- Average user rating: 2.5 stars out of 7 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4 out of 4 people found this review helpful
4.0 stars
"Great Player... lots of useful features... needs a few improvements.. will recommend!!"
Pros: Multi-functional, MP3 + FM radio + FM/Voice Recorder + Image Viewer. Can be used as an external hard drive. Light, easily fits in pocket.
Cons: Accessories not included, Navigating takes some getting used to, Doesn't use standard USB connection on the player side.
Summary: I am not new to HD based players. I was a proud owner of the Rio Karma 20Gb before I moved to the iRiver H10 20Gb (Lounge Gray). There was nothing wrong with the Rio. My father loved it so much that I let him keep it. I was thinking of waiting for the Karma 2. But there was no clear indication as to when Rio plans to release it (some say it'll never happen since Rio is now concentrating on flash based players). I wanted to continue with HD based players since I have a huge mp3 collection and I need lots of space. For sometime the Sony Viao 40Gb mp3/photo player had my attention. But after reading its reviews it was clear to me that the player had some firmware problem + it would store music files in ATRAC3 format. Some people found the conversion from mp3 to ATRAC3 very slow and the quality wasnt that great.
Moving on, I came across the iRiver H10 20Gb. They had the 5/6Gb for a while... but the 20Gb is a new addition. The new H10 instantly caught my attention. I was getting many new useful features for a little more than the price that I spend on my Rio a year back. The player comes with a built in FM tuner. You can preset upto 20 channel. The FM quality is good.. but I soon found that there is a slight variation in the quality depend on how you position (vertical/horizontal) your player. I tried FM recording feature.. pretty good record quality. I can now record songs that I like while I am listening to them. Although I havent tried it much, the voice recording feature can be quite handy... as a student, I can find direct application for this feature - record an important lecture and later play back and make notes. The player has plenty of memory.. so you can record a really long class. Another good thing about the H10 is that you dont need to install any drivers or additional software on your machine. With the Rio, I had to install the Rio manager, Rio Taxi etc. With the H10, its just plug and play. I can create folders and transfer songs or use Windows Media Player 10 to 'Sync' songs to the player. A personal experience: I didnt like transferring songs using WMP. It was very slow and the playlist information was never transferred to the player. I transfer all my songs thru Window's Explorer. It works well for me. There is a data folder which can be used for storage.. thus making this player a good external hard drive too. If you choose to, you can store lyrics as text files and view them while the song is being played or you can store directions a view them while on the street.
Ok, now for some weaknesses. First off, the navigation: I was very used to Rio's navigation. The H10's navigation is not very intuitive... but after spending a few hours with the player, you should be fine. The sound quality is good.. although some reviews say it can be improved. The player comes with Sennheiser ear phones and they are pretty good. The player doesnt come with any accessories. I checked online and iRiver has released a cradle and a remote for the H10 in Asia. But looks like they have yet to release it in US. I would have preferred to have it all in one package (similar to Rio Karma and many other players).. instead of spending additional money for accessories. I found the image loading to be slow. Besides, viewing images on the small LCD screen isnt that enjoyable... but can get best of both world... i.e small size and image viewing. The player doesnt have a standard USB connection...the USB cable and the power supply are combined as one input to the player.
Overall, its a great player and I am happy with what I got... I would recommend this product to a friend.
Where to buy
iRiver H10 (20GB, Lounge Gray):
$499.95
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$499.95 | Yes |
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