UnisonTech Intros Soriya TMS600 MP3 Player on Amazon

While the TMH-100 portable media player has caught the news, UnisonTech has quietly launched one of their MP3 player models up on Amazon to hit up the US consumer audience.

Starting with the Soriya TMS600 MP3 Player lineup (128MB, 256MB, and 512MB models currently available), UnisonTech is trying to bring their products to market in the US with a reasonably-direct sales channel. The TMS600 is a great product to start with, as it has a unique ‘flip open’ design that hides away and protects the LCD screen when it isn’t needed, and a simple ‘joystick’ control mechanism. The TMS 600 allows user control over the LCD backlight and display timeout for when it is open.

The TMS600 can handle music files in MP3, WMA and ASF format, and uses normal Windows folders for storage and organization of music – in fact, it’s just a USB mass storage device as far as the PC is concerned (which, in theory, means you could use it on Macs or Linux boxes too). This also means the TMS600 acts as a pen drive, carrying around any type of files you need to transport, and not just your music. The folder/tree structure is used for both navigation and playback, but there is also the ability to navigate to and add individual files to the current playing ‘play list’, to queue up a particular selection of songs on the fly. Not as powerful as pre-built lists, but many users prefer self-organized tree structure devices. The TMS600 has repeat one, directory, or all modes, and shuffle directory or shuffle all modes. You can also adjust the playback speed from 75%-130%, useful for listening to voice recordings or audiobooks.

Probably the ‘killer feature’ of the TMS600 is that it has an FM transmitter built-in – which makes it great for playing through a boombox, home stereo, or most importantly on long car trips. The advantage of built-in transmitters is that they usually a bit stronger than battery powered models, have better audio control in general as they have the raw audio levels for transmission, and with the already-built-in LCD they can offer the easy ability to do digital tuning. The TMS600 looks to offer full FM band transmission.

The TMS600 also then packs in an FM radio tuner with full-range access from 87.5MHz to 108MHz, digital auto-scan for stations, and allows storing of favorite/preset stations, direct encoding from an external audio device direct to an MP3 file with automatic recording level adjustment, ability to record direct off the FM radio, and a built-in condenser mic for direct MP3 digital voice recorder functionality (with auto-sound detection, which will pause and resume recording automatically as you stop and start talking). All recording modes have separated bitrate preferences for complete control over your recording quality. It also has five equalizer settings for tuning the music to your liking, and has MP3 lyric support for showing lyrics while the music plays.

The TMS600 measures 80mm x 44mm x 18mm, and weighs only 36g (without AAA battery). It runs for about 10 hours per AAA, though obviously the newer rechargeables should last a little longer than usual. It’s only a USB1.1 device, but for devices under 1GB, we don’t see that as a big limitation.

With prices starting around $100 US, this should be an interesting addition to the market – if it meets your needs, get on over to Amazon and pick one up today!