iRiver Clix 2 GB

...the Box -
iriver Clix U20 8GB Red Line MP3 Player
USB 2.0 Cable
Earphones
iriver Plus 3 mini software CD
Instructions/QuickStart Guide
Warranty

Features - 8GB File Storage (My player has 7.61GB total space), Many Supported Audio Files (Such as MP3, OGG, WMA) for playback, WMV playback, Radio, Flashlite games, Pictures, Themes, Alarm, Text Viewer, FM Radio with Preset Function, Fimware Upgrades, ...
...The supplied software suite - iriver plus 3, movie converter and firmware upgrader I found to be as good as to be expected. It's a simple matter of loading songs into iriver Plus 3, selecting which you want to transfer and sending them to the player. Downloading themes, text files, games, videos etc. just requires you to save them to the appropriate folder on the player.

I would recommend a case to prevent scratches - I'm using a silicone ... more

The Clix2 is an amazing feature packed MP3 player. It is beautiful and sleek, easy to use and fully customizable. It has worked perfectly since I purchased it and is definitely a welcomed replacement from the iPod Nano. Bought for £170 it is quite pricey, but it is definitely worth its weight in gold.

In the Box -
iriver Clix U20 8GB Red Line MP3 Player
USB 2.0 Cable
Earphones
iriver Plus 3 mini software CD
Instructions/QuickStart Guide
Warranty

Features - 8GB File Storage (My player has 7.61GB total space), Many Supported Audio Files (Such as MP3, OGG, WMA) for playback, WMV playback, Radio, Flashlite games, Pictures, Themes, Alarm, Text Viewer, FM Radio with Preset Function, Fimware Upgrades, Recording, UMS or MTP mode.

The iriver Clix2 Red Line is the most stunning MP3 player I have ever laid my eyes upon. The front panel has a glossy black finish, which does attract finger prints quite a lot. The back is matte black, with a red strip complimenting the colours well. I was surprised at the small size of the device - smaller than a credit card in length and width, with a 2.4" screen taking up a lot of the space. It's not exactly light, and has a small bit of weight to it at 56g. It does feel quite fragile when first handled; like the front and back panels are loose from eachother, which takes some getting used to. I chose to leave the supplied protector which came attached to the screen on, which turned out to be a wise decision as it works just as well as any other (and I didn't have to fiddle around with putting it on right!). There are two volume buttons on the top-left of the player, two on the right hand top-left and a switch for 'locking' the player on the bottom-right of the player. The headphone jack is located on the top left, USB port on the bottom right of the player. You can customize the special function key to pretty much do whatever you like - Play/Pause, F/Fward, R/Wind, Change Orientation, Return to Menu, Shuffle, Record and turn the display on/off.The screen is gorgeous. The player took about 2 hours to charge from empty to full using the supplied USB 2.0 cable. No mains charger is supplied which could pose a problem to people who don't have easy access to a computer. Due to the AMOLED screen everything which is displayed seems very crisp and clear compared to conventionally-lit screens. There is a very large viewing angle as well. I was extremely impressed in this department.

The novelty of this minimalistic MP3 player is that you do not use conventional buttons to operate it, but "click" on either the top, bottom, left or right side of the screen to use the desired function.This is very intuitive and implemented well, giving a satisfying "click" (who'd have guessed it?) sound when pressed. It's easy to use and great for anyone with larger than average fingers. It takes no time at all to get used to it. The only problem with it are the finger prints left after use. It is also fully customizable - you can set your own pictures or downloaded themes and fonts to display which can really compliment the look of the player. There's also a function of rotating the orientation of the screen into portrait mode as well, if you would prefer to use it in this way as well.

The menu is simple to use and navigate around with - Music, Now Playing, Settings, Extras, FM Radio, Pictures and Video. When moving around the player, there are a number of shortcuts which I've found to be very useful, such as pressing and holding "Right" to go straight to the Now Playing track, or pressing and holding "Left" to return to the main menu.

Music playback is of excellent quality - not the best I've heard, but nonetheless it is excellent. As expected the supplied earphones were poor, I would recommend a pair of Sennheisser CX300's. I found sound quality to be quite average on normal EQ's, but SRS WOW HD really surprised me with the superb sound quality which is produced. It has quite a dent on the battery life though, so if you're an audiophile then you're looking at around 8 or 9 hours of battery life compared to my norm of around 20 hours without an EQ. The player is definitely loud enough, at least for me - it can go up to a volume of "40", but I find between 15-25 is as loud as it needs to be with a pair of noise-isolating earphones. You can view songs through Playlists, Podcasts, Artists, Albums, Genres, Recordings or view all tracks. A feature which I would have preferred to be on the player is to resume the position of highlighted tracks/artists/albums when browsing after leaving the menu instead of returning to the top of the list each time. Album Art can be added using any audio tag editor, but I found that for some reason, not every song will display album art. The FM Radio is good, not great. It may just be my area, but reception is not brilliant (especially compared to W910i's radio'). You can save up to 30 channels in the presets and record straight off the radio.

The player also has video playback, so you can convert videos using the supplied software which I find good enough, although there are alternatives and watch them on your Clix2. A 30 minute high-quality video is around 100MB, but I mainly keep trailers on it so not much space is taken up. The Video quality is amazing - I think near-DVD quality, which is helped by the AMOLED screen, but it does vary from video to video. I have never had an issue with sound being out of sync with the video on screen. Viewing pictures which you can put onto the player is just as crisp, although a problem I found was that higher-resolution pictures couldn't be displayed on the 320x240 screen. Battery life when watching videos for me is around 4-5 hours.

There is Flashlite support for particular games - nothing particularly special but can keep you amused for a few minutes, with some making good use of the Clix' controls. Text files are easily read; you can adjust the font size to your preference and can set an auto-scroll if you so wish. The alarm clock can be set to play your own music, FM radio or the standard alarm bell.

The supplied software suite - iriver plus 3, movie converter and firmware upgrader I found to be as good as to be expected. It's a simple matter of loading songs into iriver Plus 3, selecting which you want to transfer and sending them to the player. Downloading themes, text files, games, videos etc. just requires you to save them to the appropriate folder on the player.

I would recommend a case to prevent scratches - I'm using a silicone black skin which covers most of the player... apart from the screen so a screen protector is a must.

The iriver Clix2 is more than your average MP3 player. It looks amazing, has a very wide range of features An excellent screen for viewing pictures and video at high quality too. Battery life is very good, although a little short using the SRS WOW HD sound preset. As I said, although not a large disadvantage, it feels slightly flimsy and attracts fingers prints, but it just takes a little getting used to. Overall it is a superb player, one of the best around and definitely worth the higher price tag.

If you would like to know anything else, leave a comment or message and I'll add to the review. 

...less