I'm a 20GB iPod owner and I like it alot. The obvious plus to buying the iPod photo here is the extra 10GB it's got on that H10. The iPod's display is slightly bigger (2.0") vs the H10's (1.8"), but I believe the H10 screen is better in the sense that it can display more colors (256,000 for H10, 65,536 for iPod). The H10 has a few more features than the iPod such as the FM tuner/transmitter. The iPod GUI is great. The navigation and click wheel make it extremely easy to navigate through menus and songs. H10 pros: better display (slightly smaller though), extra features H10 cons: navigation/buttons not as good as iPod's (imo), only 20gb iPod photo pros: click wheel is great and easy-to-use navigation/menus, 30gb iPod photo cons: screen is kinda lousy, lack of features So, if you want a player to view photos, go with the H10, just because the pictures will be more vivid (unless 1.8" is too small). But if it will be more for music, the iPod (unless you must have a FM tuner).
iPod Photo for sure. - iPod GUI - 10GB extra But the most import to me, at this should be the reason you are buying a color - mp3 player. : iPod Camera connector. You have to love this option. It allows you to transfer pictures from your digital camera to your iPod. Great if you go on holiday and don't have a laptop to bring with you. I think this is the soul reason why I would have any intrest in a iPod Photo. Who needs color display on a MP3 player? If the not-color iPod would support the iPod Camere Connector, I wouldn't get a iPod Photo. But at the end its your choice. I know other brands have more fancy gizmo's build in stock. And they seem cool at the time.. but I wouldn't use them that much. L Good luck with your choice
Posting this in the Apple section MIGHT give you a slightly biased response!!! I've never used an Iriver so my opinion is pretty useless, but ive used a few iPods including the photo and have always found them really great to use - the screen on the photo is awesome!!!
I've had the H120 for the last 18 months and it's a stunner. Got all the functions you'll ever need and then some: FM radio digital in/out Realtime WAV and MP3 recording (inc. radio) FLAC/ogg vorbis support Long battery life included remote with screen NO white headphones SRS sounds (WOW bass is schweet with beefy headphones) Drag and drop (NO itunes) CHEAPER!!! There are many other features that I won't mention but these are the things I believe makes it better than the iPod. I recently bought a Rio Karma for only £130 (amazon) and it's awesome. It has gapless playback, easy syncing with software, an awesome screen and it can be remotely accessed through a network via it's dock!! All in all it's replaceing my iRiver mainly because it has even better sound quality (iRiver better than iPod in that respect).
I'm with scotty. I love my H120. and I wouldn't swap it for an ipod photo. I really don't see the attraction of ipods. In comparison to other players, (in this case iriver) they just lack features! I guess my view is slightly biased.... Well, iriver gets my vote!
scotty6435: he's looking at the H10, the H120 is a bit different I believe. In my opinon, the iriver is not as intuitive as the ipod. To me, the joystick seemed kind of clunky and the menus aren't as easy to navigate as the ipod's. I think it all comes down to whether you want a player with a great GUI and controls or a player with more features, but you have to learn to navigate the menus. But how often are you going to use the extra features of the iriver anyway? I still say go with the iPod, the extra 10GB is definately worth it.
iRiver's do this without a special connector (not sure if all of them do this or just certain models), you simply hook your iriver to your cam with a normal usb cable and it'll copy everything off it, as long as its a USB Mass Storage compatible device (ie you dont need drivers to make it work in windows)
Erm as far as I know the H10 is 5GB, not 20GB. Anyway, I'd go for the iriver everytime. Not only does it look better externally, but you won't look like a sheep and you won't have the tell tale white earphones (yes I know not everyone uses them but most do) that tell everyone in the vicinity that you have something worth over £200. If you actually wanted a 20GB iRiver, the H320 is an excellent model. Great colour screen and it functions in the same way as the iPod photo (being able to transfer pictures from digital cameras etc. to the iRiver directly) only you don't have to spend £40 on some rip-off connector. So in conclusion, iPod if you want to look flashy and can't be bothered navigating using a system similar to the intuitive windows explorer. iRiver if you want features, a good quality screen, and some individuality.
There are several versions of the H10, one of them is a 20GB. The 20GB is larger than the 5GB model. I was at Best Buy today and played around with the 5GB H10 and I don't really like that touch bar, but it's not too bad. The screen on the 5GB is very tiny and it's not really worth looking at pictures, but since the 20GB a larger screen, you may be able to bear it. Also, I agree with Blue65 that the H320 is nice, but it's bigger and the joystick isn't as nice as the touch bar.
Sorry mate, am getting confused with the iRiver H110 which is the 10gig version of mine. The H10 is a very good player IMO wth a good screen and compact to match!
how about a creative zen micro photo i'm not sure if it is available yet but looks by far like the best player
I'd go with the iriver, as the ipod will no doubt explode / implode / randomly die just after the warrenty expires. im not just saying that cus my ipod randomly died on me today, honest.
in order of best to worst color screen high capacity dap toshiba gigabeat (beautiful screen) iAudio x5 (video playback, excellent sound quality) iPod photo iRiver h300 (very nice, but really thick with poor interface) Archos Gmini 400 (does everything) iriver h10 (needs serious firmware help)
Review of the iriver h10 here for those who wish to read up more on it: http://www.itreviews.co.uk/h766-iriver-h10-review.htm
I'm putting my bid in for the iRiver. I have a H120 (Modified), and it's built like a tank. I can't even tell you how many times it's survived 10 foot drops. It has much better sound quality in comparison to the iPod, and it has user upgradeable firmware as well as Open-Source Firware, and it has so many more features. Personally, if you want something that's really nice, I would get an H340, which you can watch video on as well as use different skins for you backgrounds and such. And for the record, the H300 series does not have a joystick.
I really could care less if ipods were still black and white.. I really enjoy the gui that apple has setup for the ipods. It works well and I could not ask for anything more. I can only think that I the iriver is going to use more battery with that nice screen of its.
