The S50 has hit the retail stores and the online retailers have shipped their first batches. I promised a review and I will borrow one from SiriusBackstage to save me time. I have had this unit for 2 days now and should be able to answer any additional questions the below reveiw does not address:
SISO's review
Here is my review, although it's more than a review.
First, just a little quick history of the receivers I have owned so you know what I am comparing this to. PNP2, Xact XTR1, and Sporster Replay (you can find a review of the replay somewhere around here). I know this is wrong, but before you ask please read this review. I have organized it so stuff is easier to find.
Opening the box….
OK, so I’ve been waiting for this baby for 3 months, so obviously I was excited to get it and open it. I had heard so much of this being an “ipod-esk” experience (if you don’t know what I’m talking about go buy an iPod). I can say it did sort of feel that way, from the instruction book, cd, channel guide, and the overall layout of the inside of the box. 3 “shelves” of S50 and S50 accessory goodness. The manual is nicely done, not cheap paper, the same with the included channel guide. Small things, but a nice touch.
When you take the S50 out of the box you MUST take the piece of tape off of the battery or it won’t turn on. After that you can turn it on and explore the features, which I will get into more later.
Set-up…
I’m using the car kit at home which works, but I’d much rather have the home kit. But it is very doable with one of these. I called CS, got a very excitable lady who was overjoyed that I was her first S50 activation. It took around 30 seconds for it to get the activation signal, and I was set.
Screen
The pictures you have seen don’t do this screen justice, it hands down blows away any current satellite radio display. Crystal clear, the text, logos, and wallpapers look smashing. You can turn the wallpapers off, it still looks good but I personally prefer them on. The little heart, >>, <<, pause, and magnifying glass icons that appear on the screen when pressed are also cool.
Overall Appearance
This thing is sleek, you’ve seen the pictures but until you actually hold it you have no idea. It hardly weighs a thing. A member here said that once you get it in your hand you won’t want to let go, I couldn’t have said it better myself. The look is absolutely perfect.
Features (yes, there are a lot)…
Voice Navigation
This is one of the coolest features, it is a lady’s voice, very nicely done. If you keep it on the channel for about 2 seconds her voice will come on, it will not come on if you are quickly scrolling. She also names the various menus. This can be turned off and on. Please not that you can’t talk to it, ok, you can but that would be weird.
Pause/RW/FF
If you own a replay model this is nothing new to you, but it is still very cool. Press the RW or FF button once to skip an entire song or hold them down to go through it. When you press these a little icon on the screen pops up like stated before. Once you go to a receiver that has this feature, you will never go back.
Love Button
This is a really nice little addition, with the press of a button you can save an entire song. If you just turned the channel and press the love button it will alert you that the recording won’t be complete. On talk channels AND BBC Radio 1 you can hold down the love button to select a start and ending point for a recording. You CAN love songs in My Sirius Channels.
Magnifying Glass
This is a pretty cool idea, it’s just like pressing the side button on a regular PNP remote, it switches between browse single channels, categories, and your presets. Which leads us to the next subject…
Presets
To set a preset is easy, you simply hold down the select button and it will tell you to press the select button again to set it as a preset. If you want to remove that preset you simply hold down the button again and you can either remove it or move it to another number.
Sports Features
In the menu there is a Sports Settings option. This is where you can set your favorite teams, turn game alerts on and off and turn the sports ticker on or off.
Scheduled Recordings
Under the “content management” option in the main menu you can set scheduled recordings. Here you can choose what channel, what date, what time, the duration, and the frequency (once, weekly, M-F, Daily). Of course like stated so many times you can NOT schedule a recording on a music channel.
My Sirius Channels
The S50 is smart enough to know your 3 favorite channels, and when you are on one of those it records that channel. It saves the channel as separate songs, not as one big recording although station Ids are recorded also. I am not sure how long it will record, but My Spa 73 has 4 hours 30 minutes on it so it is a while. Note: Every time you turn to this channel it will ADD to the existing recorded content, I’m not sure if it starts immediately or it waits after you’ve been on that channel for a period of time.
FM Trans
This is a cool feature that the newer tuners have, you can set the 3 best FM stations you use to transmit to. Saves you a little time. As for the FM Trans itself I have not tested it.
Playlists
Playlists is where you go to access your MP3s and stored content (recorded shows, my Sirius channels, “loved songs”. This is simple and easy to use. You can shuffle your loved songs and your saved Mp3s, but you can’t combine both. Your saved Sirius Songs aka “Loved” songs are stored in categories such as pop, rock, etc.
Other features
Of course you’ve got your parental locks, time settings (no, there is not an alarm clock), audio settings, display settings, etc. etc.
Remote
The remote is very nice, nicely setup, looks good, easy to use. The strength is also better than other PNP remotes.
Car Kit
The car kit is nice, has the scroll wheel which tilts to select pause/play, rw and ff, and love. Also has 3 buttons on the bottom: back button, play lists, and magnifying glass. Also has a button on the side it has a button to go the menu.
Sound Quality
Call me crazy but I really do think this baby has better sound quality. The sound quality for the recorded content is close to the same quality (if not the same).
Other accessories
Headphones- Good pair of headphones, make sure you press them in all the way. Trust me, you’ll think you have and you really haven’t.
Belt Clip- It’s a belt clip. Yep.
Pouch- This isn’t on the box but it does come with a little silk like pouch for you to tote your S50 around in.
My Sirius Studio
This is the program that comes with the S50. This is where you will download future firmware upgrades, channel info, manage your play lists and drag and drop MP3s on your computer that you want to put into your S50. Simple, easy to use, cool looking. What more could you ask for?
In conclusion *phew*.
If you have the money for this receiver, get it! There is a learning curve, I’d say a day or 2 for the average user. There are so many great features you just continue to discover new things. The work Sirius and Ziba (the designers) put into this really shows.
Sure, it could have been live. But you have to understand, in many places reception would be poor to very poor. I’d almost rather have a receiver that can record 50 hours then a live one. It is what it is. If you want a live one wait, but this receiver shouldn’t be thrown aside just because of the lack of this one feature. Give it a chance.
This is definitely the most feature rich satellite radio EVER. With that said, this probably isn't for the non-tech savy folks. Like I said there is a learning curve, I've frozen up mine several times (don't ask how, because I don't know) among other small things and I'm pretty Sirius reveiver savy if I do say so myself.
Want to buy an S50? The Sirius Store is where I got mine and I recommend you doing the same. Thanks Taylor!
I will continue to update this review. If you read it all, congrats!
Pics coming soon. But there are plenty of them out there for you to enjoy until then.
Link to Review
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