Soundstream enters multimedia

Soundstream, has recently unveiled some great looking Mp4 players in the US market. Soundstream if the young I.C.E. aficionados don't remember is the company that used to make great sounding and reliable amplifiers in the days of blaring mustangs and challengers. After being acquired by another company they have not been in the news lately.Now with the car entertainment jelling with PC components these new gadgets are a great addition to their product lineup. They did remind me of the Multimedia players introduced by Alienware sometime ago. The premium model comes in two memory sizes (2gb/4gb) and has a 2.8 inches touchscreen setup. It supports MP3, WMA, ASF, WAV, FLAC, OGG, & APE audio playback and MP4, DIVX, XVIDV, AVI, & MTV video playback . Additional features include fm radio, picture viewer and multi language display (possible for the European markets). The lower end Multimedia player has a smaller 2.4 inches screen but with a 2mp Cmos camera.Both the models come with earbuds and a usb cable (no charger means charging through usb.)

Shot Quotient:
1. Goes well along with your snazzy car stereo unit Seems to be a good standalone portable music 2. Touchscreen functionality for a smaller capacity ipod touch with bigger screen.
3. Also plays videos on that 2.8 inch screen, Multi language display Plays multiple audio codecs including ogg and flac.

Rot quotient:
1. 4gb of max memory is still minuscule.

2. Most car stereo's with usb only connect to ipod. Don't bother investing into this one yet

3. Distribution network is not strong and availability will be limited.

4. No games. ipod and zune both have games and good ones in huge quantity too.

5. The blue icons below the screen makes it look cheap Chinese.

For more information please visit

http://www.soundstream.com/
P.S. : Soundstream products are now available in India through CRFmall.