80
80
70
80
Everything’s portable
The Wizpy—the first venture into hardware territory by Japanese company TurboLinux Inc.—looks like an MP3 player, but is much more: you can boot right off it!
Encased in a beautiful white polymer casing with fine silver speckles, the player is sturdy and scratch-resistant. A black version is also available, and looks equally impressive. The device is sleek enough to be and easily slips into any pocket. The interface, however, is not very intuitive, but you can get along after a few minutes.
This is the first MP3 player that can boot into an OS; you can take your office with you wherever you’d like. Any computer that supports USB booting can boot through the Wizpy into TurboLinux Fuji, residing on its 1 GB partition. This is a full-fledged operating system that comes with its office suite, and which even lets you surf the Internet and check mail. This partition is inaccessible through other OSes, thus providing security for your data. If you do not have USB 2.0—or the ability to boot this way—you can use the accompanying mini disc to boot into the OS. The problem is that you can only read NTFS partitions; you can’t write to them. Instead, you save your work on the Flash memory of the Wizpy. This will be a handicap when large files are involved.
The Wizpy plays several music formats—such as MP3 with ID3 and lyrics, and OGG—and video formats such as AVI. Audio quality is excellent at medium volume levels, and the accompanying headphones are good enough. (At higher volumes, the bass tends to distort the mid and high notes.) The 1.71-inch OLED 262K colour display is vivid. You can read text files using the inbuilt e-book reader. FM Radio is there, but it has a weak tuner when compared to other MP3 players. The Li-ion battery lasts for up to 14 hours of music playback—fairly good.
The Wizpy comes in 2 and 4 GB versions; we tested the 4 GB. Of this, 1 GB is used by the OS.
The price tag reads Rs 11,900, which might seem high, but for the functionality it provides, we think it’s just right.
Specifications
Capacity: 4 GB (3 GB storage); display: 1.71-inch OLED with 262K colours; OS: TurboLinux Fuji; 7-band audio equaliser; file formats: audio: OGG, MP3, WMA, AAC; video: AVI, DivX; image: JPEG; FM radio; text e-book reader; interface: USB 2.0; bundled: TurboLinux Fuji Mini CD, earphones, USB and line-in cables
RATINGS
Performance 4
Features 4
Build Quality 4
Value for Money 3.5
Overall 4
Contact : TurboLinux India Pvt Ltd
Phone : 0124-4570300
E-mail : bd@turbolinux.co.in
Web site : www.wizpyindia.com
Price : Rs 11,955
