iRiver H320

Last month, iRiver disappointed us slightly with its budget hard disk-based offering, but it's gone some way to redeem itself with its replacement for one of our favourite hard disk MP3 players, the iHP-100 series.

The H320's basic shape and layout are the same as the iHP-100 series, with similar dimensions of 61 x 112 x 22mm. We'd like to see the case made a little thinner, as it's starting to feel noticeably bulky in the light of new devices fitted with 0.85in hard disks. The H320 sticks with a 1.8in device, in this case a 20GB model, although a 40GB version is also available. We definitely prefer the new styling though; the replacement of the four-way navigator stick with buttons renders the whole thing more stylish and far easier to slip into a pocket without catching.

Big news with this model is the colour TFT screen. It's a good one too: sharp, vibrant and bright. But you have to question if this is necessarily a good thing in an MP3 player; the backlight drains the battery and so, by default, the screen switches off after a couple of seconds. This means you can't establish what's playing at a glance; you need to stab at one of the buttons. A tiny point but ever so slightly annoying.

The second main addition is the USB 1.1 Host port on the bottom, next to the USB 2 Device connector that you'll use to hook it up to a PC - it recharges via the port, too. The Host port means any USB device able to act as standard UMS (USB mass storage) can connect to the unit. The obvious benefit is the ability to transfer your pictures to it when your digital camera's memory card fills up. With 20GB on offer there's space for hundreds of photos as well as a decent amount of music. Essentially, any UMS device that you can plug into Windows XP without separate drivers should work, but there are a few incompatibilities - iRiver's website has a current list. We tried it with a Kyocera Finecam S5R and it worked flawlessly, albeit very slowly over the USB 1.1 interface.

Once your images are transferred to the H320 you can view them on-screen too - the positive side of the colour display. But JPEGs with an on-disk size in excess of 1MB aren't supported, which rules out most 4- and 5-megapixel cameras. And the first thing we wanted to do when we realised the H320 was able to handle JPEGs was set an image as wallpaper, but that's not possible - an annoying oversight.

Some features of the iHP-100 series have been pared away: the direct-to-MP3 recording facility and line inputs and outputs are still there, but in analog form only, as opposed to the dual digital optical/analog ports of the old model. Hard disk activity and charge LEDs are gone too. The inline remote control is more manageable; the LCD screen has been stripped away and there are now just play/pause, track skip, volume, and hold controls. Whether you consider this a progressive or regressive step is a matter of opinion, but we prefer it.

With the new capabilities come extra menus, and the control system isn't quite as intuitive as it might be. Navigation requires cryptic combinations of long and short presses of the Nav, Record and A-B buttons to access things like file transfer from other devices to the hard disk. And the H320 gave us our first experience of an iRiver system crash too; not the end of the world since all you need to do is prod the Reset switch with a paper clip, but a disappointment when all past players have been absolutely solid in operation. The firmware is flash upgradable though; no doubt the next release will be more stable, and with any luck give the option to set a JPEG backdrop too.