Latte Espresso PMP player Review

Review by K.C. Kim





Latte's Espresso portable media player may charm with its elegant gun-metal finish and sleek form factor, but it's what's under the hood that counts. Featuring an 8 GB capacity, a 3-inch touchscreen with haptic technology, wide audio and video format support, an FM transceiver that allows you to tune any radio to your device, voice recorder, and plenty more, it's the perfect way to free your media from the confines of your PC.



Windows2000/XP/Vista are all supported, and no driver is necessary for the latter two.





Intro: I was given a chance to check out Latte Communications latest PMP player the Latte Espresso. No this is no coffee drink; it's a pmp with big features. Having reviewed several Latte phones and mp3 players, I have big expectations.





Design: Latte Espresso has a sleek all over gun-metal finish. This means the player is not only durable but fashionable. It also has a brush metal back so no fingerprints and it's scratch resistant (unlike the iPod Touch).





Function: Here I will post about all the features that this player includes. From the 3 inch touch screen, to the haptic feedback, G-Sensor, FM Transceiver just to name a few features.





Let’s start with the 3-inch LCD Touch screen with 420 x 240 pixel resolution. It fills almost the entire face of the player. The icons are big enough to touch with your fingers. And the Touch screen is very accurate.



Haptic Feedback: The Latte Espresso features Haptic feedback. This feature has been used a lot in Korean cell phones. And now Latte brings this technology to its PMP player. The haptic feedback gives you a slight pulse/tactile response when you touch the touch screen. Most will be familiar with haptic feedback used in gaming controllers. Well now it's used in mp3 players and cell phones.





Video: With a 3 inch screen the player is great for video on the move. It can support video files that are in AVI, RM/RMVB, FLV, WMV, 3GP, MPG, DAT, and MP4 formats. Plus you get a solid 4 hours of battery life for video playback.



G-Sensor: This technology allows you to switch from landscape to portrait mode with a flick of your wrist. Just rotate the player to the way you want to use the player and you’re done. It automatically adjusts and rotates. Video is only thing that's not used as videos are always used in landscape mode (who watches movies in portrait mode).





Audio player: The audio sound of the Latte Espresso is great and supports MP3, WMA, FLAC, AAC, APE and OGG. The Espresso also supports ID3 tags and LRC for displaying words.







Pictures: Pictures can be viewed in both portrait and landscape mode. It supports JPEG, BMP and GIF. Also you can zoom in and out of pictures. A slideshow features is also included.





Text: Every once in a while I want to read a book on the go. And this player can support TXT files.





FM Transceiver: Nano finally get Fm radio, which mp4 players have had forever. But Latte doesn't stop there. They have a FM transceiver which you can listen to and transmit to your car radio.



Capacity: The Latte Espresso comes in two sizes, 8GB or 16GB. This is plenty of space for all your videos, pictures, and music.





Earphones: The earphones are pretty good sounding for stock earphones. They are mostly metal and have a premium look and style to them.







Conclusion: The Latte Espresso is a seriously good MP3 player. It has a ton of features consumers want in a player. And the price is just right. With the holidays coming up you may want to purchase this player for your family and friends. And you will not be disappointed by what this player offers.



9.5 Out of 10



To purchase

Latte Espresso 8 GB Video MP3 Player with Haptic G-Sensor and Touchscreen (Metal Gun)





Latte Espresso 16 GB Video MP3 Player with Haptic G-Sensor and Touchscreen (Metal Gun)