[Note: After a month of using this device on a daily basis, I have some important additions and amendments. I must submit them as a comment to this review, otherwise, they'll push this review above the 20k character limit.]
In reviews of very similar devices I have recently purchased, I have noted that my purpose in doing so was to find a replacement daily driver MP3/Audio only player, to replace what was my daily driver in that regard, the SanDisk Clip Sport. In spite of the fact that I also carry my phone, I still think it's more convenient to keep on having a separate audio-only device for digital music and podcasts.
The SDCS was showing the limits of its age, including a 2000-song limit and a 500-podcast limit (even if the memory can fit many more), no BT, and its inability to truly randomize when set to shuffle - What I mean by that is that it seems to me like the SD developers were too clever by half and were apparently allergic to RanInt(), and, per my supposition, they programmed the SDCS firmware to try to discern the user's habits in terms of his or her track listening and engagement, which tracks the person listened to the longest and shortest, and programmed the firmware to "randomize" and "shuffle" by mostly playing the same tight circle of tracks the most frequently, while playing the others less frequently if at all. A hypothetical example is that if the given user let Beyonce songs play out the longest relative to their track length, but skipped over Johnny Cash songs, the AI would get biased toward Beyonce tracks and against Johnny Cash tracks, and play way more Beyonce than Johnny Cash. It got so bad that, on several occasions, I caught myself almost buying songs I already owned, but I totally forgot that I did, only because my daily driver MP3 player never played them.
My first try was the Mansso V2. I reviewed it here:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3GSNTBEWNVR1G?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
My second try was the Kingbox X55. Its review:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R22YFOJ9GUGY5J?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
Third time was a charm, with the Victure M3:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RKR9EMYYXZYYC?ref=pf_ov_at_pdctrvw_srp
Then on a humbug, and for the fact that it was a number one new release and getting pretty rave reviews, and for the fact that it was only $15 after the coupon, I bought this device, the Oakcastle MP100. Add another $15 for the 128 GB TF card, and you've got device and maximum storage for thirty clams -- Not bad at all.
First off, let's get the obvious out of the way. In spite of how much this device's packaging, literature and its company's website touts the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, in reality, it's just another one of the many inexpensive Chinese-made and -engineered devices that uses pretty much the same OS and codebase that they all do, including the three others denoted above. With the exception of the Mansso, this Oakcastle is the same physical form factor and basic physical design as the Kingbox, Victure and the SanDisk Clip Sport. It is probably only the most threadbare of legal factors that this MP100 can boast about being one of the Queen's subjects.
I'll start with the conclusion: If not for the Victure, the MP100 would be my unquestioned new daily driver. But with the Victure, it and the MP100 are neck-and-neck in that regard, in my opinion, because they both have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other that kinda cancel each other out. Not to mention what they share in common, some good some not so good. Which means that as of this moment, I consider the Victure and the Oakcastle to be my daily co-drivers while decidedly imperfect devices overall.
Now, time to do the deep dive. You know the drill: Coffee, sandwich, before you start.
SURPRISE INCLUDED ACCESSORY
The retail packaging for the Oakcastle was eye pleasing, better than the Victure or the Kingbox. Inside the box, there was a pleasant surprise that was not at all indicated here on Amazon's product page, or even in the instruction manual, as an included accessory: A translucent protective rubber (or maybe silicone) case, one specifically made for the MP100. The caveat is that you can't switch the hold/lock button when it's on, and it blocks the charging port, and the area over the actual screen is just as translucent as the rest of the case, not transparent, so it winds up blurring the screen. But not a big deal, especially since you're not looking at the screen for around 95% of the time that you're using this or any similar device. It is bit of a pain come charging time.
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Unlike the other listed devices, the small paper manual is in one language only, the only language I need, that being English. And it's better written (no "Engrish") than the competitors, so that must be how Oakcastle took advantage of its "Britishness." Still, the manual is rather spartan, and, like the other devices, I had to figure out a lot on my own via trial and error.
OPERATING SYSTEM AND GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE
Like I wrote above, it's the same as the others, with the exception of the lack of a few features I never would use anyway, and didn't use in the other devices that have them.
But, there's a twist with the MP100: On the main home screen menu of major functionality, the options are shown on the right side of the screen and listed vertically, and you have to use the up/down buttons on the click wheel to scroll among them. In all the others of the same form factor, these options are horizontal-scrolling, and you have to scroll from side to side using the left-right buttons.
Secondary functionality menus are just about the same on the Oakcastle as they are on the other devices that aren't the SDCS.
BUTTONS AND ERGONOMICS
The MP100, like the Victure, gets the button arrangement ergonomics correct: Click wheel up/down/left/right arranged logically and properly, then a middle button, then two menu-type buttons in the northeast and northwest corners. However, where the Oakcastle beats the Victure is that, while the buttons are flat pat, same as the Victure, there is a raised indenture around the middle button and surrounding the corners of the NE/NW menu buttons, which makes "flying blind" usage of the MP100 much easier than the Victure. Those raised indentures are noticeable even when using the encasement. As a bonus, there is enough of a crack in the gap tolerance in the NE/NW menu buttons below the indentation, such that the light from the screen slightly shines through it, and I think that was a deliberate design choice, to make usage easier in dark environments. As an aside, the only thing redeeming about the Kingbox was its raised buttons, even though they are ergonomically incorrect and serve a very slow and clunky UI.
