The iRiver H10 vs iPod
A friend of mine is a second generation iPod user (she has a 60GB iPod of some sort). While I’ve used it on occasion I’ve never used it much. What I own is an iRiver H10, and while it gets good reviews it is often considered a notch below the iPod. The UI is supposedly just not quite as good as the iPod.
This past weekend I got a chance to use her iPod more extensively and frankly, I was disappointed. Many people at work here even love the iPod so I was expecting something that said, "This is UI clearly superior to the MP3 players you've used in the past". And surprisingly the UI really is just about the worst part of the iPod.
The spin wheel is simply not very usable, compared to the iRiver up-down thumb-pad. The rotating thumb action that the iPod requires is distracting and simply a waste of movement. It would be like requiring me to rotate my mouse in a circle to scroll my page up or down, rather than just holding down a button. When I'm riding my bike I can scroll my iRiver very easily, this isn't nearly as easy with the iPod. Now it's quite possible that there's another way to scroll the iPod, but I couldn't figure it out.
I realize it is blasphemy in many circles to criticize the iPod, and I’m certainly not one of those people who buys every new gadget that comes out (the MP3 player I had before the iRiver was the original Archos 6GB player), but I must say that I found the iPod just decent. I wouldn’t trade my iRiver for it, even if they both had access to the same music. And given that the iRiver can play subscription based music services, it’s a no brainer.
I've heard that the iTunes experience is really great. And maybe it is. I didn't try that. Although syncing works fine with the iRiver. Although w/o knowing how great the iTunes experience is, maybe I'm missing something.
With that said, if you gave me an iPod for free, I would not turn you down.
Comments
Anonymous
March 31, 2006
I have an H10 AND an iPod video, iRiver has NOTHING absolutely NOTHING on Apple.
H10 is the biggest PoS out there.
HD is SLOW, firmware is buggy, DONT BUY iRiver. Their software is from Korea, and it looks it too. Its got a worse UI than Office and MSN! together!.Anonymous
March 31, 2006
I haven't seen the iRiver, but do own an iPod. Although I like the way it looks, I don't like the user interface (it looks pretty, but has some very badly thought out aspects). You're not missing much with iTunes. It's third on my list of worst programs ever. (Right after FileMaker Pro 5 and Netbeans 4).Anonymous
March 31, 2006
I have to disagree with your opinion about the rotating thumb movement for browsing on the iPod. I think the usability comes from the feedback mechanism that the movement induces. The rotating movement of your hand tells you that you're actually interacting with the device, something that pressing a small push button may not cause, especially if you have big hands. Coupled with the clicking mechanism, the audible cue says that the device has responded. You don't actually have to look at screen to know the results of your interaction. That's something I had to do a lot with the iRiver device.Anonymous
April 01, 2006
Hi Haroon, I guess if you have sufficiently large hands then maybe the iPod works better. My hands are pretty average size so the iRiver works out well.
I just find the rotating thumb too difficult to use in all of the capacities I want to use it with. I've never experienced the iPod nor iRiver not responding, so I just assume that it does.
The thing that is interesting about the thumb wheel is that I think it may set expectation on later device use by customers whose first MP3 device experience was iPod. Since I hadn't used a thumb wheel on my first MP3 player, I never assumed that it was the natural way to do things. And using it now seems awkward.
I wonder how much of the iPod advantage has to do with inherent goodness rather than simply familiarity? Kind of like a computer company releasing a keyboard superior to QWERTY. I don't care how much better it is, it will always get knocked in reviews.Anonymous
April 14, 2006
All of you Ipod owners don't really know what you are talking about. Apple throws these eye-candy products, like the powerbook and ipod, and people pay triple the price for those items. You are a tool and a pawn. They simply control you with aesthetically pleasing products.
