Rich sound. And vibrant images to match. All controlled by a simple touch scroll interface. And with longer playback, your music will be there when you need it. Perfect for those who can't live without music.PRODUCT FEATURES:Plays MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, MP3 VBR, WMA, JPEG, TXT, FM radio;Simple Touch Scroll Interface;Synchronizes music with PC via iriver plus, digital jukebox program;Records voice, FM radio and Line in (with Cradle);Shows photos and texts with vibrant color display while playing music;Connects to USB 2.0 port for high-speed data transfer.
Packed with style and powerful features, the ultra-lightweight iRiver H10 hard-drive digital audio player features 5 GB of storage and support for MP3 and WMA formats, as well as Secure WMA from online music download and subscription services. It has a vivid 1.5-inch color LCD for viewing your favorite photos. This slim, compact player is just 0.6 inches thick and weighs only 3.4 ounces. This model comes in Trace Red, but it's also available in Remix Blue, Charcoal, and Silver.
 | The H10 offers easy, intuitive controls via the LCD which are accessed by a touch strip. The swappable rechargeable battery has an approximate 12-hour battery life. The 5 GB hard drive will be able to store more than 75 hours of MP3 or more than 150 hours of WMA files (over 1,250 MP3 or 2,500 WMA songs). It also features an integrated voice recorder and a digital FM tuner with FM recording capabilities. It offers a super-fast USB 2.0 connectivity for transferring files between the device and your PC. The H10 is designed to be PlaysForSure-verified out of the box and works seamlessly with Windows Media Player 10, including support for Auto Sync to sync your music, photos and playlists. You can choose from a growing number of PlaysForSure download and subscription stores, such as F.Y.E (For Your Entertainment), MSN Music, Musicmatch, MusicNow, Napster (and Napster To Go), and Wal-Mart Music Downloads. Choose your music. Choose your device. Know it's going to work.
Look for the PlaysForSure logo if you're shopping for a portable music or video device and you want to make sure the digital music and video you purchase will play back on it every time. Match the PlaysForSure logo on a large selection of leading devices and online music stores. If you see the logo you'll know your digital music will play for sure. |
| The PlaysForSure logo makes it easy to find digital media stores and devices that work together. Choose from a large number of digital music and video stores including: CinemaNow, MSN Music, MusicMatch, MusicNow, Napster, Wal-Mart Music Downloads, and many more. What's in the Box
The iRiver H10 comes with earphones, carrying case with belt clip, USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, and installation CD-ROM. |
1 Had issues, maybe a lemon?
Well, I did lots of research prior to putting down the $240 dollars for this product and thought I was making a good choice. And I still think I did. Unfortunately, though, I don't think iriver has quite got all the bugs worked out of this stylish little player. The features are great, the sound quality is wonderful, and the compact size fit perfectly into my pocket. But like that of a few others that I have talked to/read about, my player froze constantly, got terrible battery life (about 1 hour), had trouble powering off, and wouldn't properly accept music from Windows Media Player (although this may have been a problem on the computer's side, I don't really know). After two days I returned it to Amazon.com. Personally I don't think that the h10 is a bad player and will probably buy one again in a few months when iriver has a little more time to work out the bugs that are inevitable in new technology. Although expensive, this pretty little player is worth it, as long as you get a well working one (like most everyone else does.)
2 Wow.. just Wow
This is truely an amazing product, i abosolutly love it. I use it every day since i got it and i have all of my friends with ipods in envy. Just about all of my friends who owns an ipod now wants an iriver. The iriver looks awsome to, i love it in trance red. The sound quality is amazing on this, i espicialy like the equalizer on it with 40 presets. The voice recorder is fun to playaround with, espicialy when you can record things on it then pretend to listen to music while your taking a test in school when actualy your listeing to answers instead, just set it to repeat haha, or you can upload a cheat sheet as a txt file on it and "scroll for music" :) works amazing, havnt failed a test since. The photo viewr is fun to playaround with as well. I like how the charger and the usb connector are on the same wire, so you can charge it from an outlet or from your USB port on your PC, unlike the Ipod where you have to buy an extra wire to charge it from an outlet. As for people who said they cant tell the buttons on the side, its not that hard to figure out and memorize. Middle is pause, top is fast foward, bottom is rewind. And as for people who said the songs take 30 seconds to change no it doesnt, it takes 2 or 3, if that, same with the ipod, all mp3 players are going to take a second or two to change songs, the more songs you have on it the longer it will change, it has to scan all 5 gb of data for the one song your looking for, And for people whosaid the touch strip isnt sensitive enough, if you use it for 2 or 3 days it will break in and become more sensitive. Anf for people who said you often skip over your desired song, just tap the botton or the top of the strip and it will scroll one at a time, hold it down and it will scroll by itself so you dont have to keep moving your finger up and down. One of the biggest pluses is the removeable battery. Now you can spend 40$ on a new battery every year instead of sending it in for 3 weeks, getting a used refurbished and most likely non working one that someone else has used and who knows what they did with it or where its been with the most horrible customer service in the world (Apple, iPod) I also like the color screen , it makes it look nicer and gives it a cooler graphical look instead of the boring ipod plain text. The FM Tuner is also a plus, sometimes im just in the mood to listen to the radio instead of my music. FIRST THING TO DO WHEN YOU BUY THIS : HTTP://WWW.IRIVERAMERICA.COM/H10UPDATE GO THERE AND DOWNLOAD THE UPDATE, otherwise youll have to re sync your iriver after you update it, this firmware fixes most of the problems that people were listing such as the play in alphabetical order stuff. Ipod mini lists at 200$ , this lists at 240$, (230$ when i bought it) so for 40$ more you get twice as many features, plus youll have something not many other people have :) which is always a plus, thats one of the main reasons i didnt want an ipod, everyone has one. I hate having something everyone else has. so BUY THIS !!! its amazing and i love it :)
3 Horrible -- do not buy; maybe wait for future version
This device basically doesn't work and is poorly thought out. My experience has made me suspicious of the source of many of the positive reviews of this product. If you don't believe me ask yourself why the first insert you see when you open the box is a bright orange piece of paper saying "STOP! Do not return this product! Call us first..." I don't see IBM needing to put those sorts of inserts into their ThinkPads...because they work.
My background is that I have had an iPod for 18-24 months and bought this so that I could use a subscription music service (Rhapsody). This experience has made me appreciate the many features I took for granted in iPod.
