We've come to appreciate the ability to use a flash player to store files we need on the road or to grab something while you're at a buddy's house. The iFP-890 isn't practical for that purpose since you need to install iRiver's driver and software first. And that's assuming you've brought your cable--there's no built-in USB plug. Instead the iFP-890 utilizes a five-pin minijack.
Also, the iFP-890 never shows up as a drive letter on your computer--with or without software. However, once the driver is installed on your computer, you can use Windows Media Player to transfer audio files, which is the only method of transferring protected WMAs.
While we're picking nits, we should point out that CNET Labs found the average file-transfer speed for the iRiver iFP-890 was roughly 1.41MB per second. That's a bit slow for a USB 2.0-equipped flash player. On the plus side, we charted an outstanding 40.9 hours of playback from a single AA battery.
Editor's note: We have changed the rating in this review to reflect recent changes in our rating scale. Click here to find out more.
%20MP3%20player%20reviews%20-%20CNET%20Reviews&srcUrl=http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/iriver-ifp-890-256mb/4505-6490_7-30889082-2.html){kind=small}