[Pintman]

Hello.

New T60 user here. I've had two Creative MuVos and a Zen Nano since 2005. I listen mostly to podcasts while driving or exercising, and to music while travelling for more than a few hours at a tme. I often go to sleep listening to my player, making a shutdown timer a must to save batteries. I wanted a player with a little more capacity and AAA batteries, so the T60 seemed to fit the bill.

After six weeks of daily use, here are some thoughts:

PRO

- Sounds great and tons of volume into my Phillips earbuds.

- Battery life seems better than I had been led to believe it would be.

- My computer sees it as a mass storage device (as long as it's turned on, see below), no problem. This is a must since I like to move files back and forth with a generic file manager like Total Commander, and hate special software.

- Some reviewers think the screen is too crude. It's fine for my purposes.

CON

(MAJOR) The joystick is a real pain. Not precise at all. I still can't reliably get to the browser or the menu. I find myself accidentally skipping to the next song / podcast in the directory. It has a mind of its own and takes me places I don't want to go. Absolutely no way to navigate blindfold. It really diminishes the pleasure of using the T60. This alone will keep me from buying another Iriver device with a joystick.

(MAJOR) It doesn't work off USB power? Are you kidding me? Why? How hard can this be? A total waste of battery power. If there is a reason for this, I can't find it in the documentation.

(MODERATE) No way to sort files once they are on the player. At least I can't find one in the documentation. It seems to sort based upon how long the file has been on the player. I've tried numbering files, changing file dates, nothing seems to work.

(MINOR) The documentation is a joke. I still can't figure out the various playback modes. "A"? "D"? What are they?

(MINOR) Creatives have a playback mode that plays one file, one time, then goes into idle. I found this useful when drifting off to sleep in the middle of a long podcast.

(MINOR) The default screen contrast setting is way too low. You can't see where you're at in menus. You have to go into settings and turn contrast all the way down to -10.

CONCLUSION

I consider myself an experienced user, so I can work around all of the above shortcomings. But, I would not recommend the T60 as someone's first player.