Customer Reviews

iRiver H10 20 GB MP3 Player/Recorder (Blue)

5 star:		(50)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(26)
2 star:		(20)
1 star:		(46)

 

 

One of the great things about this player is you do not have to install any special software; just drag a folder of MP3s over to it. The best feature is its future potential; the manufacturer brags 'firmware upgradeable' on the box and an Internet search reveals an active user forum and homebrew software available.

I actually found a use for the text file viewer-- it is a handy way to keep track of a new workout routine. Sound quality is good enough for loud rock music while mowing or working out.

There are some minor annoyances in the software. The equalizer does not have enough frequency ranges and introduces some noise. There is not a clear indication when you disable the EQ and turn on the SRS feature. The picture display is cool, but no zoom and pan - even my cell phone does that. However, these are all minor bugs that could be fixed with new software.

One of the advertised features is line in recording - but you don't get the line input jack unless you buy a cradle. Hmmm, why not just use the line input jack on your computer sound card and save the money. I would rather have had a line input and/or a mic jack on the unit itself than the wired remote control jack - the iriver is about the size of a remote control itself so I am not sure what the logic was here.

Like I mentioned earlier these are minor annoyances and I am generally impressed with the performance and sound on the player.

I have been an iRiver fan for a long time but avoid this player for two reasons:

(1) Although you connect the player to your computer via USB, the player side of the connection does not have a standard USB port. Why should you care? With many other players you can charge the unit and transfer songs with a simple standard USB cable. With this one if you forget the special cable that comes with the unit (very non-standard) then you can't charge the unit or transfer songs. I have one USB cable for my phone, camera, etc. and want to use it for the player. Or, if I am out of town I can be assured someone is going to have or sell a standard USB cable. I despise the iPOD for many reasons but at least they give you a real USB connection on the player itself.

(2) DRM on the US unit. When you connect the unit to your computer you don't get a simple drive letter to drag and drop MP3 files to/from the player. You must have Windows XP and you must use either Windows Media Player or "Portable Device" in explorer to move files over. This means you can copy files over but not the other way. I hear the Korean version of the unit gives you a real drive letter. Come on iRiver - how much did Microsoft pay you to cripple the US version?

Summary: Stay away until companies get the message loud and clear - no DRM on the unit if you have your own collection of MP3 files. Supporting DRM services such as Napster, Audible, Yahoo, Real, etc. is fine as long as it does not prohibit the use of my own collection - make the device appear as a drive letter when connected, and gives us a standard USB connection on the player side to charge and transfer data.

Let me start off by saying that I have owned or used many mp3 players. Iriver h120, h320, rca lyra, ipod(not the color one), Creative zen xtra, the new samsung, and many more. The only mp3 player that beats this one is the h120, and you can't buy that one anymore. No software is needed at all. plug it into your cpu, go to my computer, and drag and drop. it took 35 minutes for me to transfer 3200 songs. has fm, fm recorder, and timer for the fm recorder. Nice if you would like to record a morning show or something while your at work. Turns on instantly, great sound quality, easy navigation. People say the albums are not in order, rename your files via musicmatch or what ever and have the track number first. this will solve that problem. You can search for your music or files with the browser function. Very nice if you like a more computer type of navigation. This is currently the best mp3 player on the market, I've only metioned a few features of this player. If your into electronics, this is the player to get. If your more about being cool and don't mind software that controls your music then I would suggest an ipod. In my eyes this player has the ipod beat in every area, with the exception of acceseries. Not to bash the ipod of coursel. Even I'll admit that the ipod is pretty cool and if it wasn't for all of it's restrictions, I would buy one, if there was no iriver of course.

Where to start?

Well, feature-wise its far superior to the standard 20 GB. For the same cost as the afore mentioned iPod you can have the same amount of memory, in a slightly smaller and slightly lighter package. It includes a built FM tuner (which is unavailable in iPod's, and unfortunately you need to purchase external adapters for your iPod to even play the radio), voice and FM recording (another feature that the iPod can only obtain via an adapter), a color screen (whihc is now becoming a standard feature and has recently been added to iPods). It also gets a longer battery life than most of the competition, including the iPod. Also, its compatible with a wider range of file formats than the standard iPod, including .jpgs.