Generally, the H10 operates like a computer that is being asked to run an application for which it has insufficient memory (if you have ever tried to play the latest computer games on a non-latest PC you'll know what I'm talking about). So essentially this means it acts like it has been hit in the head, being jerky at best and nonresponsive often. For instance, it takes forever to load up a new song on the H10. Whereas on iPod you go from song to song seamlessly, on the H10 between songs you get a whirring and it stops...I guess it's loading it up...and finally, if you're lucky, it will play the song. There is never less than a 30 second break between songs. That's feeble. That stuff needs to be invisible to the user. It would be faster to go from single to single on a real physical jukebox playng vinyl 45's. Also, it doesn't always play the song you expect. Also, the little slider control is frequently nonresponsive. Also, the fast forward, rewind, play controls are hard to distinguish from each other (you have to focus on them, which is hard to do while jogging). When scrolling, you frequently overshoot your target (too sensitive). That's aside form the fact that often it just crashes and won't do anything at all.
I guess I should call this number on the "STOP!" insert before I return it but I get the feeling it's going to have to go back. This just does not come up to the level of an acceptable mp3 player. This is a protoype. (By the way I did the firmware upgrade first thing so that won't help.)
Now that I realize how great the iPod is relative to the H10, it really makes me appreciate the thinking that went into it. To be honest, would anyone take a job at iRiver if they could get a job at Apple? I don't want to be harsh but probably not. And I think that collective personnel advantage at Apple probably translates into a better product for them in a million ways. One dumb decision was to include several features like photo display and text display that I suspect 98% of users don't care about at all. Basically, people want an mp3 player to play music. Looking at your photo collection on a one in ch screen probably is not a key feature. Instead of devoting time to creating a phto and text service, they should have made sure they had the basic music player working. Duh.
4 Awesome
I must admit - the reviews I'd read on the bugs for this mp3 player had me worried... but in the end, being as shallow as I am, it is much more aesthetically pleasing than the ipod or zen micro. Its cute look (and color screen) had me sold!
Although there were problems with the album order playback (which I think was everyone's main complaint), the new firmware update is now on the iRiver site which I have downloaded and now it works perfectly (not that track order bothered me much in the first place).
The radio feature is great and i find it very easy to use. It's quick and easy to put music on it with Media Player, the sound is great, and all in all I'm very pleased with this very handy little thing!
5 This Jewel is A Pleasure to Own
This is my first MP3 player and I chose it for the following reasons: it is PC compatible; has an FM tuner; and iRiver gets excellent ratings for sound quality. But the deciding factor was that I loved the way it looked in trance red - like a lacquered cigarette or small jewelry case. In three weeks of use, I have not been disappointed. Media Player 10 handles the synchronization flawlessly. The real payoff is that I finally have the motivation to collect, categorize and listen to ALL my music, not just the six CDs I have in the car. For me that means going all the way back to the 60s. The fact that this little jewel holds it all (for now), operates seamlessly and can plug into a home stereo, a car audio system or be taken to the gym or on a trip completely changes the way I listen to music. The FM tuner gets the best reception I've experienced in portable unit. Be prepared to spend another $50 to $100 for better earphones (an unending search)and connectivity accessories.
Only two negatives. First, the repeat-pause-skip buttons on the side provide no tactile feedback to differentiate one from another. So you might unwittingly pause a tune rather than skip it. Second, iRiver has released a 6 GB version (to keep up with the iPod mini) and is preparing to release a 20 GB H10 - same design, slightly larger dimensions and weight.
PS Be sure to download and install the firmware upgrade before you start.
PPS It's "Trance Red" not "Trace Red".
6 Skip this and get the iPod
This MP3 player is created for Napster, a program that illegally distributed copyrighted music for FREE on the internet. They eventually got busted by Metallica, and they're now legit. Quite frankly, Napster now looks like a poor man's iTunes, which is so much better. You should, at all costs, avoid the iRiver, which looks ugly and the music is presented in mono, NOT stereo! That's an outrage. The ONLY MP3 player that matters is the iPod. So get that, and avoid this player and Napster. Apple has total control over the MP3 market, and it's easy to see why.
7 Not a bad player, once you can get it to work.
Let me start by thanking the folks at Misticriver.com. Without them, I would have been the owner of a very expensive paperweight. That being said, a buyer should not have to depend on such websites to get their player working, but in the case of the H10, that is exactly what is required. Two reasons for this. First, the stability of the player is very sub-standard. Even after applying the upgrade, it still locks up on me, and the track sorting still isn't quite right. There are other problems, but these two seem to be the most pervasive. The second reason is that iRiver's technical support is useless. Don't bother e-mailing the company--you'll never get a response. Check out iRiver's rating with the Better Business Bureau--not good. If you need help, just call right away, but be prepared to wait a good, long time. An hour or two is not uncommon. Once you get them, their typical response seems to be "You got a bad one--send it back and we'll send out another." All of this is too bad, because the H10 is one of the slickest players on the market today. I got mine for free from Napster, and I'm keeping it. But, if I had to do it all again, I'd definitely choose something else.
8 Superb Player
After a long debate between the iPod, Zen Micro, (which are also fine products) and this iRiver H10, I finally decided on the H10. This mp3 player is simply incredible and far surpasses the iPod and Zen Micro.
*It easily and flawlessly syncs with WMP10, but I prefer to acess it as an external drive, also flawless.
*The sound quality is excellent, even with the included headphones (Sennheiser MX400).
*The processor is somewhat slow, and while this isn't noticable while one browses through songs, it takes several seconds for the "Browse" fuction to load.
*There are many features, such as FM radio, FM record, alarm, clock, txt viewing, and jpg viewing.
*The EQ settings are effective up to a point where the sound gets too distorted.
*Button positioning and fuctionality is excellent, although using the ff/rw buttons to change FM stations is rather awkward.
*The color screen is very impressive, although when the backlight turns off, the screen barely visible, and doesn't refresh until you press a button.
*The battery life is excellent. While I have not explicitly tested it, I just plug it in for the night, and it's good for about 1-2 days of use.
*The cover for the USB connecter is small and easy to lose, but it stays in effectively and 3 replacements come with the player.
*I feel the player is slightly overpriced, so wait until it's on sale.
This player is incredible, and I in no way regret purchasing it. I highly recommend the iRiver H10.
9 Much better with new firmware
They have new firmware out for this thing, and it fixes most issues. You can play in track order and it seems to sync with Napster To Go OK so far. I think Napster To Go stinks right now, so if you truly are a music fan you won't be happy. Most emerging artists are "buy only". If you're going to download Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton, then go for it. All the standard stuff is available for download. The audio quality on this thing is awesome. The scroll pad thing isn't anywhere near as good as the ipod. All the older reviews are from before the new firmware. This thing is safe to buy now.
10 Don't pay attention to the negative reviews for iRiver H10.
After my 13 year old daughter's iRiver H340 was stolen at school (!), I purchased the H10 as a replacement for her. My daughter loves the sound quality and features of the iRiver MP3 players generally, and being a serious voice student, she finds it handy to use her MP3 player to instantly record voice lessons, vocal warm-ups, accompaniment music, etc.
