by Abbas Jaffar Ali on February 25, 2004
Intro
iRiver has been producing quality portable audio players for some now and is rated in the same league as Creative as far as MP3 players go. What we like about iRiver is that while it focuses a lot on the design, it doesn’t compromise on features either. The same holds true for their iFP-599T player that we have with us today.
iRiver nicely wraps the player in a small box that lets you see the unit from the front while listing some of the specifications and features on the back. We like the fact that iRiver has the specs listed in several different languages on the sides of the box but unfortunately Arabic isn’t one of them.
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Inside the package, iRiver provides you with quite a few goodies. Starting off, you get a pretty decent User Manual that describes almost all the features of the unit. A pair of earphones is also provided which is decent, however, Audiophiles will probably use something better. For carrying the unit around, iRiver bundles a carrying case as well as a wrist strap and a neck strap allowing you to show the unit off. Of course, an AC adaptor is provided for recharging the internal battery.
For PC connectivity, a USB cable is present along with software CD. Unfortunately, the player interfaces with the PC using a USB 1.1 connection and not 2.0. While this may be ok for the 256MB unit, it does seem slow transferring a GB. Another thing we didn’t like is that unit required drivers under Windows XP- you cannot simply plug it in and access like the recently reviewed Creative MuVo or the countless USB Flash disk MP3 players. On a positive note, the unit can charge itself while connected thru USB saving the hassle of carrying an additional power adapter if traveling with your Notebook.
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Besides the drivers for Windows and Mac, the CD features iRiver Music Manager which has a File-Explorer like interface and allows you to create folders on the unit, transfer files to and from the player along and update the firmware. This software can also convert audio recorded on the unit to MP3 format and set radio stations. Another software included on the CD is “MoodLogic” that allows more comprehensive management like creating ID Tags. We’re not sure why iRiver doesn’t put all the features in just one application.
Features / Usability
Coming to the actual player, iRiver has focused a lot on the design of the player- it looks smashing. Although its not miniscule in size, it is pretty small measuring 64x51x19.1mm and weighing only 60g. The top of the unit has a five-way navigation stick along with a decently sized LCD display. iRiver places the USB and Line-In connections on one side while the headphone jack, the built-in mic and the hold button are on the other side. Finally, four buttons placed on the front perform different functions.
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The main menu lets you select between MP3, FM, Voice and Line-In- pretty self explanatory. The LCD holds about four lines of text- enough for all the information related to a track as well as listing them. We found the FM reception of the unit to be a bit on the shaky side, however, considering the lack of an antenna and the small size of the unit, that should be expected.
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The Voice recording was decent in quality and the built-in microphone does a good job of leaving background noises out. Similarly, the Line-In recording also works well allowing you to select between 11.025KHz to 44.1KHz and 32KBPS to 320KBPS for top notch quality. The files are saved in .rec format on the player which can be converted to MP3 through the included software as mentioned above.
The iFP-599T allows playback of MP3, WMA and ASF formats on the player which are the most common ones out there. Lots of audiophiles are leaning towards Ogg Vorbus and iRiver has a beta firmware on their website that supports this format. The output produced by the player was pretty good although the bundled earphones don’t give you the full experience and should be replaced by serious listeners. The output jack also works as “Optical Out” allowing you to connect the player to your amp thru an optical connection. This is a pretty good option and although we didn’t play much with it, it makes it quite easy to connect your MP3 player to your stereo with excellent sound quality.
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iRiver provides most of the common settings for listening to audio tracks. You can set the player to repeat, shuffle or intro modes as per your liking. You can also adjust the sound settings by either selecting one of the preset equalizer settings (like Rock, Classic etc.) or adjust the 5 bands to your liking. A special “Xtreme 3D” setting is also available that provides a reasonable kick to the bass settings- we definitely enjoyed listening to tracks with this setting enabled.
Navigation of the unit is also very easy and we liked the feel of the buttons and the joystick. You can very easily skip between songs or fast-forward using the joystick while the hold switch can prevent accidental skips. The joystick is also used to control the volume of the unit while the front buttons allow you to play/stop and record amongst other things. For organizing content, you can create folders for in the player and place your audio tracks accordingly which certainly helps in locating tracks easily.
iRiver claims an amazing battery life of 28 hours- however, this really depends on your usage and backlight/FM listening. We easily managed to get 20+ hours of usage listening between MP3 files, the FM and recording. Last and certainly not the least, is the price of the unit- roughly US$ 450/- or AED 1600/- We feel the price is a bit too much for a 1GB player- especially considering that the recently reviewed Creative MuVo with 4GB capacity costs half of that. iRiver does provide 256MB version for AED 900/- and a 512MB version for AED 1400/- which is still a bit on the steep side.
Granted that the iFP-599T is in a class by itself by offering awesome features and an extremely slick design, we just cannot justify spending that much money on something with such a small capacity- at least not in this day and age.
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