To help us provide you with free impartial advice, we may earn a commission if you buy through links on our site. Learn more

ViewSonic VPD500 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £103
inc VAT

The VPD500 is an affordable portable video player with wide format support, but is let down by its fiddly controls and poor image quality.

ViewSonic’s VPD500 has a huge 5in screen with a high resolution of 800×480 pixels. This also means it’s fairly large and heavy at just under 200g, so it’s meant to be carried in your bag rather than your pocket.

It’s ideal for watching video and supports a wide variety of formats, playing all our MPEG2, DivX and H.264 test videos without problems. It can resume playback from where you left off and you can adjust the screen brightness and aspect ratio without having to stop the video.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed with the screen’s quality. It’s not very bright and contrast is poor, so distinguishing details in dimly lit films and programmes can be difficult. Viewing angles are tight, which isn’t ideal if you want to watch a video with a friend. The battery lasted just over six hours when playing video, which is a very respectable time.

Although the VPD500 is designed mainly for watching video, it can play music too. You’ll need a better-quality pair of headphones to make the most of your tunes, as the included earphones sound muddy and harsh. The VPD500 can also receive FM radio broadcasts, although we had trouble getting a clear signal in our central London offices. Unlike any other player we’ve seen, it can also transmit an FM radio signal without the need for an external transmitter, so you can listen to your music on your car speakers even if your car radio doesn’t have any audio inputs.

The VPD500’s interface bears an uncanny resemblance to the XMB interface of Sony’s PlayStation. Its menus are logically organised and easy to navigate, despite the rather fiddly top-mounted buttons, which are awkward and uncomfortable to press, especially when scrolling through long lists. Annoyingly it doesn’t support music playlists, although these can be approximated using folders in Windows Explorer.

At just over £100, ViewSonic’s VPD500 is cheap for a 16GB portable video player with such a large screen and broad video support. However, screen quality is poor, so iRiver’s E200 8GB is a better choice for most people.

Details

Price £103
Rating ***
Headphone Rating **

Hardware

Capacity 16.00GB
Formatted capacity 7.38GB
Interface USB
Storage medium flash memory
Battery and charge options Li-ion, USB, included charger
Size 131x15x85mm
Weight 196g

Features

Device has screen? Yes
Viewable size 5 in
Native resolution 800×480
Memory card support MicroSD
FM Radio no
Audio record options microphone
Video record options none
Supplied with headphones, USB cable, A/V cable, component cable, power adapter

Test Results

Tested battery life (MP3 playback) 14h 30m
Tested battery life (Video playback) 6h 10m
500MB transfer time 3m 10s
Audio MP3 playback Yes
Audio WMA playback Yes
Audio WMA-DRM playback Yes
Audio AAC playback No
Audio Protected AAC playback No
Audio OGG playback No
Audio WAV playback Yes
Audio Audible playback No
Image BMP support Yes
Image JPEG support Yes
Image TIFF support No
Video MPEG-4 AVI playback Yes
Video MPEG-4 MP4 playback Yes
Video WMV playback No
Video MPEG-1 playback Yes
Video MPEG-2 playback Yes
Video MPEG-2 VOB playback Yes
Video MPEG-4 DivX/XviD support Yes
Video H.264 support Yes
Video MPEG-4 MP3 audio support Yes
Video MPEG-4 AAC audio support Yes
Download compatibility WMA-DRM subscription and download

Buying Information

Price per MB 0.6p
Warranty one year RTB
Supplier http://www.morecomputers.com
Details www.viewsonic.co.uk

Read more

Reviews