MP3 PLAYERS

A FEW YEARS AGO YOU LOOKED POSH IF YOU HAD A 32MB MP3 PLAYER. NOW YOU CAN FIT UP TO 60GB OF MUSIC IN YOUR POCKET. SO GET READY TO RIP YOUR ENTIRE CD COLLECTION AS WE DELVE INTO THE ROCKING WORLD OF HARD DISK MP3 PLAYERS

iRiver H320

Manufacturer:	Price:
iRiver	£266.72 inc VAT
Reviewer:	Review Date:
	Dec 2004

	OVERALL RATING

SCORE

4/6

Verdict: Jack of all trades, master of none

The H320 may be an MP3 player at heart, but it has a few other tricks up its sleeve too, thanks mainly to the inclusion of a high-quality colour display and a USB host port.

The screen lets you view JPEG and BMP images on the screen, while the USB host port means you can connect USB devices, such as a digital camera, to it directly, and copy data straight to the 20GB hard disk. Unfortunately, the H320 takes absolutely ages to load digital photos, so you won't want to use it as a mobile photo album. For this reason, the USB host feature is only really useful for copying data from USB memory keys or other USB storage devices.

The interface takes full advantage of the large display, with big, colourful menus that are easy to navigate. Selecting music is hard, however, as iRiver has opted for plain old up/down digital buttons to control the selector, which makes scrolling through the list of tracks extremely slow.

Built into the side of the player is a surprisingly good-quality microphone, so you could use it as a dictaphone. The H320 also supports the use of an external microphone, and it can record and encode MP3s directly from other devices via the line-in port too.

Unique to the H320 are its SRS sound enhancements. The settings for this are highly tweakable and the effects are generally pretty good. Overall sound quality is great too. Selecting tracks might take absolutely ages, but once you find the track you want it sounds fantastic.

The H320 is the most expensive player in this Labs test, costing even more than the titanic 60GB Creative Jukebox Zen Xtra. For your £267 you get a colour screen, FM tuner, recording functions, and a means of showing off your digital photos. Whether you're prepared to pay for such features is really up to you, especially as other players in this Labs test offer better sound quality for less money.

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