iRiver iFP-1090 Review

[jeff]

I've added my review of the iFP-1090 to the reviews section. You can access here:

iFP-1090

or you may access via the latest reviews block at the upper left of every page.

Enjoy!

p.s. feel free to ask any and all questions concerning this player and I'll do my best to answer them. Look for my review to be posted at the iRiver International site within the next day or so.

Jeff

[Tang]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for this review... I think a little bit annoying the iFP1090 won't have an UMS feature... Nice gadget anyway... I was a little doubtful about the color LCD but it seems quite clear...
The big information is about random: this let us hope a real shuffle son for our iHP...

regards,
Tanguy

(i've directed to your review from my orginal french board, if some frenchies aren't "anglophobic" lol!

[pomegranate]

Call me shallow but that colour screen looks REALLY nice...I know it's not meant to be an important thing in mp3 players, but if battery life isn't effected, I'd like to see that on future H models...

[Nick114]

rather swish. any ideas on prices??

[Nick114]

NB - sorry, thats prices in the UK..??

[jeff]

Guys, thanks for the comments. UMS will be implemented shortly in firmware just as the rest of the iFP range have. The photos unfortunately don't do the color screen justice. It's truly OUTSTANDING! Very clear and easy to read, bright and vibrant. So far battery life is a non-issue and since this baby charges through USB it probably wont be. Can't wait for the H Series to be released with it's 2" Color Screen....

[jeff]

NB - sorry, thats prices in the UK..??

Prices reflected in the review are in U.S. dollars. No release date as of yet.

[Nick114]

Okay.

is it worth getting for owners of ihp's???? or for new owners browsing the market?

[jeff]

If you must have the latest and greatest then it's worth having... Color Screen, Camera, Removeable Battery. However, at it's price it is a little out of league with other players which I think will keep people from buying it. $279.99 for 256mb is steep... If you're an iHP owner I would wait and spring for the new H Series.... If iRiver can pull off implementing the announced firmware upgrades: Gapless, OTF Delete, OTF Playlist, DB restructuring combined with that fabulous color screen, then it would be the ultimate player in a lot of people opinion, including mine.

[sweetspot]

Originally Posted by Nick114

Okay.

is it worth getting for owners of ihp's???? or for new owners browsing the market?

I would have to say YES. Even though I only have the iFP 790, it's still avery impressive player for sure. The sound is really fantastic, and has features which the H series might never have. I'll be doing a review hopefully this comming weekend, but what I can tell you so far, is that as an "H" series owner, the new iFP series is making me crave MORE ! It's such a fun little player man...My IHP 120 has been getting the shaft recently because of it ! I've used the FM recording feature, and it's so cool !

Also, it powers my Sony V6's VERY well. The on the fly delte is great, as well as the alarm features. The only thing I don't dig so much is the OTF playlist feature...but I'll get to that in the review. I personally don't think it's all that "on the fly". Amyway, I can only IMAGINE, how much nicer it would be to own one of the 1000 series players...

[sweetspot]

BTW, I agree that the pricing will be a bit high from the get go, but you can always shave at least $50 off because those are MSRP prices. Secondly, prices will come down if sales are down...so no one buy anything for a bit ( ), and lastly, flash players will always be more expensive compared to HD players because of the technology. (smaller, faster, no moving parts..all things which come at a premium these days)

P.S. Is the new H series (300's) supposed to have a camera as well ? It should if it doesn't.

[Tang]

I don't think the H300 will have a cam.. Anyway i think the USB OTG is the real way for a lot of aditionnal device:
- camera (not readable by the H player thought)
- CF reader
- and maybe so on...

It really depend on iRiver (or 3rd party brand)

Bye...

[Sp00k]

FYI

1090 @ $279.99 = £156.31... UK price is - £197.40
1095 @ $369.99 = £206.55... UK price is - £263.20

For current UK prices see recent post in Mistic News/Rumours section.


<As of April 15th, Apple had sold around 2.9 million iPods and about 60 million iTunes, that works out to about 21 iTunes per iPod. As the small iPods hold 1,000 songs, and some hold 10,000, we can safely say that iPods are helping to break the Music Industry monopoly>

[Vic20]

Good review but needs smaples of the player i guess. But i think u can use the korea site's samples of other people who reviewed. Also needs some quality pictures and some samples of the effects the camera can do. Not saying its bad. Its just not a full review yet.

[FlameGrilled]

If i wanted a low-def portable digicam... i'd go buy one, and still have change out of the price of that deck to buy a non excess baggaed iFP.

Hell, you buy a nice compact sub 1 Meg camera for well under 100 UKP these days, and mem cards are dirt cheap if you go for SmartMedia - CF if you want to share the cards with the max number of devices.

[y0da]

i still think this would be a good feature...if it can read jpgs then you could say load the thing up with higher quality pic taken with something else as a convinent way of showing the pics to someone ...as these kind of players seem to be on pple at all times...(hell my "h" is with me at all times) the cammera phone pics are really bad and pple still love them ...i think there should be a cammera in everything...comes in handy for takeing pics of police teargassing protesters

heh

mmmm tear gas

[coreman]

Yoda...I deleted my post after reading yours and reconsidering my position (not that I will ever buy one with a camera mind you) but I went back and looked at the entire iRiver offering and there are plenty of units that offer essentially what the 1090 does, without the camera so I am happy.

BTW, I am seriously considering buying a couple of flash players for my kids...even though I said I would never buy iRiver again (I also said I would never post again on IF a while back...so much for that promise as well!), they are very much in the race.

If the camera players don't sell or the pic res is too low, the market will force their demise...if on the other hand, they sell like hot cakes, all the better for iRiver.

It was the "Tear Gassing" that got to me...I got a terrific mental picture of listening to the "Ride of the Valkyries" while taking the "million dollar" pic of some poor cop gassing an innocent civilian...(think Apocalypse Now..."God I love the smell of napalm in the morning")

[y0da]

yep recently ...like a few months ago the was an FTC meeting in miami...and of course the normal fair of anti globalisation protesters and anarchists where there ...anyway the anarchs started looting or setting fires or whatever they feel will draw attention ...and the police moved in to quell the violence...anyway i had a few friends in the middle of it (thankfully they didn't get hurt) and they said that there where pple everywhere with the cammera phones takeing pics and then emailing them directly to news orgs

in that light the cammera phone could be the greatest manifestation of the 1st amendment since newsprint...and revolutionary pamphlets


btw ...i definatly don't condone "civil dissobedence" i think that there are more contructive ways to go about things

anyway sorry for the off topic rant just pointing to why i like the 1090,1095

[profingersk8er]

WOW...that's awsome jeff, and great review too!
being a wanna-be photographer myself, those color screen looks great in photo, and im sure it looks much much better in real life!
cant wait for the H3xx

thanks Jeff!