Inside the memory has risen to a meaty 2gb which puts it on a par with the smaller iPod Nano and iRiver have gone to town on a few extra features and a tidy interface too. The same gorgeous 2.2" LCD screen is present and more fully utilised in the Clix, colours are still vibrant and the 320 x 240 pixel resolution looks good for such a small unit. It supports MP3 MWA (including DRM WMA) and Ogg Vorbis, there is no support for lossless formats like WAV or Apples ACC.

The unit itself is the same dimensions as the U10 and like the former model it does not come as standard with the dinky little 60's style cradle, this is a crying shame and you should certainly include the cradle option when buying it adds so much to the style of the package. Plus the cradle adds the remote control function and 2 small inbuilt speakers which all adds up to a tidy package that'll have your iPod owning friends jealous in seconds. The Clix interface is also very similar to the funky U10's, as we said in that review the click screen works a treat with each side of the screen taking on a menu action and requiring a slight pressure to activate it.

An extra navigation tool is the so called smart button which has rather unexplainable been marked with a star, this button can be programmed to do many actions, like rotate the viewing between portrait and landscape or to drop the unit straight into record or even the main menu. What is massive improvement over the U10 is the faster refresh rate between menus, no pauses or waits anymore juts a slick and efficient menu system that's a joy to use.

Getting media onto your iRiver Clix is accomplished using the USB 2.0 connection and Windows Media player. The plug and play technology registers your device with WM10 and you can choose which tracks or directories are moved to your mobile device. This seems to work well and Windows Media player has come along way in recent years making it a very useable tool for this task. Playlists can either be crested in WM10 and moved to the iRiver or you can create 1 dynamic play list on the Clix itself. The USB connection is also used to charge the Clix and the Lithium polymer battery is good for around 24hrs playback of MP3 files.

The unit isn't just about audio and some of the most impressive features are related to video playback. However video is picky playing only MPEg-4 derivatives and then they have to be pushed over using WMP, once on the device you'll find that replay is limited to just 15 frames per second . So not exactly up to the standard of the Video iPod but more than acceptable for a short pop video on the small screen. There is also a picture viewer and snaps can be rotated to fit the screen, it all works very well and navigating your images or videos via the Clix interface is simple.

The FM tuner has 20 presets and seems to work remarkably well holding onto signals better than we'd have expected and you can even encode the radio into MP3 format at rates up to 256kbps. There is also two other forms of encoding both into MP3, first is a voice recorder that uses the Clix own inbuilt microphone and then there is a line in socket but only in the cradle.

Unusually the MP3 player can also play flash games which can be downloaded, as standard there is Sodoku which will keep many a geek very happy for hours on end when accompanied by the latest Coldplay album.

Audio quality is very good indeed and the combination with the standard earphones makes for a potent package, perhaps you may want to opt from some in ear isolation if you intend to use your Clix in a noisy environment but otherwise the standard set up will see you fine.

One slight negative is that the click screen does require you to paw it all the time leaving it covered in fingerprints after just a few days use, so you'll need to carry a small cleaning cloth or keep it in a pouch if you want it to be pristine when you show your mates.

Overall we were impressed with what should have just been a minor update but what has ended up dealing with the majority of the downsides of the U10, perhaps 4gb of memory would have been spot on but maybe that's still to come?

Right now there is no UK release date for the Clix but it's retail price in the US is less than the older U10 so there is hope that it might be more competitively priced when it hits the UK.

Published - 16/07/2006

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