 "Great XM Radio" | 2007-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By wjaclark |
| This XM radio is terrific - small & compact, but with lots of memory for recording my favorite music - and all at a great price. Outstanding value! |
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 "great product- very versatile" | 2007-09-26 |
| - Reviewed By calbanes |
I recently decided to get XM radio rather than invest in an ipod, so I purchased the Nexus xm player. I love that I can record songs from the live xm radio while I'm listening to them, and switch between live xm and mp3 mode. If I am not in my car or at home where I have the xm receiver, I can take the mp3 player with me and listen to songs I recorded from the radio or songs I downloaded on my computer. The player is easy to work using the remote control that comes with it, and you can save your favorite xm channels for faster access to them.
The only drawback is having to remember to bring the passport if I switch between my home dock and my car- basically I have to keep the player and the passport together all the time so I don't forget the passport if I'm in my car. Also, the screen is kind of hard to see if the player is not right next to you.
Other than that I think the nexus is really versatile and great for someone who wants an xm radio and a basic mp3 player. It's also a really great deal because its so much cheaper than other xm receivers
and has more features.
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| "Absolutely love it!" | 2007-09-18 |
| - Reviewed By ramiske |
As long as you understand that this device is NOT Live XM, then you'll love it. I'm using for my long commute, and some of the areas do not get good XM coverage. So having 'recorded' content is actually a plus. I just record new sessions overnight, and grab it to go the next morning. Another plus, it the tiny size (much smaller than the ones that have the transmitter on board). It is so small, that I don't even realize it is in my pocket.
A few other reviewers mentioned a 'break' or 'gap' between songs. I have NOT heard this at all. Listening to recorded content is identical to live content on my device.
And the recording sessions are nicely organized so you can listen by Channel, by recording session, by playlist, by artist, or by individual track.
It was super easy to install and activate too.
I would buy this again in a heartbeat!! |
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 "Another discontinued XM radio for too much money" | 2007-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By kristonrehberg |
Once again, Amazon demonstrates its inability to offer competitive prices for contemporary, non-discontinued products.
This radio will not function as a satellite radio without using the docking stations. While portable it only plays recordings on the internal memory.
The radio does come with a home docking station but you will have a hard time finding the car kit because all Samsung XM hardware has been discontinued as of early 2007. Not only that but the car kit is large and awkward for use in a car. Part of the reason is the sheer bulky awkardness of the docking kits, which not only require you to plug in the NeXus unit but also require you to plug in a little 1"x1" cartridge in order to receive satellite radio. Carrying around two units, one of which is the cartridge, makes this a really bad design for people who are comfortable with carrying their satellite radio from place to place--all the other XM radios are better at this, which is ironic since this is supposed to be a portable unit.
Interesting concept but poor execution and it's too bad Amazon.com is still only a bookstore web site. It's still selling this thing nearly full price even though we are over 8 months from its being discontinued.
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| "Meets Limited Expectations Nicely, Constrained by the XM Format" | 2007-08-28 |
| - Reviewed By cmkelleher |
First XM offers superior music to Sirius, sounding better, stronger stereo signal. Unless you absolutely must hear Howard Stern, XM is the better choice for music fans.
Second, this package from Samsung is well-designed with all the features you need to get on XM from your home. Remember the unit cannot tune in live XM while you walk around, only when it is docked. This is fine, as efforts so far to provide true mobile access from XM and Sirius have both been pretty miserable, with portable shoulder mounted antennas and large uncomfortable oversize headphones that sound rotten, and barely functional signal tuning even with the stupid devices. Live personal non-car based mobile access is neither feasible nor desirable with current tech. Instead the Samsung records up to 25 or 50 hours of XM broadcasts and then plays them back later as you walk around. A good compromise, and you can get live tuning when the unit is docked. You can connect the dock to your home stereo, but the kit does not include an FM transmitter so you must use a wire connection. This kit is all you need to get up and running, and is a lot cheaper than other options from XM or Sirius. If you want cheap satellite radio, this is it.
