Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I just purchased and received an iRiver iFP-795 a few days ago, after spending a bit of time comparing it to other products. Other potential competitors (in terms of similar storage capacity and physical size) include the Creative Nomad MuVo TX FM and the Cowon iAudio 4 (Note: Cowon has recently announced a newer player, the iAudio U2, but it hasn't been released yet). Overall, I am very satisfied with the iRiver. I had some initial doubts before my purchase, but I've grown to really like the thing. Here are the details... The Good: <ul> <li>Battery. The claimed 40-hour battery life far exceeds the 15-20 hours of the other players. The player uses standard AA-sized batteries You can them in pretty much any store, so running out of juice while you're traveling should never be a problem. You can also use rechargeable AAs, so just go and get yourself a nice set of NiMH rechargeables if you don't feel like constantly replacing the batteries (I'd recommend the Rayovac I-C3 15-minute charger/battery set). Using AA versus AAA might make the unit a little bigger than its competitors, but it's still small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket and the increased battery life is worth it. Also, using AA batteries means that you never have to worry about an internal battery dying as the player ages. <li>It's feature-packed. The Hi-Speed USB 2 transfers, FM radio, line-in record and voice recorder are all great. They aren't found in all competing products. <li>It's very customizable. There is an extensive config system that lets you change almost every little detail of the player, from how long you want the backlight to stay on to how you want the song titles to scroll. <li>Sound is clear and can be turned up in volume quite a bit. <li>Direct MP3 encoding is a nice plus. It lets you record directly into a MP3 file (at one of several available quality settings). The iAudio has this same feature, but I'm not sure whether the Nomad MuVo does. </ul> Unfortunately, there are also a few bad things about the player. To me, these are more annoyances than major problems, but judge for yourself: <ul> <li>The interface is hard to learn. It's very confusing at first and you'd never guess how to access the functions unless you either read the manual or randomly try each and every button/screen combo. I wish they just used a control-stick based menu instead of having each button on the player perform a different task depending on how long you hold it down for and what screen you're currently on. It's hard to memorize all the combos. Once you've had the player for a few days and start learning how everything works, it isn't as big a deal anymore... but I still wish they put more thought into the initial design. However, I haven't been able to try the MuVo or iAudio's menus, so I can't say whether they're any better. <li>No UMS (USB Mass Storage) support yet. This means you can't just plug in the player and use it as a disk drive. You must use iRiver's proprietary software to transfer your files and music. The included software is good, but just not as good or as convenient as regular Explorer. In other words, to transfer files to or from any computer, you have to go through the tedious process of installing the iRiver software first. Most other players support UMS, and I'm very disappointed that the iRiver doesn't. However, I knew about this before I purchased the unit and was willing to make the sacrifice for its other features. iRiver is supposed to release a firmware update in early September that will enable UMS functionality for this unit. However, iRiver has a history of being late with their releases, so it may be wise to wait before you buy if you really care about this functionality. <li>As far as I can tell, the player has no playlist support except a single on-unit list that you can only edit on the player itself. <li>There's no way to sort your files on the player. The files appear in whatever order they were in when you transferred them using the iRiver software. I think alphabetical order would make more sense. <li>The included armband is too small unless you're a girl or a guy with thin arms. You can buy a "better" one from iRiver, but I don't know how good it is. <li>There are also a few really stupid design choices/possible oversights: Only the filename (or Title/Author, if you enabled ID3 tag parsing), not the foldername, scrolls across the screen while a song is playing. This makes it hard to tell what album you're currently listening to if its foldername is too long. There's also the fact that you can set a start time for a timed FM recording but you cannot set an end time. The player will keep recording until it runs out of space or batteries. This makes the function all but useless. The September firmware update is supposed to fix this issue, but we'll have to wait and see if it does. Also, you cannot upload MP3s from the player to a computer using the iRiver software. This is supposedly an anti-piracy measure, but it's very annoying. There is a workaround, though, which is renaming your files to *.REC before uploading. The UMS firmware, if ever released, would also make this a non-issue. </ul> It may seem like there are more bad points than good, but most of those are really just minor issues. Ultimately, I still really like my iRiver.