My one knock on the H10 is its medicore navigation. While it's touchpad won't cause songs to change, fastfoward, rewind, or pause as it slides around in your pocket (like the iPod tends to), its not very ergonomic. The vertical scroll touchpad gets the job done but its not as cool as the iPod's wheel.

Pros:
-Comaptible with a wider range of files than the standard iPod.
-Picture Display.
-Color Screen.
-Accessories (which can only be ordered from the iRiver website since iPod seems to have a monopoly at stores for shelf space).
-Built in FM tuner.
-Built in voice and FM recorder.
-Smaller and lighter than the standard 20GB iPod.
-Being able to use Real, WinAmp (with plugins), and FooBar (also with plugins) allows the sound files to maintain their quality, which iTunes actually tends to deminish (particularly the bass and treble).
-Better built in equalizer and even SRS Wow features.
-Larger variety of online music stores that you can order music off of.
-Large color variety. It comes in red, blue, platinum, and gray.
-Doesn't get scratched up like the iPod's tend to (because it doesn't have a metallic back).

Cons:
-Inconvenient navigation.
-If you want accessories like cradles, car adapters, boom box and/or stereo adapters, and replacements for lost accessories, you'll have to order them off of the iRiver website. Theres nothing wrong with this, but it requires a wait and the extra charge for shipping and handling. However, you can pretty much use any iPod accessorie that only requires the headphone jack, (since they're universal) including some of the nicer Bose surround sound and sound canceling headphones.
-Not as pleasing to the eyes as the simple, curvy, plain white iPod.

Color Screen:
The screen on this thing is very nice for displaying photos...but as far as practicality for diplaying track information it is very poor. The screen is totally unreadable when the backlight is off or when in sunlight. Just pretend it's an Ipod shuffle outside, eh? The colors are
gorgeous...inside. Darn disappointing.

Pictures:
A rediculously poorly executed function. The windows media player sync for photos NEVER WORKS CORRECTLY. How do you get a Digital Rights Management warning for a JPEG picture taken off the internet???!?! It will hang on a certain picture and only sunc the first 5 or so. It should have been a "Drag and Drop" type operation. The pictures display correctly in the "File Browser" mode, but that is slow and cumbersome, just like every other menu system.

Synchronization:
I use a different application for synchronizing music and such and it works fine. I've tried using WMP 10 for photos, but that never worked. Oh, just a hint...your Windows XP computer will not recognize the player unless you have upgraded to SP1 or later (a problem I had, NOT COVERED IN THE MANUAL). Oh, and proprietary cables for connectivity. There's a separate jack for the remote, but USB is integrated into the wierd conection on the bottom? Why? The multi-pin jack on the bottom of the player sounds like a great place to plug in accessories...not a separate space wasting connection on the top.

Size/Weight:
Tolerable when kept naked. In the case, it becomes unwieldy. This means scratches. However, the metallic case seems relatively hard. Besides, I'd rather have a slightly heavier case that is rock solid than a lighter player that scratches easily.

Sound:
Great with the SRS effects turned on. I wish the custom equalizer had more bands to adjust (only 5 bands). Since it doesn't adjust finely enough, I use the SRS effect.

Navigation:
In a word: annoying. You cannot flip through catgories with any sort of ease. There is a terrible few second lag in between every selection and display. Getting back to the Now Playing screen is one button away...however I never know if I've pressed it since I have to press it twice (once to turn on the screen, and once to switch) and waits 4-5 seconds to switch back to the now playing screen. These types of response times give the impression of sluggishness. New tracks take many seconds to display the track name, and occasionally will not display at all. The Ipod has no such issues with menus, why can't this player be quick too? The scroll pad is pretty, but has a stupid arrangement. Instead of a normal "dragging" motion, one needs to only use a small section of the middle part to "drag" their finger down, otherwise you will go the wrong direction for one line. The top and bottom parts of the pad will auto scroll if held, and I believe this is where the problem lies. This makes volume adjustment a bit of an adventure. Oh, and there's NO SENSITIVITY ADJUSTMENT! Why?

