iRiver Volcano T7 4GB review

iRiver'S Volcano is set to do battle with the Creative Zen Stone and iPod shuffle in the sub-£50 music player bracket.

Whoever nicknamed it the Volcano clearly hadn't seen it, as there's nothing volatile about its appearance at all. The T7 is designed to resemble a USB memory stick, and we can only assume its creators were inspired by an actual stick. It's that exciting.

Our all-black review unit at least looked classy, in an understated sort of way, with the three navigation buttons sitting flush with the surface of the player to the right of the tiny display. A unique selling point is the retractable USB connector, allowing you to plug the T7 straight into a PC, which then treats it like any memory drive. 1GB and 2GB models are available as well as our 4GB.

Features are largely par for the course at this price. The iRiver can play MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG audio files, and a built-in microphone also lets you use the player as a voice recorder. A built-in FM tuner provides radio playback and recording.

If the T7 is less interesting in the flesh than on paper, actually using it is another step down. The likes of the Zen Stone and even the iPod shuffle have a logical, well grouped set of controls, the key point being that you can control the player without having to look at it. The T7's uniform dimensions and haphazard button layout make this impossible, and the buttons themselves are labelled so subtly they're practically invisible to the naked eye. This makes even simple tasks, like forwarding a track or changing the volume, quite labour-intensive.

Audio quality was respectable, though no better than that, with obvious limitations at both high and low frequencies. You'll want to replace the supplied earphones with a less mediocre set, but that's not unusual in this price bracket. Battery life is claimed as 10 hours, measured with the display turned off; expect about seven hours of more typical use.

In all, the Volcano seems like a bit of a rushed effort, lacking the maturity of concept and execution common to its leading rivals. Add to that the frustrating user experience, and you've got a player we can't really recommend.