Weblog entry #122 for ajt
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#122
iriver X20 First Impressions
Posted by ajt on Sat 19 Jan 2008 at 22:37
This is a great little audio/video player. It was a toss up between this and the 8GB iAudio 7. When I placed my order the iriver was GBP10 cheaper, though on Amazon today the iAudio is now cheaper. Both play Ogg files and can be easily controlled from Linux.
It is not perfect but it does most of the things I wanted and I'm glad I bought it.
The Good:
* Out of the box it plays Ogg Vorbis files beautifully. It also supports FLAC (great for classical/jazz) and a range of legacy formats like MP3.
* It works perfectly under Linux, just plug it in and you can sync your music with amarok without any problem.
* It takes MicroSD cards (which are dirt cheap) so you can easily have plug-in selections of music. Note it does not support higher capacity SDHC cards.
* It has a removable battery so you can replace it when it dies, rather than the whole device as is more often the case.
The Bad:
* Boot time is sluggish, it's not an instant on device like an old fashioned tape or CD walkman.
* It has a colour screen - it's too small to really watch videos but it is sufficiently large to drain the batteries and push the price up without adding any real value to the music.
* It's an FM radio not a more modern DAB radio. I don't know how good it is, as reception where I live is so terrible and it won't tune in to anything - not that other radios can either.
* Battery life isn't 22 hours, more like 12 hours. It's okay, but if you use it at work most of the day as I do, you need to charge it almost every day.
The Ugly:
* I can't get playlists to work properly, it is apparently possible but it's not documented in the manual or on the iriver web site and it's very hit and miss.
* If you select an album to add to the playlist it doesn't add the songs in a logical order (alphabetical, numerical or tag order) - which is a real pain when sequence matters (e.g. live recordings or classical music).
* You can flash upgrade the firmware, but this relies on using iriver software from a Windows PC.
It's not an iPod so this is either a very good or very bad thing...
It is not perfect but it does most of the things I wanted and I'm glad I bought it.
The Good:
* Out of the box it plays Ogg Vorbis files beautifully. It also supports FLAC (great for classical/jazz) and a range of legacy formats like MP3.
* It works perfectly under Linux, just plug it in and you can sync your music with amarok without any problem.
* It takes MicroSD cards (which are dirt cheap) so you can easily have plug-in selections of music. Note it does not support higher capacity SDHC cards.
* It has a removable battery so you can replace it when it dies, rather than the whole device as is more often the case.
The Bad:
* Boot time is sluggish, it's not an instant on device like an old fashioned tape or CD walkman.
* It has a colour screen - it's too small to really watch videos but it is sufficiently large to drain the batteries and push the price up without adding any real value to the music.
* It's an FM radio not a more modern DAB radio. I don't know how good it is, as reception where I live is so terrible and it won't tune in to anything - not that other radios can either.
* Battery life isn't 22 hours, more like 12 hours. It's okay, but if you use it at work most of the day as I do, you need to charge it almost every day.
The Ugly:
* I can't get playlists to work properly, it is apparently possible but it's not documented in the manual or on the iriver web site and it's very hit and miss.
* If you select an album to add to the playlist it doesn't add the songs in a logical order (alphabetical, numerical or tag order) - which is a real pain when sequence matters (e.g. live recordings or classical music).
* You can flash upgrade the firmware, but this relies on using iriver software from a Windows PC.
It's not an iPod so this is either a very good or very bad thing...