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Product summary
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CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 07/17/2003
- Updated on: 07/04/2009
Except for its whopping 512MB of internal memory and matte-black finish, the iRiver iFP-195T is a dead ringer for its little silver brother, the iFP-180T.
Like its sibling, the most distinguishing characteristic of the iFP-195T's design is its elongated, triangular shape, which allows the screen to be viewed comfortably when the player sits on a horizontal surface. When in motion, the unit tends to bounce around when slung on its neck strap; joggers will want to take advantage of the included carrying case and armband instead. Since all the controls--including the USB connection--are accessible while housed, we opted to leave the player in its case, thus avoiding the tendency of the navigational joystick to snag when removed. Our only other design nitpick is that the battery door could be sturdier.
The interface on the blue-backlit screen is quite detailed; you can tweak the scan speed of fast-forward and rewind features, but the farsighted won't be able to read the tiny font easily. Once you get the hang of the joystick, however, navigating the various menus is relatively easy.
The iFP-195T packs MP3/WMA/ASF playback, an FM tuner, a voice-memo recorder, and FM recording to MP3. The sound quality is excellent, offering a signal-to-noise ratio of 90dB, and the 10mW-per-channel headphone output is powerful enough for most listeners. The FM tuner sounds better than most other similarly equipped MP3 players', and the FM recording is also superior--at least as far as the comparatively lo-fi world of radio is concerned.
Though the 195T lacks the updated design and crystal-clear line-in recording capability of the step-up 256MB iFP-390T, some users will find that the massive--albeit nonexpandable--512MB storage capacity and lower price per megabyte make up for those omissions. If you like the sound of this device but want to spend less, try iRiver's 256MB iFP-190T or the aforementioned 128MB iFP-180T, which are basically identical except for their memory capacities.
User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.5 stars out of 12 reviews
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