In response to all the negative feedback about iRiver MP3 players generally, and the H10 in particular, I must say that my 13 year old daughter had absolutely NO DIFFICULTY learning how to use either iRiver product (i.e., the H340 which she owned initially and the H10 which we purchased as a 'replacement' after her H340 was stolen), including the ability to easily down-load and organize CDs and other music.
The H10 is much lighter, sleeker and more portable than the H340, and while it doesn't have nearly the same amount of memory as either the H320 or the H340, the H10 is more than sufficient and offers great sound.
If my 13 year old (who is not especially computer-literate), was able to use both of her iRiver MP3 players virtually out of the box, then I'm sure most other people can.
We carefully checked-out other available options including iPod, Creative Zen and other manufacturers, and found that nothing offers the quality and features of an iRiver. Having now purchased 3 iRiver products (i.e., my daughter's H340 and H10, and an H320 for my 15 year old son), I can highly recommend iRiver's MP3 products without hesitation.
11 Iriver H10 vs the world
the iriver h10 is decent. before i bought the h10 i went on cnet to look at the reviews. i also went to bestbuy to check it out first hand and see how it would feel in my hand. i didnt like the creative zen micro because everything was a touch pad. it was annoying because you have to get use to it. although the ipod mini was great there touch pad is so easy to use and itunes is really easy to use. i also looked at the samsung color 5gb mp3. i didnt get it because it had an 8 hour battery life that wasnt removable. despite i felt that the samsung felt the best in my hand and was the easiest to use, also the controls were sort of perfect where there located.
Plus: removable battery, fm tuner(no am), voice recoreder, not fully touch pad, a physical hold switch, fairly easy to use(the mp3 player not the software). and it comes with a pocket sleeve. Alot easier to delete songs off the iriver than an ipod. you can put pictures on it.
Negatives: manually is hard to understand, you have to go online to figure out how to create the playlist because it is not in the manually. Once you input the playlist it is not alphabetize, only the artist and genre which is stupid. fm tuner present is kind of hard to do because once again the manual sucks.
i felt the iriver is decent and it sure beats the creative zen an day of the week. until apple comes out with there own version of a mini with a color screen then iriver is doomed. i love this because it comes with a removal battery which is my main concern.
12 Looks so good, but beware: Napster-to-Go compatible player
Let me start by saying that this is probably the slickest-looking player on the market, in its price range, that runs with Napster-to-go. Full color screen, intuitive interface, and easy integration with Windows XP.
Here are the things I really didn't like about this:
1.) Plays songs in alphabetical order, not in the order they appeared on the album (regardless of whether you did Napster, or ripped your own MP3s from CD). For someone like me, this was the biggest frustration.
2.) Broke within 2 weeks, TECH SUPPORT IS VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT. One day, the thing decided to lock on boot, and their online recovery tool didn't do a thing. I usually don't buy that extended warranty everyone always pushes, but in this case it could really save your bacon (I was within 30 days of purchase, so I simply returned it). Called their tech support 6 times, and the first 5 times I simply got busy tones. 6th time I got through--and waited 2 hours for support (lucky thing I had two cordless phones, as the battery nearly died on the call). Talked to someone, and within 5 minutes they said I'd better return my defective unit. I did this, and replaced it with a Creative Zen Micro. Much happier now.
3.) Seemed to "lose" songs. Some songs I could find on the file browser, but not in the library. Very weird.
4.) Recovery tools on the device were pretty much nil. If it stops working, hope you're within 30 days, or that you did spring that extra cash for the extended warranty package. You pretty much have no other options to you.
One day, I hope I have the opportunity to clean up their customer support operation. My experience with them was the main reason I decided to return the player for a different one, rather than hope I just had a defective one.
A customer support group this bad is indicative that the IRiver folks don't stand behind their product.
So, be warned and beware.
13 Only one OS
I was really excited to about the iRiver H10...until I tried to set it up and discovered that it only works with Windows XP and nothing else. It had all the features I wanted and it would have been great, but I am not changing my operating system just to use an mp3 player.
14 Nice looking but fails in several regards
Battery life averages about 6-7 hours. The problem with the color screen is that you can't see what is playing unless you are actively using the menus. It isn't like a regular black and white lcd where you can still see even without the backlight on.
Does not work properly with Napster-to-Go. I downloaded all these tracks and lost of them due to license sync errors three times in a week.
I returned it after a week and a half and got a Creative Zen Micro, which has worked beautifully with no trouble and actually lasts 11-12 hours.
15 Could Be Great - But Deeply Flawed
Beware!
This is a great-looking player - sleek, color screen, and so forth. But, as of this writing, it has serious flaws in functionality and sound.
- Any significant bass distorts when using my Koss Portapro headphones (I've used them for many other players with no problems). I'm not talking thunderous bass - just typical stuff, with equalizer set flat.
- Player only lists (and plays) songs alphabetically, rather than by track numnber, which has proved to be even more annoying than I thought it would.
- Player can take a long time to skip from one song to the next.
It is possible that these problems will be fixed by a firmware upgrade (that does not yet exist). It is possible that they cannot be fixed by firmware, or that iRiver will simply choose not fix them. I'd strongly recommend that propesctive buyers wait until all is repaired rather than taking a risk.
16 spectacular
Well first of all, I read many reviews on products that were in my price range before I decided to get the H10. I looked at the Apple iPod mini (of course), the creative Zen Micro and then the H10. Before I even herd of the H10, I bought the Zen Micro and was very impressec after the first couple of days of use. Although, after a week, it started to freeze and start up by it self even though I turned if of and locked it. After trying to upgrade the firmware via creative.com I sent it back. A couple weeks after taking a second look at the mini my uncle suggested me to take a look at the H10. Sure some reviews mention how it may not be working well or freezing and what not but reviews about the mini and the zen micro said that and still, many people seem to be buying them. So I told myself that I might as well try the H10. I've been using it for 2 weeks now and have had no trouble at all... but it only get's 4 stars because you never know what can happen right? So hopefully it will just keep on impressing me and I'll be able to use it for a while. Still haven't tested out the text characteristic but I hope it works just as well as the rest. So... all I can do is suggest you to try it out because it's always worth trying something new... and maybe you won't get a bad version which apparently are not to rare...
17 wow a mp3 player that is easy to work
This is great. With windows media player 10 this mp3 player is so easy to work. I just had to buy a second one
18 Mine doesn't work with Napster
I was one of the first to get the free H10 with the one year subscription. Since then I have run into the 2 mayor problems.
1.- Tracks disappear from the directory in my computer without logical explanation, they simply go missing. It happens EVERYDAY with LOTS of tracks.
