Now you might think that being late to the party has its advantages, firstly there is the possibility of a dramatic entrance once all the others are there and of course you get the chance to see what everyone else is wearing first and maybe be able to adjust your wardrobe to suit.

And so it is with technology, iRiver have seen that the next step in the Mini MP3 race is to add a colour screen capable of showing images stored on the device and as such their late entry to the (apple Ipod Mini) territory has piped the revamped Creative Zen Micro to the colour screen prize.

The front of the diminutive iRiver H10 has a 1.5" LCD screen boasting 262k colours and the slider control method is similar to both the creative micro and the Zen Touch. With 5gb of storage on a 1" hard drive this is very much aimed at the Ipod Mini and Zen Micro, measuring 95 x 54 x 15 mm and just sneaking under the 100 gram mark it is most certainly small enough to be a good travelling companion and from what we've seen its well built too.

The iRiver H10 supports playback of MP3, WMA and ASF at bit rates up to 320kbps (192 for WMA) plus the viewer can show Jpegs and also display text stored as a .txt file on the device, it's no Photo Ipod or portable media player this is clearly an MP3 player with a few extra tricks. As an MP3 player the spec seems good enough to fight toe to toe with the established players, 5gb is a good size, the battery will keep going for 12 hrs, that's 2 more than then best we've got out of an Ipod Mini, audio quality is good if not stunning and its seems reliable with a good amount of jog protection. The decision to supply a quality pair of Sennheiser headphones means there is no need to rush out and upgrade your ear buds either!

There are a few little extras that might mean that this late comer has a bit more to talk about at the party, the FM tuner is something both the Ipod and Zen lack, plus it has a built in microphone so you can record those scandalous tip bits overheard while mingling with other guests.

However just when we were wondering if being late had helped the H10, we went to see if the supplied software was any good and would you believe it there wasn't any! now this isn't as bad as you might think, instead the H10 connected via USB 2.0 (nice and fast) and allows you to set your own folder structure on the device and just drag and drop files. No need for windows bloat ware just to get media onto the device by use of a mouse and a PC you have a 5gb USB drive.

Other good points we found while just fiddling are that the battery is replaceable, you can charge from the USB 2.0 connection as well as the supplied Ac adaptor and if you get the optional cradle you can get a line in function to enable direct MP3 encoding.

It's getting more and more difficult for the team here to get excited by new MP3 players that just mimic and add items to the existing offerings, that said until the New Zen Micro Photo hits the UK shores this is a nice device which adds some real value to a standard MP3 player.

The IRiver H10 has gone on UK sale at £199 which is a premium over the Ipod and Zen Micro no doubt the extra demanded for the colour screen and picture viewing, available in 4 colours (blue, grey, red and silver) the iRiver H10 is something different and another one to consider when looking at the Mini MP3 market.

Has the H10 done enough to beat our current favourite the Zen Micro? well no, its just a bit too pricey and its extra features too limited (like only supporting JPEG) plus the Zen Micro Photo promises to blow it away when it arrives.

More iRiver Reviews
 

More MP3 players between 1gb - 10gb

[ iRiver IFP ] [ MuVo2 mini MP3 player ] [ Rio Nitrus ] [ Philips HDD070 ] [ Zen Micro Review ] [ Sony NW-E99 MP3 ] [ Aiwa HZWS2000 ] [ Rio Carbon Review ] [ iRiver IFP 899 ] [ iPod Nano Review ] [ Archos XS100 ] [ Samsung YP-U1Q ] [ Cowon iAudio 6 Review ] [ iAudio U3 Review ] [ Creative Zen V Plus ] [ Cowon iAudio F2 ] [ Oracom UB890 ] [ iPod Touch Review ] [ 3rd Generation iPod Nano ] [ Sony NWZA818 Review ] [ MobiBlu B153 ] [ New iPod Nano 2G Review ] [ iRiver S10 Review ] [ Sandisk Sansa E200 Review ] [ iRiver U10 Review ] [ iRiver H10 Review ] [ Sanyo HDP MM3000 ] [ Philips HDD084 Review ] [ MPIO HD200 Review ] [ M:Robe MR100 ] [ Monolith MP3 Player ] [ iRiver IFP-599T ] [ Ipod Mini Review ]