iriver iGP-100 1.5 GB MP3 Player

by iRiver

Product Details

Product Manual [2.99mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 3.8 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00015T686
• Item model number: IGP-100
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #210,237 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

iRiver has combined the impressive storage of a skip-free 1.5GB drive for up to 50 hours of music and an extra-large, backlit LCD into one remarkably small music player. The iGP-100 also features an integrated FM tuner, a long-life lithium-ion rechargeable battery and USB 2.0 for ultra-fast music transfers.

Features

• Plays up to 50 hours of music
• Supports MP3, WMA, ASF and Ogg Vorbis files
• Intuitive one-handed navigation
• Integrated FM tuner
• Ultra-fast USB 2.0 transfers
• Extra-large, backlit LCD
• Rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• Up to 12 hours of battery life
• Skip-free playback
• Upgradeable to future formats and features
• Enhanced 3D audio
• One-year limited warranty

Product Description

1.5 GB HDD Digial Music Player. Store 45 hours of music. Large blue back lit display, FM Tuner, USB 2.0, and rechargeable 12 hour battery. Includes carry case.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

45 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I'm keeping this one., January 10, 2004

By 

David Reed "Dave Reed" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: iriver iGP-100 1.5 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

My Archos 20GB died after more than two years and being dropped one too many times... So, after too many moments of silence, I started looking for a replacement that was sturdier --> and less than $200. Fortunately, iRiver ended this nightmare quest for me. After buying and returning nine different alleged mp3 devices this weekend, I'm keeping this one.

The iGP-100 is in the same price range as much smaller Flash players (including iRiver's own Flash products, which seems odd). It's got everything I want, except expandability, but at a gig-and-a-half I ain't complainin'... and it's less than 1/4 of the weight of that darn Archos brick.

The iGP-100 doesn't come with any extras besides the charger and some earbuds I'll never use. A sports arm-band would have been nice, though! Lifting weights with it is going to be awkward until I find one that fits.

Windows XP treats the iGP-100 like a removable drive and no funky software is required to drop WMA files on it and start jammin'. In fact, it doesn't seem to come with any software besides drivers for obsolete operating systems, which is cool and probably kept the price down. Windows Media Player 9.0 does everything else a guy (or gal) could need with regards to music management. We hates Music Match, yesss, we do, so not seeing it was bliss.

Within 120 seconds of opening the package, I had copied eight (8) CDs worth of 64kpbs WMA (three CDs of Creed, four CDs of Nickelback, and the entire soundtracks from XXX, Scorpion King and Daredevil) onto it and was rockin' with 1.1GB still free on the player. The USB 2.0 is very cool after suffering with every other slow USB 1.1 player I bought and returned this weekend...

The quasi-jog-dial navigation could be better, but I'll get used to it. Lot's of wandering into the system menu by accident to start with... The whole "long click" or jog-dial thing isn't something I'm used to. And one could wish for replaceable batteries of a standard type, just in case, but not with this one.

A slightly smaller, squarer form factor would be ideal... the roundness is a little awkward.

Nevertheless, the iGP-100 beat out both of the RCA Lyra players (they have great XP driver support and SD expandability but no way to organize/play music in folders -- I don't want to listen to 500 songs on random repeat, that's as bad as the radio), the iRiver 256MB Flash player (requires funky software and doesn't act like Flash drive), anything by Sonic Blue (I returned both the Rio Chiba and the Rio Cali == junk), the TDK Mojo 256 (in spite of good technical support and customer service, it's junk -- it ate the contents of my favorite SD card full of tunez and spat them out and does *not* act like Flash drive) and anything by Mpio (they seem to use the same junk software and firmware as TDK and their English, well, it isn't).

All in all, I'm tired of standin' in the return line and I've tried all the other < $200 alternatives already, so the iGP-100 is the one I'm keepin'.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost Perfect, February 29, 2004

By 

Jeromy Shepherd - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: iriver iGP-100 1.5 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

The iGP-100 is almost perfect. I am very pleased I choose it over the iPod.

Pros:
- Small: The size fits easily in my shirt pocket.
- Loud: The volume goes to 40; anything over 21 is excessively loud for me. Hard to believe so much sound could come from such a small player.
- Case: Bundled in the package is a nice leather wrap, like what some folks put on cell phones. I don't see many scratches making it through the leather, very nice touch iRiver!
- Battery: As others have noted, VERY good battery life. I fully charged it and took it to work. I never took them off and listened all day (9hrs) and it still had two bars of charge. Only time will tell if it can hold that performance up over the long haul.
- OGG Support: Long needed on the iRiver CD players, I am glad they are finally on board with OGG
- Software: NO special software to load or unload songs. It mounts like a hard drive. Just drag and drop songs.

Cons:
- Line Out: I am unable to connect this to my home, car or other devise because there is no line out! Considering iRiver puts line outs on all its CD/MP3 players I guess I wrongly assumed it would be on this one too.
- Recorder: No recorder/microphone built into it. I had hoped to use this to record business meetings, etc.
- 1.5G: Since its stiffest competitor is 4G (iPod), it would be nice if it had more space.
- Audible.com support. Because of the "ease of use" software there is no inherent song protection. I guess that is why Audible.com does not support it. I hope in the future iRiver can add a firmware upgrade allowing audible downloads.

Conclusion: I like my iGP-100. It's small, loud and holds enough music that I don't have to listen to the same song twice in a week. The few features I listed in the cons (except audible.com) are available on the iHP line from iRiver. Since this is the entry-level product for that line I assume the line out was kept off as a marketing thing. I am very disappointed in that one thing but I should have read closer to the specs when I made my purchase. If you are interested in portable music only used through headphones, this is a clear choice in my opinion. If you want to use that portable music in your car or home stereo step up to the iHP-100 with its optical input and output.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ipod? no irvier, February 20, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: iriver iGP-100 1.5 GB MP3 Player (Electronics)

Just picked this up about a week or two ago after much debate of whether to wait for the ipod mini.

Def. made the right choice. The ipod does have a larger hd and is probably a bit smaller (thought weight is close to the same and the design is square as compared to round), but the iriver makes up for this in other areas.

One, it has a great fm radio on board. You don't realize how much you want this option until you don't have it (such as with an ipod).

Two, it handles WMA files perfectly. WMA files are windoms media players preferred file (so if you've burned all your cds onto your hd using windows media player, they are likely all WMA. They are smaller than the same file in MP3 format and have as good, if not better, playback quality as an MP3 file. Ipods don't read WMA, so for any PC user, this could be a major shortcoming.

Three, truely drag and drop of folders onto the iriver. Ipod doesn't allow you to keep your music organized into the folder as most windows users typically do. It tags music by song, artest, album, etc. then sorts it out itself. It does allow playlists, but I still feel like I lose a bit of general organization. The iriver allows you to quickly just drag you existing folders onto the machine as if it were a stand alone drive. Very, very easy playback and navigation.

Too bad it doesn' have a 4 g capacity, but if you use WMA format you get almost 50 hours of skip free music. The ipod at 4 g will only get you about 75 if using mp3 format, so the ability to use WMA pays off again. Plus, the IPOD is not skip free past 25 minutes of continuous shaking. So, if you run aggressively for longer than 25-30 music, you might be in trouble.