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New gadget: the iRiver S10

Last Monday I decided to order the daily offer from iBOOD, which was a brand new iRiver S10 2GB mp3 player. Today I got it and I must say, it’s hard not to drool all over it.

I’ve always loved the look and feel of any version of the iPod, but looks matter less to me than sound quality and compatibility. In my eyes, iRiver simply beats the iPod on the last two subjects . The sound on the S10 is fuller and better than that on my iPod Shuffle (the same went for the N10 and the IMP400, both of which tragically died because I made an error), and there is no software needed to put music on my mp3player or take it off. My iPod Shuffle requires iTunes, which comes with Quicktime, which I don’t need on Windows since I have Quicktime Alternative, which has the added bonus of coming without iTunes, but ah of course: my iPod requires iTunes. I don’t know how to explain this better than I just did, but it’s probably clear that I distinctly hate iTunes.

I’d like to go into a huge rant about my hatred against iTunes, but I digress. On the S10 adding music is quite easy: it’s discovered as a memory stick and you stuff your music in the directory ‘Music’. It charges via USB, and when full it plays for about 8 hours. The controls are marvellous. I expected to find a touchscreen since I looked at some pictures of the apparatus and saw no real buttons except for the volume and on/off, but it’s better than that. The whole top of the device is a four-way clickable button with which you can skip forward, backward, into the menu, etc. The controls work almost the same as on my other two iRiver players: shortly pressing the menu button means you can scroll through your songs, and pressing the button long means you go to the main menu, with settings etc. I didn’t need the manual to understand that, and I’ve always liked the way it works. iRiver’s strategy here is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” and in my opinion they kept the right features in.

Which brings me to the looks of the device. Even though I said it matters less to me than the other features, I’m still very much impressed with the sleek design of it. It’s smaller than a battery, and also thinner, it shines and the LCD is extremely pretty. When playing your music, a little music note starts dancing on the screen, to the beats of the music. It’s the cutest!

A few features I haven’t tried yet are the voice recorder, the radio (but to be brutally honest, I don’t much care for radio) and the ability to watch photos, but I’ll try those options out as well. So far I’m very happy with this device!