iRiver or iPod?

Written by: xerai

As the mp3 player market is expanding, exceptional products in style and quality are emerging. Two fine examples of this is the iRiver iFP-899 and the iPod Shuffle- both of which I'll be scrutinising in the next two paragraphs to find the better player.

The iRiver iFP-899 comes in at a penny less than $200 (£105 to us Brits.) With a sleek design, it looks fairly cool at first glance. It has a simple design with a fairly good screen size for an item of its size (88.5 x 36.2 x 27.3 mm). It can take one gigabite of internal memory for up to 34 hours of music. Extended battery life up to 40 hours on one AA battery. It has a built-in FM tuner and a voice recorder. Onto the technical specifications, it can store or transfer any file type, so it can work as a handy small hard-drive. It has over 400 radio stations. You have to remember that even if it does have 400 radio stations, it does not mean that they'll be perfect sounding or even available most of the time. They'll have fuzz and interference. The only problem is that it doesn't have any firewire. It merely has a USB 2.0 cable, quite slower than firewire. It only operates in -5c~40c, not that it matters much. It weighs around double what the iPod weighs, measuring up to 40 grams. The power supply is good, running only on one AA battery. Many CD/ mp3 players fail at this point and are greedy in battery consumption. A built in rechargeable battery is usually superior. Less catches. Less breakage. Also, having a screen is not absolutely beneficial. Never mind, the iRiver is a highly manufactured piece of technology and deserves praise.

The iPod Shuffle, on the other hand, is more or less the opposite in shape and colour. Instead of dark colours, it takes on a clinical white, a unique scheme to Apple. It has lesser battery life than the iRiver, but nevertheless, still reasonably long. It's smaller in size than the iRiver, and weighs less. It still holds the 1 GB. The iPod Shuffle has both USB 1.1 and 2.0, though no firewire here either, which is really a shame. With the internal battery, you need to wait for it to charge up, which can be a hassle. The iPod also has more audio support: MP3 (8 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, AAC (8 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from the iTunes Music Store, M4A, M4B & M4P), Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4) and WAV. It has simple enough buttons to understand; pause/play, forward/back a song and volume control. On the back there is a slider; off, play in order, shuffle songs & a battery indicator. There is no need for a transfer cable, as you can take off a cap on the button and reveal a USB plug. This is another great piece from Apple. You also need to install software for the player for it to get recognised and a whole new media player on your computer. Good or not, it's up to whether you have room for anything more.

It's a hard choice, but without doubt, even for the extra money. With better battery consumption, longer playing time and added features, the iRiver wins. It's well worth the money.