iRiver iFP-890 (256 MB) MP3 Player

Pros: FAST USB 2.0, LONG battery life, Built-in Clock, LOUD
Cons: Armband will not fit BIG biceps, red color is ugly.

Updates at the end of the original review. ------------------------------ -------------------- A check of my prior reviews will show that I am definitely a big fan of Iriver's mp3 players. The 890-T is the latest upgrade in my personal Iriver ...

Pros: crystal clear sound, EQ is great, line-in, cool blue backlight,easy transfer, and radio.
Cons: People aren't kidding about the arm band, doesn't read as external drive.

It was this or the Creative 256mb XT FM. I order the creative from Walmart at an unsually low price but as usual: back ordered with no clue of next shipment. Canceled it. Went to the neighborhood bestbuy got this instead. Still crying about the money ...

Pros: Great sound, great mic, good battery life, lots of features, flash-upgradeable
Cons: Proprietary storage system requires THEIR software to load mp3s, other files. Complex controls.

The 890 is my second Iriver player. I had the 390, its predecessor, and loved it. My music tastes, combined with being a news junkie, made me jump at the 390, one of the first mp3 players with an FM tuner. My prior radio was a bit stronger for signal ...

Pros: Attractive, built in microphone, good battery life, excellent sound
Cons: Limited storage space

I bought this for my daughter as an 11th birthday present. We were looking for something portable and affordable, and I have a 40-gig iriver that I've been very happy with so wanted to stick to this brand. It as the right decision. My daughter quickly ...

Pros: Great sounds, FM Tuner, Easy Installation, compact, durable
Cons: None

Just picked up the player today, so can't go into too much detial. Seems to be a fairly solid machine. Loading the software was a breeze. Installing music on to the player was very easy as well, drag and drop, not a difficult task. Its not as loud as my old mpio 128 mb, but the sound is much of a higher quality. And the FM tuner is great, 20 presets. My onlu concerns lies with the joystick, not sure how durable it will be. Thus I forked over another $20 for 2 yr full warranty at Best Buy.

Ok, its now Sept 19 2005. I lost this player a few weeks back, and decided to cheap out and buy a RIO 128mb player. What a mistake, it was a piece of junk. Took it back right away. I was lucky enough to get the last Iriver 890 the store had, at clearance price no less.

Very happy with the 890. Great sound and durability. I run with it in my hand and never had a moisture problem. Can't go wrong with Iriver.

Pros: On sale is cheap. Sound quality is very good. The size is right.
Cons: Too small for big fingers. Initial steep learning curve.

I bought this player primarily because of cost (was on sale for 69 bucks after rebates). I bought my daughter a 300 series model about 18 months ago and she uses it everywhere, including her car, and is 100% pleased with it. I also did some research, which indicated that this is a good, if not great player. It is a bit tricky to manipulate, especially while exercising, but I have gotten used to it. I also have been very successful converting recorded songs to mp3 format, and with firmware update, can use Windows Media Player - the IRiver Music Manager is not really very good. For a person who is tired of watching CNN at the gym and loves music, this is a solid choice.

Pros: VERY GOOD BATTERY LIFE, small, quick, easy.
Cons: Not very good at high sound levels.

I have had mine for about 3 months now. It works great. The battery runs for about 40 hours before it dies. It just takes one AA battery. This is very nice, because I dont have to worry about spending a lot of money on batteries. I bought it, put in the CD, plugged it in through the USB, and presto! Just drag and drop songs from your computer onto the player. Very easy. Has customizeable display, make the song title scroll bar fast or slow, up or down. The control is very easy also. One little joystick controls most play options. Left and right change the song, up and down the volume.

Its volume goes from 1 to 40. When you get above 35 on any song, it sounds very bad. I grabbed my moms ipod and almost blew my eardrums, with crystal clear music.

I would reccomend this to anyone. Unless you are someone that has to blast music as loud as your ears can take, then i would reccomend this!

Pros: Excellant Sound, Ultra Small and Durable. Fantastic battery life.
Cons: None so far.

I recieved the iFP-890 for Christmas (2004). I had been researching MP3 players for about four months when I had decided between the iPOD and the iRiver. The iPOD is fantastic machine and I love the iTunes software (which i use). I decided to go with the iRiver over the iPOD for a couple of reasons (besides rave reviews across the board).

1:) The iRiver delivers better sound, mostly due to better headphones (both have a very high Signal to Noise ratio).

2:) The iRiver has an FM tuner. And this is one high quaility FM tuner in comparison to other FM tuner based MP3 players. You can of course add an FM tuner to the iPOD later.

3) The iRiver is smaller and flash based players are more durable and have a longer life span.

4) The iRiver only requires a single AA battery. The iPOD's unremovable lithium has a limited life span of charges.

The iRiver delivers unbelievable sound quality. It is night vs. day in comparison to past MP3 players I have owned. Clean crisp vocals, smooth highs and deep bass and trademarks of this player. It is also feature rich.

Pros: "reported" specs and features
Cons: no features were found. Software,drivers don't work. Hardware doesn't work.Tech support non-existent.

I heard good things about this but when I installed software and connected the device my XP machine with USB 2.0 ports locked solid. Required hard reboot to escape. Took device back and exchanged it , same thing. Every other USB device works on this machine(2.4Ghz Pentium, 512mb RAM...). Wrote email to tech support....they answered me three weeks later.... Stay away from this product and this company until they get it together.