When it comes to MP3 players we’ve seen a fair few DAPs that break the mould in terms of originality (though not quite as many as those that patently haven’t) but this highly stylised MashiMaro DAP is, beyond all doubt, the most distinctive of them all.
Interestingly, its taken me over two and a half hours to hunt this down as I came across a tiny image of it on an obscure, wholly flash based Korean online store which simply refused to allow me to link through to the details (tried FF, IE, Chrome, Safari - no joy). But, having spent an age sifting through Korean stores (non of which I can understand) eventually I found it and, in all honesty, it’s been well worth the (considerable) effort.
Based on a fictional Korean character by Kim Jae In, the MashiMaro DAP, apart from its distinctive design, measures in at 54 x 38 x 38mm and comes with 2GB of onboard storage capacity and, in terms of file format support, takes in MP3, WMA,ASF,APE, WAV, ACT and OGG (the latter meaning it gets particular brownie points from us).
As is evidenced by the imagery, the MashiMaro DAP comes sans display (it’s seemingly becoming all the rage these days, isn’t it) and uses a somewhat novel means of control which basically boils down to moving it’s ears, which are lit by an integrated LED, to access navigation functionalities with the LED’s color changing between pastel blue and red hues to indicate whether the MashiMaro is playing or whether the hold function - accessed by a side mounted button - is activated.
The MashiMaro DAP comes in white, blue or the all too obligatory pink and is priced at the equivalent of around a mere $44 and, whilst, in terms of functionality, there’s little on offer here (it’s a rudimentary DAP at best) few would argue that it really is quite something else.
