There are a lot of visually attractive MP3 players out there these days vying for your wallet. One we find rather interesting is the RCA Opal, noted for its good sound quality and lightweight design.

The RCA Opal is very thin on first glance, measuring just 0.34-inches in thickness. It is light in your hand and features a decent 1.5-inch color OLED display. There are three visible controls, including a menu button, four-way select button and a hold button. The Opal attempts to visually look gem-like, but we find the overall color scheme on the tested 2GB model to be muted at best.

Battery life, estimated at 15 hours by RCA, met the mark in our tests. Charging is done through the headphone port, which also doubles as a USB connection. While we appreciate the desire to save space, if you lose the included non-standard USB you're may be out of luck until you can find a replacement.

Sound quality on the Opal was good, even when played at full volume and not supported by the multi-choice equalizer. The included silicone in-earphones were surprisingly comfortable, surpassing the standard earbuds included with many competing MP3 players. Great sound was tempered somewhat though by the video and picture playback on the small screen--we found video to be a little grainy and picture color somewhat muted.

Transferring music onto the Opal via Windows Media Player 11 took a long 18 minutes, 15 seconds for 14 albums (828MB) of MP3s--plan on reading a magazine article while you wait. Besides MP3s you can enjoy Audible audiobooks and WMA music files, including those which can be commonly downloaded off of music subscription services. You can also record your voice and do in-line recording from an external audio source.

With regards to controls and on-screen navigation this particular RCA player is pretty intuitive. The central button, controlling volume, play/pause and other options gave us a reassuring tactile response in use. On-screen menus and audio playback information were well-laid out and provided a wealth of useful information.

We find the RCA Opal a fair option for an inexpensive MP3 player. It is marred by some design and usability issues however which we feel cannot be overlooked by those in the market for a portable audio device.

Pros: Good sound quality, good earphones, thin design
Cons: Average display screen, non-standard USB cable, long music transfer time

Warranty
1 year