Wolverine's ESP 5160 PMP hits 160GB, stays bulked up

X-Men fans wouldn't want their Wolverine any other way than pumped up and ready to dominate, but PMP fans aren't exactly looking for the most inflated device on the block. Still, Wolverine's multifaceted ESP 5160 retains the rather bulky 5.3- x 2.8- x 0.9-inch enclosure of the previous (and less capacious) models, but bumps the internal storage capacity up to 160GB. Photographers will still be gawking at their offloaded JPEG, RAW, BMP, or TIFF files on the 3.6-inch 320 x 240 display, and users can also zoom, rotate, and view EXIF data in slideshow mode with tunes jamming in the background. Aside from offering up on-the-go slideshows, this hero also maintains its solid media playing functionality, handling MP3, WMA, OGG, AAC, WAV, and CDA on the audio front while tackling Motion JPEG, MPEG1/4, XviD, and WMV9 on the video side. Furthermore, you'll find a built-in speaker, NTSC / PAL video out, USB 2.0 connectivity, FM radio, a 7-in-1 flash card reader, integrated microphone, audio line-in, and the ability to record directly from a TV or camcorder if utilizing the optional docking cradle. So if you're looking for just about everything a non-internet-enabled PMP / photo storage device could offer, the 5160 isn't a bad option save for the size, but (literally) deep-pocketed consumers can snap this one up now for $549.99.

[Julian Bond @ Mar 2nd 2007 12:32PM]

There is a shortcut here which is to buy the Wolverine with no disk and then fit your own 160Gb 2.5" disk sourced from somewhere else.

I still can't decide though. Is this thing the worthy successor to the much loved Zen Xtra or not? And while it does USB Mass Storage does it do USB Host? What's the ID3 Tag handling like in the media library, because even 80Gb of music is hard to handle if the library software isn't up to it.

[George @ Mar 2nd 2007 12:50PM]

You should check out the Vosonic one its an exact clone looks like same software too, I'm not sure who cloned who but I have the Vosonic Vp8390 http://www.vosonic.com/index.php which has an OLED screen. I don't think Wolverine has one with OLED. I got it in taiwan about 3 months ago without an drive for about 360usd. I love it I have a 160gb HD in it and can't even fill it. I would suggest getting the Vosonic one because you can get it with a OLED screen and it comes with all the accessories where you have to buy them seperate on the Wolverine. I believe you can get the OLED version for about 360 online and the regular screen is about 100 dollars less. about the music library, the interface is the best because you have to seperate them in folders esp if you have a lot of music. it workable. and basically you transfer data jsut like you would any other USB HD except there are default folders where you put the media. I would definitely reccommend this to anyboy who travels a lot and take a lot of pictures.