The Samsung Nexus is a decent player. Controls are easy to figure out, and the screen though tiny has all you may need on it. The player feels a bit lightweight and plastic, and the MP3 function is an afterthought as the memory is small and devotes half of the space to XM files, even if you don't need or want that much space. As a result, you can only have half a gig of your own MP3s on the Nexus. (512 MB of MP3 files? Why bother?).
The real issues with the Nexus are really issues with XM. I think it's fair to link XM service to this product in the review, as the Nexus is pretty much useless without an XM subscription. XM service to me is a big "maybe" as there are three major issues with the existing service.
First, you may not be able to tune anything in. Land based transmitters are only available in several big cities, and the satellite system is dependent on your location to the southwest sky and the signal interference in your area. I work in downtown Manhattan and have a clear view of the Southern sky but despite this I could not tune in a usable signal from either terrestrial or satellite based broadcasts. I could tune XM in fine from home, but as I explain below, I have no real need for XM at home. Before you activate your account, make sure you can tune in the XM Sample channel One, which you should be able to do without subscribing. If you can't tune in the sample channel, don't bother activating the unit, send it back and spare yourself the heartache of dealing with XM subscription service.
Second point, XMs efforts to keep subscribers at any cost make AOL look like amateurs. It is literally impossible to unsubscribe from XM. I tried for three months in a row on a prior subscription, and could not get the account closed. I was promised they would close the account, credit my card back etc, and even after half a dozen phone calls to different agents and even supervisors, the account was never closed and no credits were issued. XM Staff gave me a few months for free when I tried to close the first time, and I got the impression they would have given me some more free time when I tried to close the account again, so if you like calling up and threatening to cancel periodically and getting some free extra months out of the deal, this may be for you. But if you think you may ever want to close the account and walk away, you are in for an ordeal. I finally called my credit card company, and they cancelled future payments to XM and refunded me my last month of unwanted charges. The credit card customer service dept said this was a common problem with XM Radio accounts. Unless you are certain you know you want XM service indefinitely or forever, think carefully before subscribing.
Final point: who needs XM? If you have a computer with internet access, you can get dozens of free internet radio stations with similar quality and variety to what XM offers. If you drive and want XM, this may be a good fit if you don't mind choppy reception and sudden drop-outs on occasion. But if you are at home, you can do as good or better than XM for free on your PC, and by using various wires or wireless gadgets you can broadcast the signal from your PC to your home stereo. Yes, the gadgets cost a bit, but this is a one time charge, not the endless $13 a month that XM charges you till the end of time. My employer blocks streaming internet radio on our corporate firewall so I thought I would get XM so I could listen to the service at work, but as I said above, I could not tune it in. I don't need XM at home, and don't want it in my car, so I sent the Samsung back to Amazon for a full refund.
Moral of the story: if you are sure you like XM and want to subscribe for the indefinite future, if you can tune the broadcast in, and if you are really sure you can't meet your radio diversity needs in any other way than XM, the Samsung Nexus is an excellent and inexpensive way to experience the medium.
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 "XM Satellite billing issues" | 2007-07-14 |
| - Reviewed By nw_dan |
XM Satellite billing issues
I had read this earlier on posts regarding XM's billing practices but thought it was just that person's problem or misunderstanding. Unfortunatley, I was wrong.
When you sign up for XM online you give over your credit card # which is then in their greedy little paws. After trying one of their radios for a few weeks I decided there were some good features but nothing worth keeping. I returned the radio to an area big box store w/o any issues.
I had only paid for a 30 day subscription with my credit card but they continued to bill me.
Links on the web site for unsubscribing lead to another page of links w/o telling you how to unsubscribe! When I called to find out why they were continuing to bill me one representative gave me a runaround saying that even though they could cease billing me they had to bill me as the radio had still been running (this is well over a month after returning it)!. Eventually they agreed to a partial refund even though I do not trust them to not bill again.
For those who might say this is not about the equipment listed on Amazon, I believe it's impossible with satellite radio to unlink the radio programming or the billing issues from the equipment. This is not Amazon's fault, but I think consumers need to be warned.