But...
And this is a biggie, not detrimentally so, once you get used to it:
There is no up/down volume rocker on either side, unlike all the other devices. You use the up/down buttons on the click wheel to turn the volume up/down, in situations where it is relevant, and the MP100 is smart enough to know when to automatically and temporarily remap the functionality of the up/down buttons to volume.
There is a physical lock switch on the right side, which I like and can figure how I'll use to my advantage. That is, when I'm not using the encasement.
The power button, on top. And that has a twist, too: When turning the power off, the screen shows a three-count, as a reminder that you have to hold down the device for the three count (a "count" here is much shorter than a whole second of time) for it to turn off.
UI RESPONSIVENESS AND SPEED
This is where the MP100 disappoints. It's noticeably slower than the Victure when transitioning from ROM to TF functionality and vice versa. However, once you get that out of the way, it and the Victure are on par, and, since the Victure isn't as good as I think it could be in that regard, the same applies to the Oakcastle. The MP100 has the same minor issue with song track change as does the Victure, in that, once it moves on to the next track following a previous one, either on its own or at your command, the music will start sooner than the display shifts.
DISPLAY QUALITY AND QUIRKS
This is another area where the retail packaging and promotional literature and photos deceive you. As you can see from the photos that other reviewers have submitted, the actual display is nowhere near as high resolution or as elegant as the packaging and lit suggests. It's really about the same as the Victure in terms of resolution. Once again, not classically beautiful, but over the Mendoza Line, and not the most important thing in the world for an audio-intensive device, whose screen you won't be looking at for around 95% of the time you're using it.
When playing a track, the MP100's display is really busy and tells you a lot. Way more so than the other devices. One thing it doesn't do which the others do, is a relative bargraph of track progress. The MP100 shows precisely (HH-MM-SS) where you are in the track in terms of forward time progress, and the precise time length of the track, at the same time, along the bottom line. But no relative scrollbar. You don't get any kind of relative volume bar, either - All that happens when you turn the volume up or down is that the volume number indicator of the northwest corner increases or decreases.
The dancing bar graphs whilst a track is playing (they do stop when you hit pause, and seem to speed up when you rewind or fast forward through a track) don't seem to be a scientific measurement at all, just a pre-programmed visual sequence akin to a throbber.
To me, this UI overload whilst playing a song is something I can take or leave, not a big deal to me either way. I really don't need to know that a given MP3 track I'm playing is of the MP3 file format and 192 kbps, at the time I'm playing it. Maybe in a future firmware update, they could swap that out for a relative track progress GUI bar and a relative volume GUI bar of some sort.
BLUETOOTH MEMORY
Questions in other reviews about whether the MP100 can remember your last paired BT device or not -- The correct answer is that it gives you the option to whether you want to do that or not. Which I like. And it's the only device of the ones I list which can do that. Unfortunately, while it remembers your last paired device, it does not remember to keep the system BT status on once you turn off. Which means when you turn back on, you have to wade through the menus to go to BT and turn it back on. But once you do that, it'll automatically re-pair with your last paired BT speaker or headphone, provided you have that setting on.
EQUALIZATION
EQ options present, and as usual, only through wired headphones. Unfortunately, the MP100, unlike all the others, lacks the ability to customize your own. However, I think the included presets are pretty well thought out, so I'm not steaming that badly because I can't "roll my own." Maybe in a future firmware update.
Of all the listed devices, only the Kingbox is smart enough to turn EQ options off when BT is being used. Which means the others, including the MP100, aren't. And as usual, if you try to use EQ options while playing through BT speakers or 'phones, the EQ has no effect. Once again, maybe in a future firmware update.
FM RADIO
Avoid like the plague. The worst of all the listed devices, and that's saying a lot, because it's not too good on the Kingbox and Victure, and only passable on the Mansso and the SDCS. FM on the MP100 only gets the strongest local stations, even with wired headphones being used as the antenna. I carry around a separate AM/FM pocket radio, so, no bother. Note: Some other reviewers implicitly suggest that the MP100 has AM tuner - I can confirm that it does not. Which I could have guessed, as something this small wouldn't have the room for a ferrite bar antenna.
TRACK REWINDING, RESTARTING AND RANDOMIZATION
The MP100 and the Victure behave the same way, in contrast to the Kingbox. Once you start a track, if you touch the back button within a few seconds of it starting, it will go back to the previous track, but if you're already past those few seconds, it will start back at the beginning of the present track. That's the way it should be. The Kingbox, however, doesn't do that -- No matter where you are within a track, if you touch the back button, it goes back to the previous track.
(Later update: Upon further usage, I have found that behavior is inconsistent. Sometimes, it will behave properly, but others, it will wind up going back to the previous track. Furthermore, I can't make any rhyme or reason to it, why it behaves properly sometimes but improperly at other times.)
