Transcend Launches T.sonic 530 Players

They might look like candy tins, but Transcend's T.sonic 530 512 MB and 1 GB players may appeal to casual listeners with built-in lyric display and FM tuners.

Transcend has launched its latest tiny portable music player, the Transcend T.Sonic 530, available in 512 MB and 1 GB capacities and sporting a “chic and trendy” pattern art case design that might remind some users more of a tin for tiny candies than a music player – perhaps that’s an antitheft technology aimed at the the avoiding-calories crowd.

And the case design is the main thing setting the T.sonic 530 apart from the earlier T.sonic 520, but the feature set and pricing may still be appealing to casual music listeners who want radio and some digital music on the go, but aren’t concerned with carting around their entire music library and some television episodes to boot. The T.sonic 530s offer either 512 MB or 1 GB of mini-USB accessible storage capacity: support WMA, MP3, and WAV audio; offer a built-in FM tuner with 20 presets; sport a digital voice recorder; and feature a karaoke-type display on its OLED display so users can sing (or, in public, please read silently) along with their favorite tracks. Also on board: password protection, built-in equalization (with 6 presents and manual mode), and an A-B repeat function enabling users to continuously play a specific section of a track.

Transcend says the units are available now, but specified pricing for the T.sonic 530: expect them to land in the same $60 to $75 range as the T.sonic 520s.