2.- When I try to synchronize the H10 with napster, it ALWAYS stops in the middle of the process without reason.
I already have reinstalled napster, reinstalled media player, reformat the h10 and none of this solve the problem
When i finally get a few songs on the player, and I try to skip to the next or previous one it take about 5 seconds to start the next song. Believe me, is annoying.
I won't recommend neither the device not napster to go to anybody.
19 Amazing potential, poor execution
Disclaimer: I got this as a gift. Had I been able to choose my own player, I likely would not have chosen (and still would not choose) this item.
Let me start with the good stuff:
1) Excellent sound quality! Nice comprehensive (and customizable) EQ, too :).
2) Very small, comfortable to hold in my hand, fits easily in the pockets of even my tight jeans.
3) Plays protected WMAs. HUGE plus! Wouldn't accept any player that didn't support this (:ahem: iPod). For just $15 a month, I have hundreds of thousands of songs at my fingertips... it's a fabulously liberating opportunity that you can't comprehend until you actually experience it.
4) It's neat to be able to listen to NPR (radio), and the extensive preset slots are handy.
Now for the icky stuff:
1) I find that the side controls are impossible to operate by touch. So when the H10 is in my pocket, I can't feel where forward and back are. That's bad design, IMHO.
2) I had to format it before I could use it with Napster.
3) The aforementioned inability to natively play songs in album order. This is a horrendous bug, particularly when playing albums whose songs blend into each other (musicals, thematic albums, etc.)
4) I don't like the earbuds; while they offer great sound, they keep falling out of my ears (though this could be simply a personal-preference/personal-problem kind of thing).
5) What use is the photo feature?! It doesn't automatically show album art. It does a dastardly bad job of compressing full-size jpegs (jaggy-city!). And the screen is smaller than the display on my actual camera. When would anyone actually use this darn feature?
6) Sync'ing playlists is problematic with WMP10. When I delete a song from a playlist, for instance, WMP10 says "Deleting [songname] from iRiver H10" but it doesn't actually delete it. So, synchronizing should be renamed "copying"... which stinks. I need the ability to actually keep my playlists in SYNC. Only workaround I've discovered: Delete the playlists off of the H10 and simply recopy over the newer version.
7) There's no two-way metadata sharing. For instance, I can rate a song 3 stars on the iRiver, but that rating isn't carried back to WMP when I sync. For that matter, is there even ONE-WAY metadata sharing? I haven't noticed the H10 doing anything with the ratings I have made on WMP. Blah :(
8) It sometimes takes too long to shut down (more than 5 seconds).
9) This is more of a Napster negative than H10 negative, but still... so many songs are purchaseable but not transferable. That's really rude and unfortunate, IMHO.
Add to this the legendarily awful support of iRiver, and I must say, I'd not encourage anyone to actually pay money for this item. Maybe with a firmware update things'll be better, but I've been burned so often in the past waiting for promised firmware updates, only to have the company simply release a new product version a year later and offer a wonderful "$20 coupon" and insist that we shell out $229 for a new player. Great.
20 Falls below expectations
The specifications for the H10 looked good when I was reading it, but unforunately this mp3 fell short of my expectations.
Positives:
Color screen
Radio Tuner
Negatives:
The USA version, which is what I bought through Amazon.com, isn't recognized as a "mass usb storage device" in Windows. This means you are forced to used Windows Media Player 10 in order to sync files with the player. When you do try to sync albums to the H10, they do not automatically play in order.
The time and date on the player was always a day or two off. This is a silly bug that should've been caught before they released this product.
The sad part is the iRiver has released firmware fixes for their International and Asian version of H10, but they completely ignored the USA version. How can iRiver release a product like this and expect it to compete with such products as the Creative Zen Micro or Apple iPod?
21 THIS IS THE WORST MP3 PLAYER EVER
I've had several mp3 players for about 4-5 years now. And I have to say this is the WORST one ever. I ordered a RED color and yet, they sent the wrong color[blue].. TWICE. I tried hooking it up to my windows XP [which I purchased not even a month ago] and did exactly what I was said to do. Everything failed- I tried calling customer service but OBVIOUSLY there are many others who are having a difficult time since it was busy the whole day. I have purchased irivers and thought of them as #1- Now I disagree. Iriver has disappointed me greatly.
22 Worst MP3 Player I Have Ever Owned!
Over the last couple years, I have owned a variety of music players. Here is a brief timeline: Rio (64MB) -> Mini Disc (Sony 74 mins) -> iPod (1st Generation 5GB) -> iFP-390T (iRiver 256MB) -> H10 (iRiver 5GB - Present) -> iFP-899 (iRiver 1GB - Present). The H10 is by far the worst player I have ever owned. Here is a list of frustrations that I have experienced during the short time I have owned it:
-Short battery life. I have only made it to about 6-7 hours. Much shorter than the 12 hours listed by the manufacturer.
-Frequent crashes. Much like the only operating system it works with, my H10 has crashed on multiple occasions. So far I have found that the only way to reset the player is to remove the battery. This is made more frustrating when you have the protective skin on, as you have to completely remove it first.
-Slow song changes. It's not very scientific, but it feels like it takes about a second or so to skip to the next song. It makes me think that the buffer is very small. I could be wrong, but believe that the iPod buffers about 20 minutes.
-Poor functionality I. In the morning I like to listen to the radio and switch to music during commercials. With the H10, you have to back out through quite a few screens to get to the radio from the music function.
-Poor functionality II. There does not seem to be any way to create multiple, on-the-fly playlists. You can create one quick playlist and that is it. Has iRiver never seen an iPod?
-Inaccurate battery indicator. This is related to the battery life issue, but is a different problem. On multiple occasions, the indicator has read 100% full for 4 hours, then when I shut it down and turn it back on, it reads 50% full. It will work for about another 2 hours, then completely shutdown due to insufficient battery power.
The H10 has a few other things working against it, but I have listed the ones that bug me on a daily basis. Hopefully, a firmware update will come out soon that will fix some things, but the short battery life is really annoying. Maybe it's so you have to buy additional batteries from them, I don't know.
There is a happy ending to all of this, although it does not involve the H10, but does include iRiver. I missed my iFP-390T and hated the H10 so much that I went out and bought the iRiver iFP-899. The 899 is, without a doubt, the best player I have ever owned (sorry 390T). I'll probably write a review for it, or maybe the 799, which is pretty similar. I love iRiver, but I wish they would put as much care into their hard drive players as they do with their flash players. If you need tons of space and no FM radio, go get an iPod. If you need tons of space and as well as FM radio, go get an iPod mini and use the extra money to buy a good mini radio. The H10 is too little, too late to compete with what is out there. Nothing is innovative about it, and it is more expensive that similar items. Even the Napster To Go service, which only looks good on paper, can't make the H10 worth the price of admission.
