Thank you for venturing into Area 51 to research and write this VERY helpful review. My own Shozy Alien makes contact this week... looking forward to it!

lol you're welcome.

it does play and charge at the same time

I suspected also, but how do you know? The other day I was using it in my car, connected a usb charger up to it, it was still toggling the blue/yellow flickering (as opposed to the solid red that shows it's charging)... It's not very conclusive unless I let it run for 10+ hours...

That's a good point, it was playing while plugged in,so I assumed it was still charging.I think the red LED probably only lights when the player is off and plugged in. I imagine the flashing blue means it's accessing the memory card.