RhumbaTecH:: The iRiver Clix
In my previous post, I talked about the Creative Zen V Plus. It belongs to the small form factor flash memory based group of Digital Audio Players where their nemesis, the iPod Nano belongs. However, lurking in another camp is the iRiver Clix as seen above.
Now, the really interesting thing about the Clix is that, it looks exactly the same as the iRiver U10 (on the right) which their 1GB version is being sold at their website for USD$249. WTF? The Clix is only USD$199 and the Clix has 2GB of storage space. Seriously, WTF? As far as I can see from their website, the ONLY advantage the U10 over the Clix is the battery life. Other than that, everything else looks pretty much the same except the memory space and the Clix's extra function of being able to play some flash games. So... I dunno man, that's really weird.
Anyway, comparing the Clix with their other competitors, the obvious main winner in differences is the 2.2" TFT LCD display and the fact that it's 'touch screen'. It not really touch screen as in PDA touch screen though. There is actually only a few points on which the screen will react to your touches (there's some kind of button behind the LCD if I'm not wrong about how it works).
The Clix has the same function as the Zen V Plus to play video. Firstly, I must once warn about watching video on screen the size of 2.5" or less as I do not really find the experience very pleasant to your poor eyes. Secondly, I saw something really interesting which I failed to notice about the Zen V Plus earlier on. The Clix can only play M-PEG4 movies. This means that you have to do conversions of any movie your want to store on the device into the proper format before being able to use. Sounds a little troublesome to me. I use my PDA to watch videos, and so far, due to my awesome video player (TCPMP), I had been able to play all sorts of videos with no problem. iRiver wins Creative in the size of the screen (2.2" vs 1.5") but I'm a little confuse about the video portion cause on Creative's site, it does not state the video formats which it can play, saying only "Short Video Clips". And I have yet to find out what it can play. So maybe people have to try out the device before they buy it. Seriously speaking, I don't like the idea of it only being able to watch 'short' video clips. I guess it's good that the iRiver isn't the same.
All in all, the iRiver seems quite a splendid device with which you can listen to music (duh...), view pictures, tune in to FM radio, watch videos and even play some flash games. However, I don't think 2GB of memory space is enough to satisfy video watching. Still, if anybody is looking for a small Digital Audio Player, the iRiver Clix is worth a good look. Just make sure you don't get mixed up with the lousier but more expensive U10.
CNET's review here.