iRiver T10 1 GB MP3 Player

My only issue with the device are the controls. Could be a little more user friendly. Other than that, it plays great, the sound is perfect and it is extremely durable. Dropped the device, while music was playing, from a distance of about 5 feet straight to the concrete. Picked it up, put the ear buds back in my ears and it hadn't even missed a beat. Music was still playing. No worse for the wear. I recommend this mp3 player.

About a year ago, I was looking to buy my first MP3 player. After some thought and research, I decided I wanted a player with these features: * Flash-based (no hard drive that might freak out during an exercise session!) * Runs on regular batteries (not enslaved to a charger!) * FM radio * Great sound * Durability * OGG capable (on the recommendation of my husband, who knows about this stuff) * A voice recorder for capturing those random thoughts and ideas * Nothing hyped and overpriced! The reviews here on Amazon helped me find the right player. I read about several models and came to the conclusion that the iRiver t10 fit my desires more than any other player in my price range ($100 or less). As a bonus, it had a color screen ... not a necessary feature, but pretty nice! For $89 shipped, it seemed like a good buy. As I mentioned before, this was my first MP3 player. I had my doubts about how good a little unit like this could actually sound. The iRiver far exceeded my expectations. I LOVE this little player! It's easy to use, sounds great, runs forever on my AA NiMH batteries, holds plenty of my favorite CDs, and looks cool. It even works pretty well as a digital voice recorder. Almost a year later, this player is still going strong and serving me well. I have recommended it to several people, all of whom seem surprised that a non-iPod could be so great! My husband (a computer geek) agrees that this is a pretty decent gadget. In fact, we just bought one of the 2 GB models on eBay. I can't think of a better review for a product than to purchase another one!

The iRiver T10 1 GB flash player was my first adventure into the world of MP3 players. I was unimpressed with the hype (and price) of the iPod line, and spent a good month researching a good, introductory MP3 player, and the iRiver T10 fit the requirements. The sound was surprisingly clear and detailed, even with the included headphones, and all was well. I mostly used my MP3 player at work, and finally while doing light cardio exercise (in other words, cycling or stair stepper, nothing that would damage it). It began freezing and otherwise shutting down while in use, so I deleted everything from the drive and attempted to update the firmware and format the drive. Somewhere in all that, after repeating it for the 6th time spread out over a few months as recommended by iRiver and other helpful product owners, my MP3 player froze while updating itself and died completely. I had a techie friend look at it who declared the drive to be irreparable and a piece of junk. In all, I got about a year of use out of it before it bit the dust, despite caring for it and not leaving it in extreme temperatures. I wish the quality had been more realistic and reflected what I paid, but I enjoyed the product so much while it did work, I purchased another MP3 player from their company that was not a flash drive.

This is my second iRiver, and I keep gravitating toward it because it uses one AA battery that can be changed in 2 seconds. This player holds just under 300 "songs," and some are classical pieces that last well over 4 minutes. In this one respect, it just beats my iPod which is now on its third battery in two years. Yes, my iPod holds 1350 songs, but the iRiver is actually easier to load. Just have Windows Media running, plug in the T10 to a USB hub and make your selections. With two of them, I just switch off periodically... If there's a complaint, it isn't the fact that it's kinda orange/yellow instead of blue. It's that the settings for shuffle don't always come up the way they're supposed to. And the instruction manual was obviously not written in the U.S. Still, once you're used to the buttons and combinations, it's a great little player. One last thing, and it probably deserves another half star for it, the FM reception on this in the hilly San Francisco Bay Area is tremendous. However, since FM is affected by line-of-sight, time of day, and the sun spot cycle, tomorrow I could lose all of them. I've had my other iRiver for well over a year and I still get my favorite station (on the other side of the Berkeley Hills), so it really looks like this is one stable player. Maybe one day they'll come out with AM as well.

Bought two of these for my kids. Initial quality was fine until the warranty expired. Both units started failing. Units would boot up and play a song or two then make a static sound and reboot itself. iRiver support was non-exitant because the units were no longer under warranty. They would not offer any help except a reference to an expensive 3rd party repair service. Firmware reloads and formats using the iRiver firmware code did not fix the problems. Battery case cover is fragile. You'll end up needing to tape it closed.