I like Iriver better than Ipod because I could record with Iriver. I can't believe Ipod still doesn't have a built in mic or a decent add-on mic. $299 and NO MIC! Shame on you Ipod Video!Anonymous
May 21, 2006
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May 29, 2006
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May 29, 2006
you should even consider the Zen vision:m. Which does better then the ipod in everyway except file size.Anonymous
May 29, 2006
i meant physical sizeAnonymous
May 29, 2006
also the irivers rirmware is not buggyAnonymous
July 15, 2006
hey, i own a ipod nano and it scartchs so easy atm its stuffing up so im still in warrenty im gunna go buy a 20GB iriver wich has way better feachersAnonymous
August 05, 2006
I own both an ipod and a h10(20gb) and fully think the h10 is way better than the ipod. Whenever i go somewhere i always take my h10 with me coz of the feel and the way it looks. To me an ipod look ugly and i listen to my ipod very rarely and have not put any songs on it for about 3 months.
Iriver h10 hands downAnonymous
September 18, 2006
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December 04, 2006
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December 20, 2006
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January 03, 2007
hi there, just a question to all of you out there, i've just received a 4GB ipod nano as a present and i have 5 days to decide whether i want to keep it or exchange it for a 20 GB iriver H-10. what should i do? please note that although i would not exclude downloading tunes in the future, i currently own more than 2,000 cd's which i would want to convert to mp3 and listen to on either device... please help!Anonymous
February 16, 2007
I own an iRiver h10 20gb, one of my other brother's owns a creative zen, and my other brother owns an iPod video. One of the only downfalls to the h10 20gb is that it does not play videos, which is quite fine to me, as my brother's have watched videos once, and i used to own an mp3 player with mp4 capabilities, and never watched a video, not once. it didn't interest me. I use my mp3 player when I'm excercising, and walking around, and catching the bus to/from school. With that comes the other downfall, it is fairly bulky and heavy, but it pretty much the same size and the zen and the ipod is a little thinner but longer. weight comparisons. creative zen (30gb)- 163g ipod video (30gb)- 130g iriver h10 (20gb) - 163g Ok, the winner of the weight comparison is ipod video, with a mere weight difference of 33g. Sure, iriver h10 came last, as it is 163g and 20gb, but neither me of my brothers have more than 5gb worth of songs, so it doesn't really matter. Design. I think. 1st- iRiver. 2nd- Zen. 3rd- iPod. reasons: The iRiver is great for on the go! Instead of ipod's thumb-exercises (the wheel design) all you do, is merely touch the scroller and you can scroll through your songs faster than with the zen or ipod. Don't let pictures decieve you, the play/pause & rewind/fastforward buttons are on the side, which i think makes it look really good. plus, with the 2 buttons & scroller on the front makes it look really original and not full of unnessessary buttons. The zen is fairly good, with the same sort of design as the iRiver, but a much bigger screen, basically for playing videos, which I think is unnecessary as, as I mentioned before, my brothers have watched a video probably twice, tops. Do I really need to mention the iPod, as you can just look at the replies by other people in this forum? Software. Tie. Summary. The iriver has features such as voice recorder, & fm radio, which ipod does not. Which is a reason why I think iRiver is better. But is the Zen better than iRiver? Make your own mind up :)Anonymous
March 11, 2007
I would say one thing ... For me mp3 player is for music and that's why I choose iRiver. Just nothing more. SOUND QUALITY. iRiver owns flat ipod, and furthermore it has sennheiser's headphones included. iRiver's sound is far beyond ipod's reach and that's why. And I use mp3s on the go, that's why too. I simply click on side iRiver's buttons to change the songs. And you, ipod'ers have to get it out of your's pocket everytime you want to do so. H10 owns ipod, that's all. nothing to compare withAnonymous
March 11, 2007
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March 18, 2007
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May 10, 2007
IPOD is the best, come on, Iriver is from korea!! IPOD IS easy to use and it also has itunes and a music store to go with it, the screen on the ipod is so much better also, who needs a mic to to record stuff,Anonymous
December 31, 2007
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