iRiver X20 review

Verdict:

A bigger player means more screen space for photos and video on the move. The big screen and memory are good for video, but as a music player it's unremarkable.

Review Date: 20 Jul 2007

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 3 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The X20 certainlY isn't short of features, with a high-quality 2.2-inch screen for video playback, a basic speaker (for sharing video soundtracks with friends, perhaps) and recording from the built-in microphone, FM radio and line input.

There's a MicroSD slot for memory expansion, although 8GB for £149 isn't bad to start with. The downside is its relative bulk - it's twice as thick as the nano - although in practice this affects its glamour more than its portability.

Menu navigation is fairly standard, but doesn't have the elegance of the best systems. We weren't particularly taken with the wheel control, either - it's useful for browsing quickly through long lists, but we found it imprecise when moving by single increments.

As with all the other video-enabled players, the accompanying software automatically converts video files to compatible formats, but in this case it stretched our widescreen footage during conversion. USB transfers were quick at 4.0Mbit/sec using Windows Media Player.

Sadly, sound quality is the X20's low point. EQ settings caused distortion regardless of output volume, and the headphones were weak and bass-light. However, it performed well with flat EQ and different headphones.

Author: Ben Pitt

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