Intro
Camera maker Olympus has joined the MP3 domain with the genre-bending M:robe 500i, which features a built-in 1.2-megapixel digital camera and a vibrant, touch-sensitive, 3.7-inch VGA colour screen. This multifunctionality as camera, a photo viewer, and an audio player, along with a refined industrial design that features just a single button, makes the 500i one of the most intriguing gadgets we've seen of late. Priced at a premium £310, the 20GB 500i gets high marks for its original approach to music and photos, but issues with the touch-screen interface and overall performance keep us waiting for the next version.
Design
One glance at the Olympus M:robe 500i and you know you're dealing with a different breed of MP3 player. Brazenly minimal in design, the 500i looks like a buttonless portable video player that might have appeared in an '80s sci-fi flick. In reality, it has a single power/hold button on its top metallic edge, along with a smart headphone jack and a dock connector on the left and bottom of the device, respectively. The rest of the "buttons" are located within the bounds of the 3.7-inch touch-screen interface. The fixed lens on the 500i's backside indicates that this thing can snap photos. The M:robe, meant to be used in a horizontal orientation, measures 109 by 73 by 12mm and weighs 210g, which makes it far bulkier than the 20GB Apple iPod (61 by 104 by 14 inches and 159g) and more difficult to use while in transit.
When powered up, the 500i's bright, 640x480-pixel display emits an ethereal, whitish glow of text and icons. The screen, which is coated for protection but also attracts fingerprints, is bright enough to see in most lighting conditions. Consistent with the M:robe's futuristic aesthetic, the virtual interface opens with three large glowing icons: a pair of headphones representing music functions, a cube signifying Remix (more on this later), and a camera that refers to photo capabilities. Nested in the bottom corner, you'll find a tiny battery indicator, a clock, and two smaller function buttons, one of which clears the interface of unnecessary icons, while the other opens settings. So far, the 500i is too cool to be true.
A light chirp emits from the device when you press any icon, which is a good thing, given the screen's occasional resistance to registering a click. Once you dig deeper into a category such as Music, icons fill the screen. The Home button, located in the top-left corner, opens a drop-down menu that takes you to the Home page or to any of the two other categories, and in this case, the Headphone icon in the top-right corner lets you search for and play music by Favorites, Playlists, Artists, and many other, deeper criteria such as Unplayed Tracks, My Top 100, and so on.
This may sound pretty standard for an MP3 player, but because so many elements of the screen are touch-sensitive, you can get lost in the myriad of available choices. This isn't a bad thing, especially when you adapt to the environment, but a pretty interface marred by tons of data takes away from the simplistic beauty of the 500i. In other words, the 500i's inner complexities, coupled with an interface that is touch-sensitive only 80 percent of the time, can be frustrating. At least there's no Back button to complicate things further.
Selecting Photo takes you to your photo library, which can be viewed by album, calendar, or all. This is the moment you first realize that you're dealing with a 260,000-color screen. By default, you can view six decent-size photo thumbnails at a time, with portions of other thumbnails dimmed off to the side. Clicking a thumbnail gives you a full-screen view of the photo. It's a visually appealing interface that surely took some effort to produce when you notice the attention to detail, such as a thumbnail photo lying face up on a stack of photos to indicate an album, is present throughout the interface. As a camera, there is no optical viewfinder, so you actually use the entire screen to frame your subject when capturing an image. Simply touch the screen to capture. Although easy to shoot, the M:robe's unique camera design is often difficult to keep still and, thus, won't always give you sharp images.
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