iRiver H-320 20GB Hard-disk MP3 Player With Tuner

The main features that drew my attention to this product were the colour screen, for, y'know like looking at colour and stuff

The microphone for all those times you may need one

The external battery pack run on AA bateries (which I was genuinelly interested in) to make sure that you can squeeze some extra juice out of the bad boy

And the Radio, which to be honest I didn't think i'd use much.

Before getting it I had undergone the painstakingly boring process of creating a folder for every leter of the alphabet then the artist beginning with that letter inside them and then the albums by that artist. And by jove am I glad I did that, it proved to make the transfer of music to iRiver very quick and easy (and disablign the ID3 tags made it quicker to load) and due to the fact that it is a portable hard drive I didn't have to use crap software like iTunes to 'Update songs'

So there I am, iRiver in hand, big grin on my face checking out my remote that leads to the head phones, so I start to listen, let me tell you from someone who has regularly listened to my friend's iPod, the sound quality is unmatched, crystal clear, even full volume is like being at a live gig, so basically I'm chuffed. The functionality is a tad fiddly it has to be said and nowhere near as 'slick' as the iPod but when you get used to it you can cruise through the songs like a true pr0.

After a few weeks of having it, regularly putting new songs on quickly, using it as a transport system to take my files from my workplace pc and move them onto my home pc and telling people how great it is I looked on the website.

Firmware upgradeable may not sound too slick, but you could not be more wrong, only yesterday did I 'update the firmware' allowing me to play AVI FILES with sound, it is now my own personal media player for music AND videos, albeit it is a tad fiddly converting files to AVI's and resizing them but there are tutorials on the iRiver website and who knows what the next upgrade will be?

In conclusion I feel that although the iPod may look nicer for the more shallow lot of you, in sound quality, extra features and general awesomeness the iRive in unsurpassed.

Definately buy one if you want a fantastic mp3 that will play videos at no extra cost

A couple of words of warning, the US version's of these devices do not have the USB to Go, so can not be used to copy direct from cameras, key-drives etc, so make sure you are looking at a UK spec system when price comparing. Also check your Camera is compatible via the iRiver site, if you want to use that feature.

All in all this is a great player. Why does it only get 4 stars? The price. I'd say it's better value for money than its main rival the ipod photo if you can live without the style (i can). However, as with all newly released technology it is as expensive as it will ever be. No doubt it will come down in price, so if you can't afford it now then no doubt it will be cheaper in a few months time. But i found it too hard to resist. And how pleased i am to have finally gone from my old mini disc recorder to what is essentially a multimedia device, not just mp3 player. Fantastic!!!!!