23 iRiver H10 tries, but flunks. Wait for updated drivers
I love iriver products, and was blown away with the sound on this player, but I had UNRESOLVABLE problems with the player and Windows Media 10. I downloaded the "fix" from the iRiver site, but I just couldn't get it to work without re-running the "fix" over and over again. Finally, I returned the player to Best Buy, severely disappointed. They need to create a new version of iRiver Music Manager as an ALTERNATIVE so one can just drag and drop the songs from your hard drive to the player. The Windows Media 10 is incomprehensible to use; and the connectivity "For Sure" is not sure at all! Furthermore, the documentation doesn't explain HOW to get photos on the player. WM 10 placed them on the file system, but the only way to see them was to use the file "browser" on the H10. Another problem was that the playlists were all "out" of sequenced from the alphabetical order I created on WM10. (This was when I COULD get the WM10 to recognize it). After awhile, I couldn't get WM10 to connect to the H10 at all. Calls to the tech support line yielded busy signals for 2 days. My email to customer service has yet to be answered. This has soured me from purchasing iRiver products for some time. Too bad for them.....
24 Great product, although not perfect
When this mp3 player was first announced and I started to see it all over the net, I was excited. I am a long time iRiver enthusiast (also an anti iPod) and their first micro hard drive mp3 player looked great, with a color screen, and of course tons of other features that iRiver always includes. (By the way, this is where Apple falls short - they dish out the same thing over and over, saying it's a "new generation" iPod with nothing different except the front design. The iPod never has extra features except games, it has terrible battery life, and plus it looks rather uninteresting to me, though not overly ugly.)
Unfortunately for me, when I ordered this iRiver H10 from Amazon (just two weeks ago it cost $271 now it costs 280, I have no clue as to why) they sent the wrong product! I had to return it and order from Newegg. In any case, the red version of this player looks simply amazing. Great sleek design, beautiful color screen, and the red metallic color tops it off. It's a lot lighter than I expected, you have to feel it in your hand for this fact to hit you. The button layout is bot intuitive and comfoprtable.
When I turned this player on my amazement didn't cease. The color screen had better resolution than my color cell phone! The touch pad worked a lot better and easier than Zen Micro's touch pad. I proceeded to plug it into my computer to start downloading music into it. I had no problems with syncing with Windows Media Player, only a slight learning curve. I certainly didn't experience any freezing or crashing problems that many other people mentioned. It might be that they had defective products or their computers are somehow incompatible, though I can't imagine why. After I got some songs into it I listened to the sound quality. Amazing sound. There are thirty or so different preset EQ modes, including an SRS WOW that you can customize, and another Custom EQ. The default EQ is nothing compared to SRS.
So far no problems. The only thing that annoyed me about this player is that it arranges songs in alphabetical order, even if there are numbers in front of them. Let's say you copy a cd into your computer and sync it into the H10. When you rip from cds using WMP, then it automatically puts track numbers into the music files. For example:
01 Foreward
02 Don't Stay
03 Somewhere I Belong
etc
When you download it into the player, the numbers are gone and you see the songs arranged in alphabetical order, even when you browse song titles in albums. This can be remedied by changing the titles of the songs like this:
01 songtitle to 01 - songtitle
put a space, a dash, and then another space in between the number and title. Then, go to properties for that song and do the same thing in "Summary" where you input the title, artist, album, etc. Doing this with all the songs should put them in the original album's order. I just found this extremely annoying to do with hundreds of songs, and iRiver should fix this bug.
In any case, I found this player to be out of the ordinary, with great quality sound, beautiful design, and a handful of extra features like text and photo viewing.
And by the way, I know how annoying iRiver support is, with unresponsive service and the like. iRiver orginates from Korea, and the service is a lot better there, along with product quality, and I heard they have no bugs over there. So maybe it's just over here in the US that the problems are occuring.
25 Terrible product! Don't waste your money!
I was given the iriver H10 as a gift. Upon opening the box, two inserts read,"STOP, before returning this product........." That should have been my first clue that something was wrong. The second insert recommended that I contact iriver via e-mail if I had a problem. I did contact them, over a week ago, still no response! The product is terrible! It copied my whole MY documents file. I tried to delete it, it wouldn't allow me to do so. Now, when I return the product for a FULL refund, I have to make sure the salesperson can delete my files in the H10. Also, EVERY time I tried to download files, it froze my computer! Absolutely the worst! Don't buy it.
26 ONE SUPER MP3 PLAYER JUST AWESOME!!!!!
I BOUGHT THIS UNIT YESTERDAY, HAD IT SET UP AND RUNNING THE SAME EVENING, AND FOR A OVER 50 GUY, I MUST SAY I LOVE THIS THING.........MY OLDIES AND CLASSICAL MUSIC NEVER SOUNDED SO GOOD!!! I FOUND IT VERY SIMPLE TO USE, AND THE COLOR SCREEN HAS A NICE BRIGHT DISPLAY FOR US FOLK THAT MIGHT NEED TO WEAR GLASSES, EITHER CASE BUY IT, CHARGE IT UP BEFORE USING IT, AND BE PREPARED TO BE BLOWN AWAY BY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL STEREO YOU HAVE EVER HEARD OUT OF A TINY LITTLE UNIT THAT CAN FIT IN YOUR SHIRT POCKET...BY THE WAY YOU MUST PICK UP A SET OF BOSE TRI PORT HEAD PHONES TO GIVE THE IRIVER H10 THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THIS BREATHTAKING STEREO DEVICE
27 No problems here... and Napster to go
I have other iRiver products so when I decided I wanted to go with Napster To Go (monthly subscription service that lets you "rent" tracks for compatible players), I knew I would go with iRiver.
The H10 is an elegant little machine -- very nice to look at and solidly built. The interface on the player isn't all that great, occasionally confusing, but it works.
I have had no problems getting music onto the player. It works well with the Napster software. I play albums -- in track order -- by creating playlists in Napster and transfering those playlists onto the player. It's a snap.
And the sound is wonderful. I've been using some pretty good Sony headphones so far and have been satisfied with the sound quality. I have some Shure phones coming soon and expect it to sound even better.
Bottom line. For me the player has been almost flawless.
28 The product does not work - Zero support from IRiver
I got this product about 2 weeks ago. In spite of hours spent on researching tips from the Misticriver forum and trying all sorts of different ways, the product has not worked correctly. The playlists do not work, the lists by artists and album is corrupted. The tech support, which is open only during business hours, has at least 45 minute wait. They clearly do not have answers to the problems with playlists, etc. My inquiries via email have been unanswered.
It is clear that the product was prematurely launched to coincide with the Napster to Go campaign.
It is a nice paperweight, if you can afford to spend over $250 for a paperweight!
