i-Zoko for sale, battery life good, playback erratic
Tuesday, June 9, 2009 at 12:09PM
spooky in Zokora, goodbye, transfer gossip

You've purchased a brand new mp3 player. You had it imported from abroad. Cost you a packet too. But you had no choice having had your previous model nicked. Your new player might not be a known brand over here in the UK but its likely to make a name for its self based on reviews you read.

It's sturdy, no flashy gimmicks and does exactly what it says on the box. Or at least that's what you hoped when you removed all the bubble wrap and packaging. The reality was altogether a little disappointing.

Instructions state that it needs a decent battery charge before inital playback and that the more times it's used the better the quailty gets. And battery life is decent, but the device fails to improve with usage. In fact, it gets worse, none of it aided by the low intelligence of the application.

It has no problem switching on and off, but the shuffle hardly works and most times it takes more than one touch to get anything to work. When selecting fast-forward the player doesn't stop. The search option is non-responsive and when you think you've found one thing you end up with something different. It also struggles with varying formats.

But worst of all the player spends most of the time jumping up and down after prolonged periods of playback.

You find yourself gutted that you've spent £80 on something that isn't up to the job. So your only option is eBay. Except nobody is interested in buying a second-hand player with clumsy playability for the same amount of money you bought it for.

Knock off a few quid.

£40 should get you one or two interested buyers. You might even manage to sell it to someone outside of the UK where they still rate this particular player highly. I hear it's very popular in Spain.

Talking of which, Didier Zokora is looking for clarification on his future with Sevilla sniffing for his signature. Don't think he has a future with us so best we look to off-load him and stick the money in the transfer pot.

No need for eBay. Just accept he isn't worth the transfer fee we originally paid for him and move on.

Article originally appeared on Dear Mr Levy (http://dml23.squarespace.com/).
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