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- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 86 reviews Back to product review
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20 out of 21 people found this review helpful
2.5 stars
"Best MP3 I've owned and worst customer service"
Pros: Great sound, Awesome screen, easy to use interface, sexy form factor
Cons: Iriver have the worst customer service I've experienced
Summary: I bought this Clix off ebay about a month ago, I should've known when there were delivery problems that nothing was ever going to be right with this little player!
When it eventually turned up, the box is very minimalistic and unimpressive, you do think 'what have I spent all this money on'. It does go through your mind.
Luckily though, when you power it on - You'll realise why you bought it. The Clix itself is absolutely brilliant.
The audio from the Clix is very good. It was easily better than my Sony E407 mp3 player, and sounded better than my friends new 8GB Nano. It also support OGG, which the Ipods don't
Video on the Clix is brilliant too, very impressive. I'm quite handy with video, so I found re-encoding clips/films etc that I had on my pc, into a format ready for the Clix really easy. But the Iriverter software that was made for this device does a good job too. I wouldn't use the Iriver plus software that comes bundled though, there seems to be plenty of problems with that. Once you've got clips onto the Clix, they look amazing. I had about 10 people standing around my desk in awe watching a clip of Aguilera
The navigation system of the Clix is very clever, pushing on the sides of the unit to get around the menu's. A little weird at first, but after a while you are whizzing around the menu.
There are loads of menu options for things like Radio, customising the look of the menu (themes), audio options etc etc. The menu is very good and there are lots of features.
Battery life seemed pretty good for me, but to charge it, you can only charge via usb. Which I found pretty poor really. You may not want to take your PC/Laptop with you on every trip, and I don't think Iriver sell an official wall charger, so you can risk getting a modified mobile phone one off ebay...
Whilst we're on the subject of charging, you can either charge the unit and access it via USB on your pc/laptop, or you can charge it and continue to use it for playback - you can not do BOTH. So it you fancy charging the Clix, copying some files over and then listening to them, forget it. You'd have to go into the menu, enable one setting, do bits and bobs on your pc, then go into the Clix and change some settings - Far too much messing around. I didn't like that.
Now, don't get me wrong the Clix device itself is absolutely brilliant, and if I was to score it out of 10 by itself, it would get a 9 easy. Because I don't think there's another device on the market as good as it with all the same sort of features. The Cowon D2 is the closest and that thing is pig ugly and only has a touchscreen - Forget trying to control that thing in your pocket! But I need to also tell you about another part of the Clix that should massively influence your decision to buy one - Iriver.
In short, I'll never buy from Iriver again.
My Clix broke within a week of me having it, and I had lovingly treated it like a child. It had not had hammer, it had never been in my touser/jeans pocket, I put it in a solid little case. Then 7days after having it the right hand side of the screen stopped 'clicking'. It could quite easily happen if you'd got thing in your pocket and it had been crushed, but mine hadn't. This thing looks quite easy to break. I created an RMA off Iriver europe's website (fairly straight forward) and mailed it off to Germany the same day. This is where the story ends. I have had one email of Iriver in 2weeks, saying my device had arrived in Germany. I've mailed them FIVE times asking if the unit had been repaired or when I was likely to get it back. I've not recieved one reply from the company. At all. Not even a confirmation of getting the email. I've also tried contacting Iriver USA for advice - No response their either. Once they have your device-It's gone. Into a black hole.
I don't think my device is going to be coming back now so I'm already looking at replacing it.
The Clix is utterly brilliant if it works and never needs to go to Iriver, but the thing looks VERY easy to break, it doens't look durable at all.
If you've got a £100 to throw away on something that could quite easily break, and if it does, you can afford to throw it in the bin and buy another - I would definately recommend the Clix to you. The player itself is brilliant. They are a bit like disposable camera's though. If you want something more durable and has the same sort of features, you may have to compromise on looks and form factor and go elsewhere. I'd probably recommend going to Cowon or Kenwood who make the best sounding MP3 players (yes, much better than your Ipod/Imod/Nano etc).
I'm looking at buying a Cowon D2 (pig ugly, but I'm willing to take that if the thing doesn't break and the customer services aren't cowboys) or a Kenwood HD10GB7, which doesn't do video, but is the best sounding audio MP3 player you can buy in a small form factor.
- 1 reply to this review
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Hi, I had a minor problem with my iRiver Clix 8Gb, the earphone cover popped off, and they replaced the earphones NO QUESTIONS ASKED, they didn't even ask for the old pair! The entire process took 12 days!
I agree with the hardware review, but NOT with the customer service critique: iRiver America has EXCELLENT service!
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