29 Disappointment
I ordered the H10 and have now sent it back. I have had problems similar to those many others listed. The radio worked great and picked up even distant stations well. The user interface and size are fantastic. However, when I loaded music with WMP10, it would not work. This includes MP3s and WMAs ripped from my own CDs as well as Napster to Go. I uninstalled and reinstalled WMP10 and got the latest download from Microsoft. Using this and USB 2.0 on both a Falcon Northwest Pentium 4 3.06 MHz (XP Home) and a Sony Vaio laptop (XP Professional), I had the same problems with both computers and had to conclude that the device was not functional. The names of the songs jumbled such that artist names were linked to songs of different artists. The menu and directories were all goofed up. Many songs loaded but wouldn't play. Some would play a few times and then everything would jumble up. Tech support from iRiver was virtually nonexistent. I sent it back and ordered a Zen Micro today. I'm hoping I'll have more success. Overall, the H10 is a very nice device conceptually but it might be better to wait for a later model with more stable technology if you want to order this player.
30 REVISED
I love this thing it's way better than any other mp3 player I've used. Here are the specs:
FEATURES
* Plays up to 150 hours of digital music*
* 5GB of internal storage**
* Vivid color display
* Ultra-intuitive interface with convenient touch strip
* Displays your digital photos
* Slim, lightweight design
* PlaysForSure enabled to play more of your music
* Rechargeable, removable battery lasts up to 12hrs.
* Built-in FM tuner and FM recorder
* Integrated voice recorder
* Ultra-fast USB 2.0 transfers
* Supports MP3, WMA, JPEG and TXT files
* Enhanced 3D audio (supports SRS WOW?)
PACKED WITH
* iriver earphones
* Carrying case with belt clip
* USB 2.0 interface cable
* Installation CD
* AC adapter
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
* Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or higher)
* CD-ROM Drive
* USB Port
It has a great navigation system almost as good as the iPods click wheel.(but that thing is really hard to match) It's features rival that of it's opponents and tops them all. The 3 players I checked out were the iPod mini, the creative zen micro, and of course the H10. I didn't think the Mini was worth $250 when it can't use Napster has no microphone or radio. The Zen micro was my 2nd choice because it has a radio and mic plus it looks way cool with the blue LED in the back and the colors but that is more of a gimmic than a plus and the touch pad doesn't work that well. Then I saw this by accident actually. I downloaded Napster onto my comp and was looking at it's special offers to see what would work with it. I was going to get the zen micro then I finally checked this thing out and I was captured. Since the iRiver H230 looked ugly I never cared abought them but this thing is beautiful and it looks professional.
The color screen is a little to small but it looksamazing compared to most LCD screens like the iPod so when you turn it the image isn't negative. It's simplistic button layout is a definate plus which makes it so you don't have to take much time to get used to it. Also it has volume control on the side unlike the zen and iPod. The sorage is fine with me because I don't need my entire music collection with me at all times.
However you can't directly link your H10 to a digital camera. Plus it has a few minor bugs. Hopefully iriver will make a firmware update.(mud slinging lol must be a fanboy of iriver)
I wish the price was $250 so it could compete with the iPod mini and zen micro easily. But when you make an investment like this you know it's going to work and it does.
It also comes with a great iskin which protects it from any fall.
This thing is small though I was suprised when I opened it up. Supposedly it weighs less than the iPod mini and it's a photo player!!!
what I said up there ^ is an out of the box reviewwhich you shouldn't trust after only a week of having this machine it is a pain in the @ss.
iRiver should be ashamed of themselves for releasing such a premature item with all its bugs.
this thing doesn't like a lot of computers and has problems with freezing but worst of all it can't play albums in track order.
this is terrible for people like me who listen to bands like green day and linkin park who use transitions in their songs but even then there are pauses inbetween songs.
If I bought a camera I'd expect it to work without having to wait a long time for it to be fixed. iRiver has terrible american support which is unacceptable even if they are based in korea. I can't give this thing anything higher than a 3 because it's faults are too big. this had a lot going for it but iRiver being as smart as they are released it way too early
31 Hands down the best player available
Without a doubt the best player out there. I was blown away by the build quality and attention to detail, iriver really put a lot of work into this. You will wish your cell phone/PDA could even come close to this quality. Took it out of the box, pluged it into usb port and opened explorer (just like a drive letter!), draged mp3s to it, done within 5 min of opening the box. No need to use Windows Medeia Player. A really cool feature lets you record from the FM radio to. By the way the display resolution is 128 x 128 so you can optimize photos (not in the manual or web site). If you are deciding between Ipod and the H10, there is no comparison other than GB, this unit makes the Ipod look like a cheap kids toy.
32 very nice but not perfect
pros: nice look, good feeling in hand due to metalic body
slim and light weight
color screen is bright and clear
easy to navigate ( after you get music or photos in to it)
Fm radio is terrific
sound is good, i am still testing the 30 EQ setting
btw MX 400 is a nice earbud
cons: i am using windows xp sp2, wmp 10 , but it still takes
me several hours to figure out how to sync playlist and
photo, since normally i just drag and drop music to mp3
players. I dont know windows media player can creat a playlist of photos beofore. Also the gel case from the box seems useless, it doesn't provide anything to protect the beautiful screen, Maybe I need to get a cell phone screen sticker.
All in all, h10 is the best 5 g player of its kind( if you say ipod is the best it is also ok, ipod is ipod, who cares)
33 Great Mp3 Player worth the money!
I love this thing it's way better than any other mp3 player I've used. Here are the specs:
FEATURES
* Plays up to 150 hours of digital music*
* 5GB of internal storage**
* Vivid color display
* Ultra-intuitive interface with convenient touch strip
* Displays your digital photos
* Slim, lightweight design
* PlaysForSure enabled to play more of your music
* Rechargeable, removable battery lasts up to 12hrs.
* Built-in FM tuner and FM recorder
* Integrated voice recorder
* Ultra-fast USB 2.0 transfers
* Supports MP3, WMA, JPEG and TXT files
* Enhanced 3D audio (supports SRS WOW?)
PACKED WITH
* iriver earphones
* Carrying case with belt clip
* USB 2.0 interface cable
* Installation CD
* AC adapter
PC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
* Windows XP (Service Pack 1 or higher)
* CD-ROM Drive
* USB Port
It has a great navigation system almost as good as the iPods click wheel.(but that thing is really hard to match) It's features rival that of it's opponents and tops them all. The 3 players I checked out were the iPod mini, the creative zen micro, and of course the H10. I didn't think the Mini was worth $250 when it can't use Napster has no microphone or radio. The Zen micro was my 2nd choice because it has a radio and mic plus it looks way cool with the blue LED in the back and the colors but that is more of a gimmic than a plus and the touch pad doesn't work that well. Then I saw this by accident actually. I downloaded Napster onto my comp and was looking at it's special offers to see what would work with it. I was going to get the zen micro then I finally checked this thing out and I was captured. Since the iRiver H230 looked ugly I never cared abought them but this thing is beautiful and it looks professional.
