Latte Communications Ice 4 GB Video MP3 Player (Silver)

I read many reviews before buying this. Some stated there was static in the earphones. YEP!! My son heard it right away and made a comment on the very night of opening this up for his birthday. It has a low level of static in the earphones and when a song is playing the equalizer makes noise and makes the songs hesitate and not flow at all. When I plugged in the earphones, it sounded like the jack was already oxidized. I shipped it back today.
I would avoid this product...

Not sure why is called ICE because it's warm and fuzzy, good clear pictures and videos. Easy to load, even easier to use. The ear buds are comfortable and the sound is full fidelity.

I bought this about 2 weeks ago, and upon first using it, I was extremely happy. It looked nice, had an easy interface, expandable memory and a pretty big screen. Then I started actually using it. First off, there was a high pitched hum when the player had no music on, or there was a lull in the music/video. It wasn't loud enough to be heard over music, but it was still kind of annoying. I could look past this and still see the nice features. Then a week ago I took it off of my desk and went to wipe some dust off when I suddenly realized I couldn't! It turns out that there is a significant (1-2mm) gap between the actual lcd and the plexiglass that covers it, and somehow some dust had gotten in there. Then upon closer inspection of the screen I noticed that when I pushed a button to turn the volume up/down the edge of the lcd screen rippled like it was being touched. Sure enough, the mere action of pushing a button stressed the frame enough to slightly bend the lcd out of shape. Now, just a couple of days ago something went wrong with the player itself. It started showing blue bars randomly in the menu. Then, the next day it wouldn't even start. I reloaded the firmware thinking it would be no problem, but now the names of the folders and files don't show up, but it can still play them. On top of that the player now skips randomly.

Perhaps I just got a lemon, yet there is a giant "QC PASSED" sticker on the backside that mocks me every time I see it. Needless to say - I will be seeing If I can get a refund.

So, In conclusion:

-gap between screen and plexiglass allows dust in that you can't get out
-Frame isn't sturdy enough to support button pressing
-High pitched whine when music is soft/absent
-It freaking died
-Firmware re-flashing didn't fix blue bars, and created new problem
-And as an aside, It doesn't read micro sdhc cards, limits expansion of memory

Key TIP: Use windows media player to create playlist and sync music, photos, and video with this player; DON't DRAG & DROP files as you won't have access to a majority them, nor will you be able to reorganize once the files are on the player. Organize everything on Windows Media Player then sync to the ICE.

Pros
-Good battery life
-clear images / videos
-good sound

Cons
-on/off switch takes getting use to (doesn't switch on right away)
-No album cover feature (may have to upgrade firmware, which i didn't do)
-Can't create playlist on the player, everything is created thru Windows Media Player

It's okay. There are no picts for artist and i have not figured out how to convert a movie. Otherwise, the sound is great and the play time is sufficient compared to most MP3 players.