Screw the iPod, buy this instead
Written: Nov 10 '04
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Pros: Nearly everything!
Cons: No alarm or PIM functions, but boo-hoo!
The Bottom Line: This is a great product for too many reasons to list here. If you're thinking about getting an iPod, take a look at this first!
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| kiowaskank's Full Review: iRiver H320 (20 GB) MP3 Player |
Lately, I've been in the market for a digital music player with lots of room. I was using my Palm w/a memory card to listen to music, and I've realized that 256mb just isn't enough room to store all the songs I like. I'm constantly having to work with the amount of space there, often giving up one beloved song to make room for a new song. I decided to take a look at what Best Buy had to offer in mass-storage music players. I just figured I'd get myself an iPod, simply b/c they're *cool* & it's the only mp3 player you ever hear anything about. However, I had heard that iPods copyright your songs as you upload them. Which means that even if you upload songs from your own CDs, you can't transfer them or do anything with them except with the iPod itself. Not good. Being an active music pirate, this concerned me. I asked the sales clerk about the iPod versus the other players, which ones will let you do what you want with your music & which ones are restrictive. She told me don't waste my money on an iPod b/c of their monopolistic copyright issues and b/c there are better products out there with better features for less $$$. I looked at a Samsung player, a lil' 20-gig number with a bright blue backlight, FM radio & voice recording, and was going to buy that when the iRiver's display case caught my eye. "What is that wondrous device with the brilliant color screen?!" I asked. The salesgirl told me it's just like the Samsung model only with a color screen so I can store & view my pictures on it, and it also can store text files, which appealed to me b/c I like to keep song lyrics handy sometimes. It also had a voice recorder that can be used to record songs off the radoi. It was only $30 more than the Samsung player too! After hearing that, my legs began to shake due to the sheer awesomeness of this gadget & I began to drool & stare skyward in a Homer Simpson-esque manner. Oh hell yeah, I thought to myself, and snatched it up faster than a three-legged chimp can kick it's own @$$. I bought the 3-year service plan to go with it in case anything happened, and was on my way home.
Upon opening the box, I found the following items inside:
The iRiver itself
A stiff carrying case for it
A USB cable for transferring files
A line-in cable
Charger
Earbud headphones(which I put away b/c I have my own earbuds which are approx. 5 years old & still truckin'!)
Software CD
Manuals
A pretty darn generous package if you ask me. Usually you only get the bare minimum with stuff like this, the product, a USB cable, and MAYBE a case if you're lucky. Or, with an iPod, you get the prestige of paying $30+ for a case!
I got it home & installed the software, and then found out that I didn't NEED to in order to transfer files! If you plug the iRiver up to your comp, it recognizes it as an external hard drive & you can open up the folders & diddle around with files to your heart's content. Which is great b/c I hate going through those damn annoying music-transferring programs which take forever & often glitch or lock up halfway through. coughREALPLAYERcough...
Music quality; Freaking AMAZING. The sound from this thing is like a Bose radio. Crystal clear. Even low-bitrate songs sound decent. An 80kbit song that would have sounded like tinny manure on my Palm sounds perfectly fine on the iRiver.
Voice recorder quality; borderline orgasmic! The mic is incredibly sensitive. I did a few test runs & this thing picked up EVERYTHING. I recorded a bit off the TV & it picked up the sound of my computer's CPU fan in the background! I've had many voice recorders, both tape & digital, which were nowhere near that sensitive, so the recorder is not just a cheesy add-on, it's actually useful. Plus, it automatically stores the recordings as mp3 files, so they can listened to on your computer be burnt to disc or whatever. You can also choose the bitrate you want your recordings encoded at.
Screen quality; Utterly gorgeous. It's got an incredibly hi-res screen, and photos look beautiful on it. It's easily as detailed & crisp as my Palm's hi-res screen. Beats the living hell out of iPod's monochrome screen!
Overall Form Factor; Pretty slick. It's a little black box with 6 buttons. Actually it's more like greyish-black, but pretty darn sharp-looking. It feels nice & solid(the Samsung model I looked at felt plasticky & flimsy).
Feature Set; More than enough! The features are what made me choose this product over anything else.
Pros:
Hi-res color screen
Easy to use
Plug & Play, no clumsy user interface needed
File storage not limited to music
Picture storage & viewing
FM radio
Voice recorder which can also record radio songs or music from any outside source
Sleek, solid design
Comes with a bunch of stuff
Does NOT copyright your songs as you upload them
pretty much everything!
Cons:
No alarm
May take some folks a while to learn to use, even I had to read the manual
Somewhat slow to turn on & start up
No PIM functions(but it IS a music player, not a PDA)
I would like a bit more customizability
For the money, I really think this is the best player out there. Beats the crap out of the iPod.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 329.99
Recommended for: Music Lovers - High Capacity Storage for an Entire Album Collection
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Epinions.com ID:
kiowaskank
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Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 1 member
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