The color screen is a little to small but it looksamazing compared to most LCD screens like the iPod so when you turn it the image isn't negative. It's simplistic button layout is a definate plus which makes it so you don't have to take much time to get used to it. Also it has volume control on the side unlike the zen and iPod. The sorage is fine with me because I don't need my entire music collection with me at all times.
However you can't directly link your H10 to a digital camera. Plus it has a few minor bugs. Hopefully iriver will make a firmware update.(mud slinging lol must be a fanboy of iriver)
I wish the price was $250 so it could compete with the iPod mini and zen micro easily. But when you make an investment like this you know it's going to work and it does.
It also comes with a great iskin which protects it from any fall.
This thing is small though I was suprised when I opened it up. Supposedly it weighs less than the iPod mini and it's a photo player!!!
iRiver has set a new standard for photo viewing mp3 players and micro harddrive players at the same time.
34 Awesome Player! Be sure to upgrade the firmware.
This player is hands down best in class... Comes with great sounding Sennheiser earbuds (must have upgrade if you buy other players). Move over Ipod Mini, Creative Micro and Rio Carbon! Uh, I forgot they don't have color screen to view photos. :)
It's obvous that some earlier reviewers are slinging mud... Hey Bill Gates showed Iriver player at CES 2005, OK! Got it? Iriver ROCKs!
Ipod was too well "fem" look for my taste. Had Rio Carbon but it had terrible sound quality (PCMag was right and good riddance). Have Creative Muvo and thought it sounded great (of course had to spend another $25 for Sennheiser earbuds as Creative's stock earbuds was TERRIBLE) until of course I got this awesome player! Best part is that I was among the first 1000 people who got it on Superbowl Sunday for only $180 shipped from Napster including 12 months subcription! So go get this player as great deal even at $280!
Update - Hard drive failed on the unit I had. Called tech support and had to wait 30 min plus but the tech support guy was wonderful and issued RMA on the spot. Now that's service!
35 Coolest Player for the Money
I absolutely love this thing. Design is hot and it has the perfect small form factor and frankly I dont know how they got it all in such a small package. I got through the options/features as there are a lot of them and its this is killer plus. I've never had so much fun figuring out a player.
I haven't noticed any bugs in my lounge dark grey H10 . IMPORTANT NOTE: The picture here doesn't do it justice. The amazon.com picture is distorted. It has the player tilted which as any photograhper knows causes bad distortion. In real life this will take your breath away.
Basics:
Super lightweight color screen for photos. A slim 0.6 inches thick weighing only 3.4 ounces!!!! Amazing touch strip control and removeable rechargeable battery with 12-hour + ( my home test) battery life. Great voice recorder and a digital FM tuner with FM recorder. The best thing about it is how small it is. Its going to surprise you. But, its not too small. Cool small is more like it. If you don't fall in love with this I will be surprised. Features are important and it sounds great. Looks are important and it looks great. Price is important and its priced low for the features it has. There are a few mini players around now but none with the features this has that look this good. I guess that's what got me interested in the first place. Good luck with whatever you choose. Im a happy camper with my h10!
More info-" PlaysForSure-verified with Windows Media Player 10 with for Auto Sync for music, photos and playlists. You can choose from a growing number of PlaysForSure download and subscription stores, -- comes with earphones, carrying case with belt clip, USB 2.0 cable, AC adapter, and installation CD-ROM. "
36 Small, Feature Filled, Awesome new player
First of all I have to say that my new iRiver h10 has NONE of the so called "bugs" mentioned in an earlier review. I'd love to know how many people actually had these and if that reviewer just read something negative on a bulliten board and felt compelled to bash as if every player had a defect lol.
I've been through this player and the manual and everything worked-- and I did check out the site mentioned about the h10 bugs too to make sure mine didnt have any!. Well, my H10 works like a charm and iRiver site mentions that any firmware updates will be posted as needed. 'Nuf said. Back to reality-If you have windows xp and want to use napster to go, it was tailor made for that but of course its great for any mp3's or wavs too.
Instead of wondering what it has, let's just say it has just about everything and at a great price. The bonus is that this is a super high quality player that looks simply amazing. I consider this an iPod plus, the plus being fm, recording, removeable battery etc.
Its a pleasure to hold and look , and with windows media player 10 its a joy with this music system they worked out ( with microsoft)that Im using. This thing is simply the best mp3 player available. The only con is that it doesnt use iTunes. Its going to be a huge success for iRiver- there is no doubt about it. Ive been using mp3 players since before there were any hard drive models. Its unreal to have one this small with all the features and such an intense menu system with color .jpg viewing of photos thrown in too. I have it right here and love it already. Mine is grey and very sleek. The design looks 10 times better in real life. Im prone to be pro iPod but have to admit this is really really close in the iPod style department and way ahead in features. Conclusion:
The H10 just came out. It's going to be a huge hit and because of this there will be a lot of negatives tossed about by competitors. The fact is that mine works perfectly, sounds better than the creative and rio players Ive had in the past, and importantly looks amazing compared to the competition. Highly recommend.
37 Me likee iRiver....
I'll just start by saying, I've had an iRiver mp3 player since April, and except for some stupid things done on my part, it's worked perfectly, and the little 190T of mine has even survived a five-foot drop on a hard stone floor, and has an excellent equalizer, and just adjusting the bass and treble gives it spectacular sound. Judging by others' reviews, I assume the H10 is no exception. As soon as I amass the necessary funds, I intend to buy this, and rock out! The removable battery was iRiver's smartest move in my opinion, and that will give it the serious edge over the iPod. Creative's mp3 players are fairly good, but a friend of mine has one, and the bass is nowhere near as powerful as from my little 190T. The sound overall from the Creative Nomad was diminuitive compared to the 190T.
People who like excellent sound, compact packages, convenient controls, and the complement of a removable rechargeable battery will not regret this mp3 player at all (and yes, firmware upgrades are a must for ANY mp3 player, and iRiver is sure as heck no exception.), and will find a good deal of use from it. Peace out. Chaos in.
I have a few other questions: can this player be used as a backup hard drive? I know that the 20 and 40 GB models can be used that way, but can the 5 gig H10 be as well? Does the .TXT support mean one can read MS Word documents? That alone would have me drooling a veritable Columbia River. I like to edit my stories on the road, and being able to read over my stories to catch my mistakes would be a definite bonus. That's my bit. But do try and think outside the iPod. This one's a definite up-and-comer.
