With everyone making MP3 players, including most of the companies that manufacture the flash memory players depend on, it is not surprising that Kingston has finally produced their own MP3/MP4 portable player.  Kingston is one of the world leading manufacturers of RAM and Flash memory and their new K-PEX

100 (Kingston Personal Entertainment Experience) is a solid entry into the 1GB/2GB Media Player market.

Let’s start with the basic features:

– 1 or 2 GB built-in storage with extra Mini-SD card slot for additional memory
– 3.7” x 1.8” x 0.57” (9.4 cm x 4.5 cm x 1.4 cm)
– 0.14 lbs. (65 g)
– 2” (5.0 cm) color TFT LCD; resolution 220 x 176
- English, Spanish, Japanese, Simplified / Tradition Chinese, Portuguese, Korean, Russian
– supports audio and video file formats
Video: MPX format, requires Transcoder software to convert WMV, ASF,MPEG 1 & 2 and AVI formats
Music: Audio formats: MP3, WAV, WMA, OGG (Q10), Audio ASF.  EQ setting with manual and preconfigured options
Photo: Compatible with JPEG picture files
Text: Supports TXT format
– FM radio, Games, Voice Recorder, Built-In Speaker
– up to 17 hours of rechargeable-lithium battery life (Kingston Specification)
– USB Hi-speed 2.0-compliant
– USB 2.0/1.1 cable, earphones, Transcoder software CD, protective cover, user manual, line-in cable and lanyard
– Pentium 200 MHz or better, Windows XP and 2000, Windows Media Player (9.0 or higher), 50 MB free hard disk space and USB 2.0/1.1 support
- One year

The K-PEX 100 is available with 1GB or 2GB of internal memory as well as a Mini-SD slot for adding additional flash memory.  Slightly bigger than the iPod Nano, it is small enough to fit in a pocket and easy to use.  The front panel features power, menu, 4-way directional, Select/Enter, Esc/Back, and Play/Pause buttons.  The top edge has the Line-In and Headphone ports, as well as Mode, Repeat, and Record buttons.  The bottom edge has the Hold and Volume Up/Down buttons.  The Mini-SD Slot is on the right edge while the left edge has the USB port.  One negative of the K-PEX design is the USB port which looks similar to a mini-USB, but it is not.  So the K-PEX requires a non-standard, custom USB cable to recharge the battery and transfer files to the memory.  A standard USB to Mini-USB cable would have made the K-PEX easier to travel with as it would mean one less cable to deal with.  I once lost the K-Pex cable for 2 days and finally found it buried under some standard USB cables.  If you do actually lose the cable, you will need to order a replacement from Kingston.

The color screen is clear and easy to use.  With the directional keys, you can select from playing audio files, video files, playing games, listening to FM Radio, voice recorder, viewing text files, displaying JPG photos, and configuring the setup of the K-PEX.  A File Manager is even included which I really like.  You can copy and delete files with the File Manager.  It is not a full-featured file manager, but it is certainly better than having no file feature like most other MP3 or media players.

Some modes of the K-PEX have different options such as:

Music – Play Audio, Select Spectrum or L/R Audio Bars on display screen, Configure 5-Band User EQ,
Select play speed, Display ID3 Tag, Repeat mode, and EQ settings (6 choices plus User).
File Manager – No options
Game – No option other than to choose the game you want to play
FM Radio – Play Radio, Select signal strength sensitivity, choose FM region, preset and stereo settings
Record – Record audio, auto-sync, record quality, and record source (line-in or microphone)
Video – No options
Text – No options
Photo – No options
Host – Set USB Host mode
System Settings – Scroll speed, Master reset, Information, Language select, Font color, Auto power off,
Sleep timer, Clock, Display duration, Rotation of screen, and Transparency of display

While playing music, the K-PEX displays the song, folder, bit rate, EQ, Volume level, song position, and a graphic display of the audio.  There is also a bar at the top that shows time, battery power, and mode.  The Radio mode will display frequency, preset channel, and volume as well as the same top bar.  Most of the other modes simply display the image, video, or other selected function.  While the screen is only 220×176 pixel resolution, low resolution video and photos look pretty good, while high resolution images will lose a lot of detail.  Most 2-3 Mega-pixel photos display pretty well.

One of the first things noticeable with the K-PEX is the long startup time.  With a 2GB card in the Mini-SD slot, the startup time is about 30 seconds and the shutdown time is almost 5 seconds.  While this is not terrible, it is certainly annoying.

The audio from the K-PEX is excellent with very good volume/power levels.  The K-PEX even features a built-in mono speaker on the back.  This is nice to have and a rare feature for MP3 players.  I have only found a few players that have a built-in speaker.

Copying media to the K-PEX is easy.  Simply plug the USB cable into the USB port on the K-PEX and your computer.  The computer should see two drives appear in Windows Explorer.  One drive is the internal memory and the second is the Mini-SD card.  Just drag and drop your media to the appropriate folder.  Video files must be converted to a special MPX format using the included Transcoder software.  All video files use different formats and codecs.  Unfortunately at this time, the Transcoder software does not appear to support very many video codec formats.  The majority of the video files I have or downloaded from the internet would not convert using Transcoder.  Hopefully Kingston will quickly update the software to support more formats.

The Game function of the K-PEX also uses a special game file.  Two simple games are included, but the general idea is that Kingston and other third-party companies will release more games in the future.  As is usually the case, the release of more games will depend on the successful sales of the K-PEX.  But in the meantime, the 2-D robot combat and 2-D scrolling space shooter games will help to waste some quiet time.

The K-PEX 100 is lightweight, small, easy to use, and has all the features most people want in a portable media player.  As soon as Kingston fixes the Transcoder software to make it compatible to most video files and releases more games, it will be the “Jack of All Trades” of media players.

Great quality
Small Size
Complete Feature Set
Built-in Speaker
File Manager

Long startup and shutdown times
No AC Adapter
Non-Standard USB Cable
Transcoder not currently compatible with many video codecs

:  7.5 out of 10 Stars.

Reviewed by Harvey Lee
Senior Technology Editor

Product:  Kingston K-PEX 100 Personal Media PlayerInformation from source: http://www.pdatoday.com/index.php/weblog/comments/kingston_k_pex_100_personal_media_player/