Flashy, Hip Design for Iomega's HipZip

Iomega joins the digital audio revolution with its snappy-looking HipZip music player.

Melissa J. Perenson, PCWorld.com

Digital audio players may be a dime a dozen--but they're not cheap if you factor in the cost of a memory expansion card. While the $299 price of Iomega's HipZip player is on a par with the competition, this smart-looking device distinguishes itself from the pack by using Iomega's 40MB PocketZip disks (formerly known as Clik disks) to store music. PocketZip disks cost just $10 to $15 apiece, as compared with $60 for a 32MB SmartMedia card.

Installing the device is easy. You simply load the latest Iomegaware driver (version 2.7, included with the player) on your PC, attach the HipZip to the PC's Universal Serial Bus port, turn on the device, and reboot your PC. If you already have an Iomega device on your system, you'll have to uninstall previous drivers--a process carried out during installation.

However, several details were omitted from the QuickStart Guide, details that would have allowed us to avoid a trial-and-error process to figure things out. For example, the device will not be recognized as an Iomega device if it's not turned on, an installation step the documentation skips. And while the installation routine prompts you to "install" the manual, you're really just viewing the HTML documentation on the CD through a Web browser. If you remove the CD-ROM, you no longer have access to the manual.

Form and Function

The HipZip isn't the first player to incorporate the PocketZip drive; Sensory Science's MP 2300 shipped this summer. But while that device was boxy and not particularly intuitive or well designed, the HipZip is a study in form and design. Though the HipZip is not as slim as other players, its compact, hourglass shape and logically placed menu and volume buttons make it a comfortable fit for one-handed operation. The purple, rubberized sides improve your grip on the unit. Matching them is the unit's purple, sturdy plastic cover, which protects the disk slot. We particularly liked the way the disk slot includes a generous finger cut-out to make disk removal a breeze. And the pocket-size HipZip really can attach to your hip if you use the included case with its built-in belt clip.

Particularly impressive was the player's well-organized, full-featured interface, which is designed by Iobjects and uses the Linux-based Dadio Digital Audio Operating System. The adequate LCD screen displays all relevant information, including battery life and volume control bars, track number, title and artist, song length, and equalizer and playback settings.

To change options, you press the Menu/Select button on the unit's right side, and then you scroll through the easy-to-navigate choices. For example, you can choose from five playback modes (normal, random, repeat all, repeat random, and repeat track), activate the LCD's backlight (for use in the dark), access track info, change equalizer settings, or set the playlist.

The Play List Manager is a wonderful feature that gives you full control over which songs to play, and in what order. Unlike with some players, the HipZip's five equalizer options actually do help boost the sound quality. Presets are provided for standard, rock, classical, and jazz music. We found it odd, though, that the bass and treble controls have no central baseline; you must boost them from their minimum settings until you find the sound you like.

We did encounter some operation quirks. There's no random-access seek within a song (for example, you can't scan through a song to hit the refrain you like). More bothersome is the slight drive-spin whine that occurs between songs--and within a song when the drive's built-in buffer runs out. The noise is such that, depending upon factors such as your environment, the headphones you use, the volume, and where you keep the HipZip (for instance, in your pocket, in a backpack, or in your hand), you and those around you may be able to hear the drive-spin whine. Another annoyance is the slight delay that occurs as the player accesses songs on the disk; the pause is noticeable, but not unlike a lengthy pause between songs on an audio CD.

But the quirks didn't detract from our overall listening experience. Included are a pair of Labtec LT-230 headphones that hook around your ears; they yielded very good, full-bodied sound quality during playback. A rechargeable lithium ion battery is built into the unit, which means that if you run out of battery power midflight, you're out of luck. (Fortunately, you can "top off" lithium ion batteries as often as you need to without damaging them.) Iomega says the battery should provide about 12 hours of use and should take 2 hours to fully charge. To conserve battery power, the unit automatically shuts off after 1 minute of playback inactivity.

Copy and Play

Iomega provides two programs, MusicMatch and Windows Media Player 7.0, for ripping audio from CDs and recording to the HipZip; both provided a speedy means of uploading music files. You'll need to install MusicMatch Plus 5.10 software to use MusicMatch with the HipZip, but Microsoft Windows Media Player 7.0 didn't require additional drivers, recognizing the device from the get-go. Iomega does not yet offer a plug-in for use with the latest version of MusicMatch (version 6.0, currently in beta).

Using MusicMatch to send MP3 files to the HipZip is simple enough: You put the selected songs in your playlist, and then you go to Options, Send to Device. While the interface could be a little cleaner, it gets the job done. For added flexibility, you can even select specific songs from within a playlist to copy over to the HipZip. We especially liked that Iomega's MusicMatch plug-in showed how many megabytes the selected songs required and how much space was available on the PocketZip disk. However, the plug-in didn't recognize files encoded in Windows Media Audio; Iomega was investigating this issue at press time.

Windows Media Player makes uploading music even easier. You just go to Portable Device, pick the music from your Media Library, and press Copy. Unfortunately, there's no indication of how much space your selected songs require, which means you'll have to eyeball it based on song lengths. We experienced no problems uploading Windows Media Audio and MP3 files.

Since the HipZip doubles as a PocketZip USB drive, you can transfer files--music or data, for that matter--directly from your PC to a PocketZip disk via Windows Explorer. That functionality makes the PocketZip an excellent tool for on-the-spot backup or file transport, particularly if you already have an Iomega PocketZip (or Clik) drive (see "Clik and Dock"). We were even able to intermingle data and MP3 files on the same disk without a problem; the player just ignored the data file.

Despite the handful of glitches and quirks, we liked the Iomega HipZip for its comfy form and intelligent design. And the use of affordable PocketZip media adds to its flexibility, making the HipZip a great digital-music choice for those who like to record multiple albums and mixes.