geat sound quality, but unfortunately you would not notice it with the headphones that come with the unit. I was disappointed at first because the quality was terrible, but then i changed to..pair of headphones and I noticed the difference. I don't know what the matter is with those headphones, but the voices seem distant, and the music doesn't seem to carry. Once you replace the headphones it is an excellent player. I do wish it had a recording feature for voice, but i guess we can't have it all.
Rating:
Summary: Superior to the rest
Review: I have owned three different MP3 players in the past few years. The first was a weak Rio. It had small memory and not much else. I then upgraded to a Nomad II MG. it was better but had its negatives. However, the Pocket Concert puts both of them to shame. The style of this system is a work of art. It fits perfectly into your palm. THe scrolling wheel is well placed and useful. 128mb of memory is very useful. I currently have 33 songs on my PC and there is still room for more. THe hiss sound is not present in my PC. I am not sure what people are complaining about here. SOftware could improve - but the PC is definitly the best system out.
Rating:
Summary: Intel is a great mp3 player
Review: I highly recommend this mp3 player to anyone interested in some serious storage space. I viewed [some] review sites to compare and I was close to buying an IOMEGA or NOMAD2. But you can't go wrong with 128 megs. Furthermore, which goes against the iomega hipzip, is that the pocket concert is small. The PC by intel is what an mp3 player shuold be: small compact and able to hold about 2 hours of mp3's. I take it to the gym and for 1 and half hours I don't repeat a song (unless I want to) The drawbacks are: 1) the price is steep, at $270US (I'm canadian) you don't get the accessory kit and recharger and that leads to my next beef, 2) this things takes 2 AAA batteries and they go after about 10-12 hours. That's one week of use. My recommendation is to save up for the kit later, or just buy yourself a few rechargable batteries and a recharger. The Pocket Concert is sleek, the headphone are comfortable (wrap around the ears across the neck style or street style) and it's lightweight and Small. With so much space you can put a large variety of songs and the transfer is quick so you aren't spending too much time down loading and filling up 128 megs. A trick to fit more than 30 songs is by getting lower kbps mp3's like 96kbps than 128kbps. The radio works well, but that depends on your area and the software is a breeze. Some people complain about how 3 megs are taken up by the firmware installed on the mp3 player, but you have 125 megs of mp3 space...
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