M-Cody M-20 2GB
Page 5
Software (Continued)
Next, we try updating the firmware. On starting the program, we got the following dialog box.
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The next screen shows the current, and new firmware version.
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Clicking on "Show Details".
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We tried to uncheck "Format Data Area", but got the following message.
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The upgrade process.
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Transfer Speeds
To measure the transfer speed of the Zen V, we chose 201MB of MP3s. Transfer speed was very, very slow, although that is not completely unexpected as the M-20 is only USB1.1 and not USB2.0.
| Device | MB Transferred/Time taken | Average write speed |
| M-20 2GB | 201MB/4:58secs | ~0.67MB/s |
| Creative Zen V Plus 2GB | 201MB/2:54mins | ~1.2MB/s |
Benchmarks
The following graph shows the result of the benchmarks done using SimpliSoftware's HD Tach.
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The benchmark shows an average read speed of 1.0MB/s, slightly higher than the transfer speed we obtained above.
Battery Life
Median claims a playback time of 12 hours.
For audio tests, the M-20 was set to volume 17. Play mode was set to "Repeat All". "File" and "ID3" refer to the setting on the M-20 to read the ID3 tag or display the file name. "Display On" means the display was set to be on all the time.
A 3.5mm-3.5mm audio cable was used to connect the players to the line-in of a computer, with software recording the audio input. The battery life is considered to be the time from which music starts playing till it stops (when the player switches off due to insufficient power).
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We obtained rather unexpected results with the battery tests. Normally, disabling EQ would either give a better battery life, or not have any effect. For the M-20, disabling EQ actually reduced its battery life, managing only about 4 hours. In fact, using SRS WOW gave a better playback time than without EQ - nearly 8 hours. The best option was using Rock EQ, where it managed slightly over 10 hours, although still below the 12 hours claimed. Enabling the "ID3" tag option for MP3 files reduced the battery life significantly as well, to just under 5 hours. WMA playback was more consistent, offering about 5 and a half hours to 6 hours of playback.
In real-world use, however, we noticed that battery life was much lower, probably about 3 to 4 hours with WMA files. In addition, during the course of the test, we discovered a serious issue with the M-20. The above results were obtained by charging the M-20 from an AC adapter. Battery life was very poor when the M-20 was charged via the USB port instead. Using the best-case settings, the player managed to last nearly 2 hours, about a fifth of the 10 hours when charged by AC.
While writing the review, a new firmware, 020.000.126, was released. We tested the USB charging using this firmware and found no improvement.