Text File Reading: Stupid functionality since it does not wrap the text to fit the screen...
it will di
splay like
this on th
e screen.
Usable, yet retarded.

Voice Recording: Have not tried it for any length of time yet. Seems to work.
FM Radio: Acceptable reception, sound is good though. Auto scan loves to pick up static stations, which makes the feature more of an annoyance.

Haven't tested the battery life yet...initial indications are about 10-12 hours of life.

Overall, I like the player for music since it sounds great and only cost me $200. However, if one needs to file through music quickly and actually wants to look at photos or practically read text files, that person will be insanely frustrated. (That's me...10% of the time) It just seems like they went "half way" designing this player. So many loose ends and unecessary complications (WMP10, for instance). I just wanted a friggin player that acted like a hard drive...you know, simple and not subject to buggy windows software and unecessary complication. Still, I love the sound, look, and feel of the player. Maybe the next iRiver will be better.

The iRiver H10 is the perfect MP3 player for my needs. I've had it for almost a full year now and use it almost daily. I use the player exclusively for listening and recording purposes. I listen to longer audio files (up to 75 minutes in length) and music burned from my CD collection. I do not download music from any online MP3 store and cannot comment on how this unit syncs with any of these vendors. The voice recordings are generally 30-40 minutes in length. My observations:

1. THE INTERFACE - The click-and-drag load/unload function is perfection in simplicity. The Windows Media Player Sync function is worthless. It takes forever and offers no real benefit except to people who cannot organize their MP3s themself. And if it doesn't fully sync before you disconnect your iRiver, the software crashes and you have to reset the player (this erases all your files). I do not use this function. If you don't go into WMP, it's just click-and-drag like a USB flash drive.

2. UNIT SIZE - The unit is smaller and lighter than I was led to believe by reading older reviews here on Amazon. It isn't an iPod Nano, but it isn't bulky either. About the size of a deck of cards.

3. RECORDING - The "Recordings" feature is amazing. Super-high-quality MP3 recordings with an auto-adjust microphone that picks up everything in proper balance.

4. DURABILITY - This thing is built to last. I've dropped it more than once (usually on carpet or linoleum) and it has never been the worse for it.

5. BATTERY LIFE - About 15 hours of steady listening, in my experience. If you like to adjust the volume and skip tracks a lot, then expect that to be reduced in proportion to your use of the backlit screen and pause button. Frequent pausing will drain the battery most quickly because the unit shuts down after a couple minutes on pause.

6. LOCK FUNCTION - Maybe the best thing about this unit is the lock button. I can carry it in my pocket without worrying about having the track switched or the volume lowered or the power button pressed accidentally.

7. HARD DRIVE - The 20GB hard drive is more than sufficient to hold my files and much larger than the current generation of flash-driven iPods. I have used about half of the drive with some 300 half-hour to an hour long audio files. This leaves plenty of room for creating high-quality voice recordings of my own.

8. FAST FORWARD / REWIND - Not fast enough. A 75 minute audio file only skips ahead (or backward) at 4 second intervals (4 seconds for every 1). This is very frustrating when someone distracts me 30 minutes into a track and instead of "PAUSE" I hit "NEXT TRACK". This is my only major complaint about the unit (unless you try to use the Windows Media Player sync function).

Overall, the iRiver H10 has been a wonderful unit for my needs at a fantastic price. Heavy button-pressers may prefer to put up with the idiosyncracies of the iPod merely for the ease of its interface.

I just recently purchased a iRiver 20GB and I have to say after a week of use, this player is one of the best ever, in my humble opinion. I bought this mp3 player after my iPod broke, as they often tend to do. The scroll bar is much more intuitive than the iPod's scroll wheel. The player also uses WMP and Plays for sure. I'm not going to much argue why you should buy this over a Creative Zen Micro or anything because for the most part, Apple owns the business and, if the X-Men have taught us anything, we must attack the Jugernaut's head. A lot of people complain about battery life, but I played it for about 10 hours and still had 2/4 battery left. This player has a BEAUTIFUL color screen. One problem I have, though, is the lack of CD art display on the "Now Playing" screen. Really though this isn't so much a major gripe, it just would be kinda cool. Also my player was defected but I just ordered a replacement on Amazon and my new one is due in just a little while. While I cannot transfer files from the mp3 player to my PC yet I have heard that it is possible. The player is super slick and definately looks cooler than the iPod and its white case. The player comes with a FM radio recorder/player and you can even record voices, like the ones in my head. Although I had to refer to the manual when I was trying to figure out how to do some things, in other words degrade my manhood, The iRiver 20GB is well worth your money. I give it 5 Stars, as you can see above.

