ViewSonic VPD500 review

ViewSonic’s VPD500 has a huge 5in screen with a high resolution of 800×480 pixels. This also means it’s fairly large and heavy at just under 200g, so it’s meant to be carried in your bag rather than your pocket.

It’s ideal for watching video and supports a wide variety of formats, playing all our MPEG2, DivX and H.264 test videos without problems. It can resume playback from where you left off and you can adjust the screen brightness and aspect ratio without having to stop the video.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed with the screen’s quality. It’s not very bright and contrast is poor, so distinguishing details in dimly lit films and programmes can be difficult. Viewing angles are tight, which isn’t ideal if you want to watch a video with a friend. The battery lasted just over six hours when playing video, which is a very respectable time.

Although the VPD500 is designed mainly for watching video, it can play music too. You’ll need a better-quality pair of headphones to make the most of your tunes, as the included earphones sound muddy and harsh. The VPD500 can also receive FM radio broadcasts, although we had trouble getting a clear signal in our central London offices. Unlike any other player we’ve seen, it can also transmit an FM radio signal without the need for an external transmitter, so you can listen to your music on your car speakers even if your car radio doesn’t have any audio inputs.

The VPD500’s interface bears an uncanny resemblance to the XMB interface of Sony’s PlayStation. Its menus are logically organised and easy to navigate, despite the rather fiddly top-mounted buttons, which are awkward and uncomfortable to press, especially when scrolling through long lists. Annoyingly it doesn’t support music playlists, although these can be approximated using folders in Windows Explorer.

At just over £100, ViewSonic’s VPD500 is cheap for a 16GB portable video player with such a large screen and broad video support. However, screen quality is poor, so iRiver’s E200 8GB is a better choice for most people.