iRiver iHP-140 review

The iPod may be considered by many to be the feather in Apple's cap, but it's not to everyone's taste.

Fortunately, there are alternatives, including iRiver's flagship MP3 player, the iHP-140. It may not have the smooth, white curves of the MP3 player we all know and love, nor does it successfully integrate with iTunes, but it does offer a similar shape, style and list of features, and for less than its pearlescent rival.

That's not to say the iHP-140 is unsightly, though: dressed primarily in black magnesium with chrome plating at the edges, it's light yet sturdy and won't look out of place next to your Mac. At 185g, it's heavier than the iPod, but you're still unlikely to feel it in your pocket. The buttons are pleasantly sturdy, too, so even if you forget to use the hold button, they're unlikely to affect playback unless heavily knocked. That said, there's a hold button on the side as well.

You operate the iHP-140 primarily through the five-way jog dial on the front of the device, and there are play, stop, record and loop buttons on the sides, most of which have dual functions such as power off. Navigation is incredibly simple, thanks to the supremely well thought out interface, and this is where the iHP-140 really shines. Closely resembling Mac OS X's Finder screen, it may take a few goes to get accustomed to, but it quickly becomes very easy to use - so much so that you could even find yourself navigating round the menus without removing it from your pocket. However, the included remote saves you from this sort of fiddling, as it's equipped with three jog dials, two buttons and a hold switch. The iHP-140's LCD screen is also large, clear and bright. Put simply, it beats the iPod's screen and jog wheel navigation hands down.

Other features on the iHP-140's tidy sides include two ports, one offering optical and analogue in, the other optical and analogue out (the latter could be used to hook up a second set of headphones should you wish). There's also a hard reset button and a microphone on the left-hand side.The microphone is very high quality - you would have no problems using this to record meetings or conferences. These files are stored as WAVs, but can be encoded direct to MP3.

The 40GB hard disk is an immense amount of space and is enough to hold more than 6000 songs. Transferring files is rather less simplistic than the interface would suggest, though, as the device lacks a FireWire interface, which is a real shame in an otherwise excellent device. You'll get perfectly adequate transfer speeds out of the USB 2 connection, but if these are being used by mice, tablets or printers, you'll probably need to invest in a hub to hook it up. What's more, if you don't have USB 2, you're in for a frustrating time, as filling 40GB over USB 1.1 will take an awful long time. There's no shortage of compatible file formats, though: all manner of MP3 variations are supported, as are asf, wav, and even the Windows-based WMA.

Another important fact to note is that the iHP-140 is only compatible with OS X 10 or later. However, there's no need for drivers: simply plug it in, and within 30 seconds it has been registered and appears on the desktop as an external USB hard disk. The crucial disadvantage is that this means it doesn't appear in iTunes. This isn't the end of the world, though, as transferring files is a simple drag-and-drop affair using Finder windows.

Playing tracks on the device is rather more complicated. Double-click on any tracks that exist both on your Mac and the iHP-140 and they're played from your hard disk. Click on those that aren't on your hard disk and they are automatically transferred to your iTunes folder before being played. While this may be handy for those with large hard disks, some may find it annoying, as you may not want all the tracks from your MP3 player clogging up your hard disk. Being able to play them directly from the device would have been far simpler.