XM inno Portable Satellite Radio/MP3 Player - Black

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iPod Killer (almost)!
Reviewer: SealMD from Santa Monica, CA on Dec 28, 2006
541 out of 634 found this review helpful

What a great little unit. I'm a newbie to satellite radio and a recent skeptic, but I am falling in love with being able to get whatever kind of music I want, whenever I want. I think I'm a convert.

I love being able to see artist name and song title. The most killer part is that I can record any song I hear on the radio. Even if you don't use the MP3 function, just having so many channels is like having an endless MP3 playlist and the sound quality is great (I can hardly tell the difference bet myMP3's & XM songs-->sometimes the difference is obvious, but other times the XM quality is superb & you can't tell at all)

Got this for my wife for Christmas. She is not a techie by any means, but picked it up and figured out how to use it in a few minutes on her own...very intuitive design.

We live in Santa Monica and use it for running. It gets great reception in our 2nd story apartment (in a 2-story apt bldg surrounded by a bunch of other 2-story apt bldgs), even without putting it on the dockingstation. It's not perfect, of course, but as long as I don't cover up the antenna while I'm walking through the house I can get reception 98% of the time. When I put it on the docking station in my living room (with NO south-facing windows), I get reception 100% of the time. This thing has replaced our regular stereo/radio. We have never had a reception problem while jogging (in one week of use). Just put the Inno in the belt-clip case (included) and run...100% perfect reception outdoors. In fact,we are going to take back the Belkin antenna headphones we bought b/c we just don't need 'em.

PROS:
-Remote control + home docking station
-Great sound quality (people have said that the Sirius Stiletto sounds better, but I bought one to compare and Ican't tell the difference)
-Simple, Intuitive design (compared to Stiletto: much easier to hold in one hand and use the controls, but not quite as customizable as Stiletto). Each channel has a little graphic that makes it easier to tell what it is (Stiletto doesn't have this).
-Home docking station with remote control included. Don't overlook this seemingly simple thing as it is one of the reasons it gave the Inno the slight edge over the Stiletto for me. Because of the docking & remote, it has now replaced our regular radio.
-Great reception indoors. Definitely better than the Stiletto (although Stiletto compensates at home w/ wireless internet advantage)
-Perfect reception outdoors (in Los Angeles area)


The following is a list of things I would changeto make this thing blow away the iPod. Some of them could be fixed if XM decided to include it in their firmware update.

CONS:
-Small memory size
-No expandable memory
-When turning off 'hold' it's easy to turn off the unit
-While recording a song, itis too easy to stop recording. For example, if you switch to listen to your MP3's or change a channel, your recording stops (there is no screen that comes up asking if you're sure you want to stop recording. Stiletto does have this 'safety' feature)
-Forpeople that have poor reception at home: you cannot use your wireless network connection to listen to the XM online (the Sirius Stiletto can). This hasn't been a problem for me as I get excellent reception.
-You cannot pause/rewind/fast-forward live radio (Stiletto can)
-No car kit included (Stiletto doesn't have it either)

SUMMARY:
Great product that definitely gives the iPod a run for its money. The main thing XM needs to do in order to blow away the iPod is increase the memory. A 4GB version, andespecially an 8GB version would put the final nail in the iPod coffin as far as I'm concerned. With this device, there is never any need to sit and try to decide which songs you want to buy. No more having to download music. Definitely the music solution for the busy individual who wants to do away with the hassle.

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2 years with my Inno..my faithful friend
Reviewer: Dave from Dallas, GA on Oct 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Some of the early ones had screen problems..perhaps caused by initial power surge when plugged into a dock. Circuit City swapped out the bad ones no questions asked the 3rd one is a charm, problem fixed I love the record live XM on the fly feature if youhit record within the first 30 seconds, it will capture the entire song what else does that! I have a whole house transmitter that I plug into my home dock and can pick up XM on a boombox anywhere around the house I use it with no dock in one room withplug in speakers and get great reception not even near a window This thing goes everywhere with me XM programming is vast and covers my need for news, talk, music and sports in a portable format with a delightful adjustable screen in color I have a large collection of live XM programming and MP3s from my computer stored in the memory. I recommend this Radio/MP3 Recorder. This is one of my favorite gadgets of all time!

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Great Addition for my Car
Reviewer: gtrdan19 from California on Sep 14, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful

I bought this unit because it gets all the sports games but I was pleasantly surprised to discover all the cool music that is available. If you are thinking about satellite radio I highly recommend this one.

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