To sum things up:

Good:
Screen
Scroll Bar
20GB
Sleek and Slick
Blue/Red/Grey
Just overall seems super solid and impervious to all drops
Compact
Price
FM Radio Player/ Recorder
Windows compatable

Okay:
Battery life
Start up and downloading songs, I had to refer to the manual
It doesn't display the album art.

Bad:
You probably don't have it yet!!

***Please note that I have not used the photo or text features enough to review them***

This is an overall good player, but there are some annoying things about it. The interface and color screen are quite nice. The player comes with no software, as it is meant to be used with Windows Media Player 10. While this is a little annoying to get used to at first (it was for me, even though I'm quite familiar with Windows), once you get the hang of it, it is actually a very nice feature. All you need to do is add tracks to your library and sync the whole library. Or you can just sync playlists, which is a very nice feature. You just add or delete songs to playlists as you wish, then when you sync the device WMP10 knows which songs to keep, add, or delete from your device. While there are more Cons than Pros, the player is still a good player. The Battery life is by far the most annoying characteristic of the player.

Overall:

Pros:
-Nice-looking color screen

-Easy to navigate interface

-WMP10 quite useful once you get used to it.

Cons:
-Battery Life!!--Box claimed 12-20 hours of playback; I've only got about 12 once, and that was when I didn't touch the player after starting music. As soon as I want to skip songs, change playlists, turn the volume up or down (all of which turn the LCD screen on), the battery life suffers greatly. I say I average 6 hours.

-The USB connector and plug for the AC adaptor are all in one unit, meaning you have to take both around with you if you want to be able to charge it.

-Buttons are fine if you have player on your belt or in your hand, but if you have it in a jacket or pocket it's almost impossible to do anything with them.

-Carrying case is not very good...it's hard to get on and off, and it hides the appearance of the player.

-Long playlists can take longer to load.

this player beats the ipod strait up. the scroll bar on the player is so much better than the click wheel on an ipod. the screen resolution is AUSOME. the pictures, song titles, etc. all look really good and clear.the sound quality is good with the original 32 different eqs. then you have your custom equalizer. the 8000 songs are plenty for me and anyone else i know, and can be sorted and a few different ways, titles, artists, genres, and albums.
now when you talk about digital electronics you have to talk about the disadvantages right?. if you buy this device i strongly recomend that you buy the mistic audio leather case for it. although it is $25 it is well worth it. the original case it comes with is ugly, hard to put the player in and to take it out of, it is also hard to feel the play, next, and previous track buttons becaise the silicone covers them. also the original case does not cover the screen leaving it open to scratches. if you have an older computer you will have to run a windows update for service pack one, with dial up this took me 235 minutes. the charger is a universal charger/ usb cable so it has a plug in to the wall and a usb. this can be a pain because while charging it there will be another cable to get tangled in whatever. but overall i would recomend buying this device over an ipod.

I've had my Iriver for about a week, and am rather pleased.

Here are the only problems I'm having with it:

-Poor bass boost. The CD player I used before buying this had amazing bass boost, and the Iriver is mediocre in this category (and its not just the headphones)

-Sorting. One thing Itunes does that the Iriver does not do is combining files (for example) by "Beatles" and "The Beatles" I had to go through and rename them each after I'd put them on the Iriver, mildly annoying.

-It only works on Windows XP, which was fine for me. But I would be annoyed if I had to go out and get it just for my mp3 player.

Thats about it. I love the screen, all the extra goodies (radio, voice recorder, picture file, etc.)

I reccomend this mp3 player.