Customer Reviews
bad bad returned 2 units the same day!!!! 
2003-08-04
1) it is not easy to open . 2) the disk cover opens as you play . 3) the battery is junk etc...........
exchanged for initial dvd 5820
s
los angeles
Significant Problems caused return. 2003-07-13
I wanted a small simple unit that I could take on the plane for myself, or let the kids use in the car, with a widescreen and a 3 hour battery. 2 problems: First, when I put in any widescreen DVD I expected the display to enlarge the picture to remove the black lines above and below the picture. (this is how my full size widescreen tv works.) What this unit does, is keep the upper & lower black space, and stretch the picture wide, so everything is slightly distorted too wide. The only option shrank the sides in, so the picture was not distorted, but now had black space completely surrounding the picture. So widescreen DVD's played at 60% size, or distorted. Call me crazy, but I expected a widescreen DVD player to play Widescreen DVD's non-distorted full screen. Normal DVD's could be played with Black space on the left or right, or distorted to fit the screen. (this is how my full size widescreen TV works.) Because of this problem, I chose a refund instead of a replacement when the battery lasted 15 minutes and never recharged again.
Nice unit but several small problems. 
2003-06-18
Great features and a good price but several problems will require returning the unit. The disk cover opens while playing a movie causing a need to restart and find where you were. The processor occasionally locks up requiring removal of all power to reboot the system. The battery will go dead in less than 3 days if left connected to the (turned off) unit. The latch that holds the unit closed makes it very dificult to open. The audio amplifier is weak and would not be loud enough to hear on an airplane even using headphones so an external amplifier is needed. Hopefully these problems are just in my unit and replacement will solve the problems.
Piece of Junk 2005-07-14
Bought the unit from Circuit City. Plays all Discs as advertised. The cover is flimsy. The screen cannot be closed fully as the latch is useless. Cannot open the screen freely. Appears that screen is going to break. This happened only after watching few DVDs. The LCD became hot and deformed. Need a better design. Apex should not have put this product in market. This is a piece of junk.
Apex is terrible to deal with!!! 2004-12-02
I bought one of these ~ 1 year ago. I never used the battery. In July I tried the battery and it wouldn't hold a charge. Apex gladly gave me an RMA # and I returned the battery. Now in Dec after 10-15 phone calls the off-shore "customer service" response is always the same. "The battery is on back-order, we'll ship it in 7-10 days"
This has gone on since July (it is now Dec!). I have sent emails, I get a canned response, sent faxes, no response. Don't buy Apex!!
The cover is extremely flimsy 2003-10-23
I would recommend that noone buy this product, because the cover opens while the DVD is playing and just does not want to snap back in place. Looks like cheap workmanship that APEX should immediately rectify.
Very Nice 
2003-10-19
Great little unit for the money. My kids have now played over 150 movies (Lion King 20 times already)and it has worked basically perfect. Unit can take some abuse and keep on playing which is what I like most.
Great deal for the price! 
2003-10-04
Reading the few reviews here you would think this is a piece of junk. However, I purchased this unit for my wife based on over 100 reviews at another site that rated the unit very high for the price(4 out of 5 average rating).
This unit has a good size screen. The quality is comparable to all of the other units I checked including RCA & Panasonic. Apex throws in a lot of accessories too. AC adapter/cigarette lighter adapter/headphones/audio cables/etc. It is also NTSC/PAL switchable and the AC adapter internally switches 110/220.
The sound is adequate through the external speakers and was excellent through the headphones. My wife listened to two movies in the car today with no problems with auto/road noise. I also tried my LOTR DVD and was very pleased with the sound quality.
My main complaint is that the battery pack is large, but this is true of nearly every portable dvd player. Note: they only show you the unit in the pictures...the battery pack nearly always clips on the bottom. As for the "problem" with the widescreen not filling the entire screen on some movies...I believe this is a problem for every portable dvd player, not just APEX.
Overall, I am very happy with the quality for the price.
