RCA's Lyra X3030 portable media player reviewed
Just a few months back we saw RCA's Lyra X3000 get some well-deserved praise, and now the folks over at CNET are putting its successor through its respective paces. The X3030 sports most of the same specs and attributes as its aging sibling, but touts 30GB of internal storage (up from 20GB) and "adds protected Windows Media Video support and DivX certification." Reviewers found a good bit to love on the PVP, as they extolled its broad range of supported formats and "Apple-esque" scroll wheel, as well as admiring the "healthy set of accessories" that made scheduling recordings a breeze. The main digs came from the "tricky interface," the lack of a widescreen display (like that found on the lower-priced, albeit less accesorized, Archos 604), and the "decent" video quality that fell short of "some competitors." It was also noted that while the 4.5-hours of realized battery life while watching video was commendable, the 8.5-hours achieved while listening solely to audio was indeed lackluster. Nevertheless, the crew found enough niceties to slap a "7 out of 10" rating on the X3030, and closed by dubbing the X3030 "a solid video playback and recording device, despite its poorly designed menu interface."
