Nomad II or Nomad II MG MP3 Player?

[geckojohn]

Hey Everyone,

I've finally made my decision to buy a portable MP3 player that has FM tuner built in. Now it's now between the Nomad II or the Nomad II MG from Creative Labs. I've seen them both on Ebay for around the same price. I am leaning more towards the Nomad II MG, just because it's a little more compact and has a better look to it. I am mostly concerned with functionality, and performance.

Do you have any suggestions on which model to purchase? Any help would be appreciated..

Thanks, John

 

[hoihtah]

good luck which one ever you go with

 

[spanky]

i don't see how they can justify the extra $$$ for the MG. but hey, if u can afford it, more power to u.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

As a former owner of the Nomad II MG (I left it on a plane), I recommend the Nomad II. The MG was quite a bit more expensive at retail, and to the extent they cost the same on Ebay I think it reflects that the Nomad II is the superior design. The MG is ergonomically poor in that the buttons are along the edges of the player, so it is impossible to hold onto while running, etc. without locking the player. The only real advantages of the MG are its undeniable coolness, and the docking station, which is handy but not critical IMO.

 

[geckojohn]

Thanks for the quick suggestions. Any other info would be great also!

 

[geckojohn]

Hey, I'm still looking for some good advice. Thanks again, John

 

[dawks]

Whats the difference between an II and a II MG?

 

[geckojohn]

The Nomad II MG is a little bit smaller than the Nomad II. The Nomad II MG also has a magnesium case and looks a little bit better. From reading what other people say, it seems like the Nomad II has better controls than the MG.

 

[geckojohn]

Thanks for all of your help...

I think I'm gonna go with the Nomad II MG 64MB version. It's smaller and sleeker!

 

[Antoneo]

I just wanted to add in that you might want to look into batteries with a higher capacity because my friend who has it complains about that. Otherwise, besides the sorta awkward button layout, its a great mp3 player.

 

[tweakmm]

regardless of controls, I would go with the MG!

 

[geckojohn]

Yeah, it seems like the better choice. Thanks

 

[geckojohn]

Thanks everyone for the help. I was able to find a Nomad II MG for $108 plus tax and shipping at this place. I'll let you know how it is when I receive it and start using it.

Focushitech

 

[yllus]

Nomad II > Nomad II MG, just for future people to read this thread in searches. I made the same decision ages ago and have been extremely happy with the Nomad II. The size and clarity of the LCD on the II was enough alone to justify my decision.

Creative Nomad II
The Nomad II is generally a well featured player. The already mentioned firmware upgrade feature made the player innovative for it's time but it also has a number of other attractive features.

There is a large LCD screen which features icon display making it very easy to read. Like the original Nomad, the Nomad II has an FM tuner along with 32 presets. It also features a voice recorder which produces NVF files which are at a bitrate of 32Kbs. Unlike the original, it connects to a computer via a USB cable and can also connect through a special docking station which is available as an accessory. The Nomad II is powered by a single AA battery.

The first two versions of the Nomad II came with a USB cable, an alkaline battery, a wired remote, stereo backphones, an installation CD and an MP3 content CD.


Creative Nomad II MG
By giving it a similar design to the original Nomad, Creative had made the Nomad II MG a more sleek and stylish player when compared to the Nomad II. A lot of this sleekness was due to the casing which was, as the "MG" part of the name suggests, made of Magnesium. In order to get it's stylish looks and small size, it had given up a little bit of the user friendliness of the Nomad II.

The main trade offs made with the MG were the screen size and the button layout. The LCD display was considerably smaller when compared to the Nomad II but the screen was still large enough to be able to display all the necessary information and also be readable. While the Nomad II has a "joypad" button layout, the MG had all it's buttons on two of it's sides. For some people this made it a little bit more awkward to control (when not using a wired-remote) as it was hard for them to distinguish between each button.

 

[geckojohn]

Thanks for your helpful links!

 

[geckojohn]

Hey, I'll be receiving the Nomad IIMG in a couple days, I'll let you know how I like it.

I'm still going to keep my eye out for a Nomad II player, just to do a comparison between the two.

 

[spanky]

$108 is a good price is it new/refurb? as far as just regular mp3 playing... my nomad iic is great. i am sure the mg will be no different.

 

[geckojohn]

It looks like it's new, not refurbished. I did this by doing a search on Pricewatch for Nomad IIMG. It came up with a list of about 7 online retailers that had them, starting at around $105.