Digital Trends

iRiver H10

February 10th, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Features and Design

There is no doubt about it, the iRiver H10 is a very attractive player. It is a tad bit taller than the Zen Micro, but it's also thinner. And where the Zen Micro has a more playful look to it, the H10 comes across as having a more serious demeanor. The review unit iRiver sent us came in Lounge Grey; but the unit is also available in Remix Blue, Trance Red, and Triple Platinum. The 1.5-inch color screen is located at the top of the player and is surrounded by a shiny chrome trim which helps give the H10 a high-end look. The H10 also features a touch sensitive pad much like what Apple and Creative uses in their micro players, but iRiver goes one step further and includes regular control buttons as well.

iRiver H10 in Lounge Gray

Using IBM's 5GB micro-drive manufactured by Seagate, the H10 has 1GB more storage than the Apple iPod mini and is designed to work with Microsoft's Windows Media Player 10. What separates the H10 from the Zen Micro and iPod mini is its color screen and image viewing capabilities, although Creative Labs is expected to introduce a Zen Micro Color very shortly. Like the Zen Micro, the H10 also features an integrated FM receiver and FM recorder as well as an integrated voice recorder, 30 equalizer settings (yes 30) and a removable battery. When it comes to audio support, the H10 can play back music files encoded in MP3 and WMA format. We suspect that iRiver will add Ogg Vorbis support in future firmware updates — but don't hold us to it. One interesting feature worth mentioning is the H10's support for text files, although without the ability to show images and content on an external monitor, they would make for a tough read. The battery that comes with the H10 is a rechargeable lithium-ion and is removable. iRiver claims the battery can last up to 12-hours on a single charge. The H10 does not synchronize with Microsoft Outlook like the Zen Micro does, so if that is a feature that you need, you are out of luck.

iRiver includes a very detailed paper manual, belt clip, ear buds, USB 2.0 cable which doubles as an A/C adapter, and a CD with Windows Media Player 10 on it. If you want to use the H10, you must have a system running Windows XP with service pack 1 or higher installed, and Windows Media Player 10 (WMP10). There is no support for earlier versions of Windows, Linux or Mac operating systems. You can charge the H10 by plugging it into your computer's USB port directly or by plugging the A/C adapter into the hybrid cable that comes with the player.

iRiver will soon be releasing a new docking station for use with the H10 and your PC. It uses a USB cable to connect to your computer and has a second charging bay for any extra batteries you may have.