If you must try XM, I would highly recommend using a credit card that you add money to for any individual purchases not your usual purchases. I do not, however, think they're a very honest company.
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| "I'm ordering this radio to use along with my Nexus 25" | 2007-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2HCAY3TKY3T69 |
I have a Roady XT as well. but it isn't portable. I took my Nexus 25 to a dental appointment today and listened to my favorite show while having treatment.
As James explained in his review, you are paying the subscription for the passport mini tuner, and can use as many radios as you like with it. Only radio one at a time can be live. And each radio must be connected live at least 8 hours a month.
This is a good value. The passport mini tuner alone is retailing for $30 at my local Best Buy. If you're interested, Google XM Passport and see what they have planned for it. |
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 "Annoying auto dropout cuts off every XM tune!" | 2007-06-13 |
| - Reviewed By dpweho |
| I have the Nexus 25 but assume the same problem exists in the 50. When listening to a recorded XM channel, the player automatically drops out (cuts off) the last couple of seconds of each song and the first second or so of the next song. This means you lose the last few notes of every tune and the first few of the next one. This is extremely jarring if you are used to the normal radio listening experience, since like most radio stations, XM's songs are played in a continuous mix without break, meaning normally the next song starts as the previous song fades away without interruption. Even more noticeable is when this happens during spoken moments such as station IDs or jingles. Instead of hearing "The History of Alternative Music, Fred on 44", you instead only get "istory of Alternative Music, Fred on Fo" or instead of "American Top 40 with Casey Kasem", you hear only "rican Top 40 with Casey K". It is just ridiculous and there seems to be no way around it. |
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| "So-so product... be SURE you like XM Radio before you buy" | 2007-06-13 |
| - Reviewed By cplusc |
I stopped using this product after a few weeks because of its limitations, which when added up make it a poor entertainment buy in my opinion. No secret is made of the fact that this device only picks up the XM signal when it is tethered to its antenna and cradle... you can't get the signal on the go. This actually isn't as bad as it might seem. You can easily set up the device to record many hours of your favorite XM channel overnight for example and listen to it on the go later. You can delete songs you don't like and you will eventually end up with quite a bit of music you do like.
It records XM music at a fairly low bitrate (128 kbps), which does not give you a high quality recording. It could be that XM's signal doesn't broadcast at a higher bitrate, which would mean this limitation isn't the product's shortcoming, but rather XM's.
The user interface (a 'special' version of Napster) can be extremely frustrating in terms of getting it to recognize the Nexus device until you realize you have to start the software and plug in the device in a particular order, which the user manual doesn't tell you - neither did customer support at either Samsung or Napster. In fact, I was told things about the device and the software that were so clearly wrong as to be sadly comical. For instance: Napster told me the software can only manage music purchased from Napster, which is clearly wrong. The Nexus manual tells you in writing that "you can only transfer songs [between the Nexus and your PC] that you have purchased from XM+Napster or songs that you have ripped from your audio CDs." This too is clearly wrong.
All the above in my opinion isn't even the worst of it. This product, tied to XM Radio service, can obviously be no better than XM Radio itself. I wanted very much to like XM but could not get over the fact that even though you are paying $12.95 a month, they still talk over the music, and they play plenty of ads and irritating XM 'jingles'. I have cancelled service due to these issues. I don't see the point for all the XM-originated chatter and channel ID jingles when you can simply look at your device to see what channel you're listening to (and paying for) if you can't tell from the music selections. I tried out XM a few years back for a few months (cancelled for other reasons) and the talk-over and extraneous jingle issues seem much worse now than they once were. I have found internet-based sources of free music that is free of ads and chatter, and which can be recorded on your hard drive with various available software... and at higher bitrates that are of noticeably higher quality. |
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| "Can't beat it for the cost!" | 2007-05-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1MN5TV2OYD24T |
| The Samsung Nexus 50 does exactly what it is suppose to do. I have had no problems with the unit. It is like having a vcr for your satellite. |
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