38 research this player before committing
Pros: great build, feels nice and solid;
- the touch pad is excellent very precise movement: tapping the top and bottom of the strip or simply holding it down allows excellent precision and accuracy.
- great feedback with the buttons (you don't have to wonder if you pressed a button when it's in your pocket).
- sound quality is excellent volume from 0 - 40. around 20 is already loud enough for me.
- color screen; big pictures will appear blurry, but it's expected with a small screen
- very intuitive controls. the back button always brings you back to the last screen no matter what the last screen is. example: while in the picture browser i wanted to change the song click FF then click back and i'm back in the picture browser.
- excellent shuffle mode algorithm: you will not hear the same song twice as it the player takes the played songs out of the algorithm
- MTP = drag and drop if you prefer it more than windows media player. there is no propietary software (but drag and drop is slower than syncing with WMP. it's still not UMS)
- excellent FM tuner
- battery life is excellent, it actually gets about 12 hours as advertised
- removable battery
- comes with a iskin like case (but the case attracts a lot of dust)
CONS
- IRIVER hurried to release this product; thus, the software isn't complete. there are A LOT OF BUGS. Hopefully, these bugs will be fixed soon with a firmware upgrade. here's some of the bugs
1. some might encounter problems with syncing with wmp i/o error
2. albums on player plays in alphabetical instead of by track number
3. the clock on the player might not work
4. the back light turns on and off randomly in some units.
there are some more bugs... visit www.misticriver.net
- you can rate songs on the player but it doesn't integrate with windows media. so a rating of 5 on a song does not update your library on windows media. the player just put the 5 stars first and 1 star last in a list.
- for some, this might be a con but not for me - once the backlight is off the screen is pitch black, you can't see anything. press any button turns the backlight on then proceed with function. so if you want the player to FF you got to press it twice.
- file browing is slow in browser mode (not the music browser but the file browser the music browser by artist, title.... is nice and fast)
- horrible tech support. expect long wait time. (called around 4:30 ish, never answered...finally at about 5:05 got a voice mail saying their hours are from XXXX to 5:00pm)
conclusion. i'm giving a 3 star because at $280 there are simply too many bugs with the player right now; with time IRIVER will release upgrades to fix these issues because it's their new flagship model. the functions and features of the player beats any player out there within the same price range. be patient with this player, it will be an excellent product if IRiver fix all the bugs.
for more research info goto www.misticriver.net click on forums then the H series
it's an excellent forum for support and faqs.
EDIT: regarding "tommygman" i'm glad your player works perfectly. and no i did not simply read something negative. I have a H10 myself and i'm waiting patiently for an upgrade. furthermore, i can tell you that the Korean version of H10 (UMS) which came out a month before the us version (MTP) already had 2 firmware upgrades while they're on FW1.10 the us is still on FW1.00 IRiver has a list of bug fixes which you can find at misticriver.net
39 the perfect mp3 player
This is more of a zen micro killer than an iPod killer...or perhaps its both. It seems to be based on the latest chipset from portalplayer and uses almost all of the features ( unlike apple). I have a iPod 40g for my collection but wanted something to try napster to go. Well, I found it. I am kind of in awe of this mp3 player.
It seems to be a lot like the iPod in intelligent filing system and ease of use AND it looks pretty good too. Of course I love the color screen and fm. This puts the creative product to shame. The iPod is in a class by itself-- its the "in" player and might always be. However, if there ever was a true challenger its the h10. I am really happy to own an iPod AND an h10.
BOTTOM LINE: This is as close to an iPod to date as far as looks and feel, and has a ton more features. I doubt it will really hurt the iPod mystique, but it is far superior to any creative zen or dell dj products which look cheap and seem to be inferior in quality ( build). It blows most players out of the water. This is the perfect player for people who like iPods like myself, but want to try napster as well too. It's just a great mp3 player and I can't really express just how nice this thing feels in the hand and operates so nicely. It's more like a pda than a player in some regards. ( very advanced filing system, menus)
I really think this is going to sell like hotcakes once they start circulating...and the most bashing will come from creative ( they also make dj) because they can see how much better the iriver product is.
The firmware fix is on iriver.com website now.
iriver fixed the bugs that all the bashers said would never be fixed lol. What a bunch of losers on these review boards!
40 Comparison B/N Zen Micro and H10
Do not buy this player as its sound quality is nowhere near to the Creative Zen Micro , Only good thing about this player is Good FM reception , It gives distored sound with EQ settings .I have tried with studio series sony headphones also , whereas with full volume and EQ settings Zen micro gives very ultimate sound.
But if someone wants fancy look and facility to store the JPG files can go for this player.
41 Awesome!
I've been looking for a new replacement MP3 player for my Ipod 3G 30 Gig. I was thinking about Ipos Shuffle, Ipod Mini, or Zen Micro (or Zen Micro Color). Then by accident, I stumpled upon Irivier H10. It is very small, stylish, and easy to operate. It's got FM radio, voice/FM recording, color screen (to view pics), and other standard MP3 functions. It's only $30 more than Mini, but has so much more to offer. The sound quality is great (but not w/ the included earpiece) and there are 40 sound presets (including your own setting). In the package, you will also receive a transparent plastic skin. It fits the player perfectly and easy to remove if you choose to. This usually goes for $8+ for ipod, and you get it free. Sure, you can't view those pics on TV like Ipod Photo, but who cares? What's the chance of you carrying a cable w/ you at all times? The battery life is around 12 hours per charge and it is replaceble as well. That means you can buy an extra battery for your long trip to extend the battery life or change it when the battery dies in a year or so. It is a true Ipod Mini killer and I've used 2 Ipods, Sony MP3 player, and a Samsung MP3 players. Strongly recommended!
Edit 1:
*After I went to Apple Store yesterday and played around with Ipod Photo, I'm even more impressed with H10 color screen. On Ipod Photo, you have to view the screen directly (right in front of the screen) in order to see the photo clearly. Otherwise, the photo/lcd will look dim. But, Ipod Photo has faster photo browsing speed. As I said before, viewing photo on mp3 isn't a priority for me and I'm very happy as is right now.
*I haven't have much problem/bug with this machine yet as others have described here. The only thing that I've experienced is that once I connect the player to my PC, I can't see the "remove this external drive icon" in the taskbar after a while. So, I simply unplug the connection cable/usb. Luckily nothing has happened yet.
*Many people asked me about the skin, well, it is just the Ipod skin you buy in Apple store but fits much nicer on the player. I can't stress how nice it fits on H10. For my Ipod, I litterally have to force it onto my ipod (because it sticks to the player so much that the friction is making it hard to do). And yes, it will attracks dirt just like other skins. If you worry about the look of it, don't use it. If you want a good protection for the player on the go, this is a good choice.