But there's a twist, and me discovering this behavior in the Oakcastle made me go back to the Victure and discover that it too has the same minor problem: When in shuffle mode, it doesn't remember the shuffle sequence once you turn off. So, when you turn back on, it's right back to square one. Let's say you have exactly 3000 tracks. You start the device, and it randomizes to track 1664. Once it's done, or you skip ahead to the next track, it randomizes to track 792. Then to 2995. Then to 2108. Then to 4. Once you get going, it will remember the shuffle sequence, and should you quickly shift back and forth, it will remember the 1664 - 792 - 2995 - 2108 - 4 sequence, and go back and forth through it justly. However, at the beginning, at 1664, if you try to hit back, it will not go back to the track that played before track 1664 before you powered off the device, it will pick one automatically at random, and then remember it in the sequence memory.
The SanDisk remembers the track randomization sequence even if you powered off. But, like I wrote above, it never truly randomized.
CUSTOM FOLDERS AND THE BLEED OUT PROBLEM
The MP100, like the Victure, does let you create custom folders on the file hierarchy of the TF card, and does show them on the device. Also, unfortunately, like the Victure, the MP100 has a "bleed out" problem, in that, even if you set the MP100 to a certain folder, it will sometimes "bleed out" and play tracks from other folders on the TF card hierarchy. In my case, regular music, Christmas music and podcasts are my three folders. Meaning I'm playing regular music, then it advances to the next track, which winds up being a Christmas song or a podcast. However, the "bleed out" problem does not present on the Oakcastle as often as it does on the Victure. But it still means I'll be using the MP100 for regular music only, just like the Victure, all MP3 files in the TF card root folder.
BATTERY LIFE AND CHARGING
About 90 minutes empty-to-full charging on the MP100, though that's a result of my charging system being one of those smart thingys which auto-magically adjusts the charging rate to your device, so that it doesn't fill up the tank too quickly or too slowly. The battery icon charging animated icon sequence is proper right out of the box, in that it shows a "filling up" battery while charging and a full one when fully charged, if you're charging with the power off. Unlike the Victure, which showed the charging icon but nothing on the screen when fully charged, but that was fixed with its latest firmware update.
In spite of only being listed as a 300 mah battery, I get a legit seven-hour battery life on BT and 30 hours on wired. I think the actual battery is more than 300 mah, because the Victure, with its 360 mah, only gives me five on BT and 20 on wired. Either that, or advances in the BT specification and/or the MP100's engineering make it easier on a battery.
The downside is that the "gas gauge" on the MP100 has an accuracy problem that none of the other devices has. It's a four position battery fill graphic, and when you're down to position two, which is apparently 50%, the reality is that it's more like 25%.
INCLUDED EARBUDS
Re-gift them as a birthday present for someone you hate.
FILE ARRANGEMENT
In all these devices except the SDCS and the Mansso, the device shows you tracks in order of date created, newest to oldest, which means the MP100 has the same problem. The program SDSorter is my go-to way to fix that. One advantage the MP100 has over the Victure is that it scrolls through long lists of tracks much faster.
CHANGING THE VOLUME
Like I said, the MP100 is unique in that you use the up-down click wheel keys to change volume. One advantage over the Victure is that the MP100 doesn't leave your UI stuck on a volume level GUI while and after doing it. Meaning that, if you're playing a track, and you change the volume, on the Victure, you either have to wait for the UI to go back to the song before you can click to the next or previous song, or hit the center play/pause button to escape the volume GUI and to back to the music GUI. On the MP100, you can immediately go from changing volume to track slewing.
But like I wrote above, no volume GUI or even a relative volume scrollbar, just changing the volume number indicator.
STAR RATING
Like with the Victure, I wish I could rate this 3.5 stars, but it would be dishonest to rate it four stars. I've already stated here in the review of the MP100 and the Victure review what keeps me from rating it that highly. I'm picky with my ratings of electronic and digital devices that I could expect to use and interact with on a daily basis. Even though many of you might find it strange that I only give three stars to two different devices that I'm describing as daily drivers.
MY SUBMITTED PHOTOS
(1) The back of the retail packaging, the MP100, and its surprise included accessory of a rubber encasement
(2) Ibid., but the front of the retain packaging
(3) My five MP3 players. L to R: Mansso V2, Kingbox X55, Victure M3, Oakcastle MP100, SanDisk Clip Sport
| Brand | Majority |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Majority |
| Model number | MP100 |
| Model Year | 2020 |
| Part Number | OC-MP100-MP3 |
| Memory Storage Capacity | 16 GB |
| Flash Memory Installed Size | 16 GB |
| Digital Storage Capacity | 16 GB |
| Card Reader | MicroSD |
| Batteries Included | Yes |
| Batteries Required | Yes |
| Battery Cell Composition | Lithium Ion |
| Wireless Type | Bluetooth |
| Connector Type | Bluetooth |
| Supported Standards | MP3 |
| Memory Card Slot | Micro SD |
| Product Dimensions | 5.8 x 3.6 x 1.7 cm; 27 Grams |
| Item Weight | 27 g |
| Manufacturer | Majority |
| ASIN | B08BJBJTMF |
| Item Model Number | MP100 |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Date First Available | 24 September 2020 |
