- MicroSD Slot
- Built In Stereo Speaker
- Line-In recording
- FM Radio with recording
- Voice recording
- 2.4-inch LCD display
- Line-In recording; FM Radio with recording
This is a little device (See posted photo in user images) similar to the size of a credit card. It comes in many colors, so choice of color should not be a problem. I bought the black one, which is made in a matte plastic, which I am very satisfied with. Leaves fingerprints on the black surface, but doesn't really standout as the unit is not polished to a high gloss. The player is also extremely light, much lighter than any of the competitors (iPod Nano, Sandisk Sansa). This lightness maybe preferred by many users, but I find it too light (Forgetting its with you, and almost loaded it into the washing machine; also feels a bit cheap because of its weight).
I primarily bought this device for its built in speaker, to listen to audio books. Unfortunately, the speaker has quite poor volume (Nothing compared to the competing Samsung S5 or K5). But the iriver is a genius with file formats, and plays many formats, surprisingly plays 700mb, video files encoded with xvid (video) and mp3 (audio) quite smoothly. In addition to this it play Windows Media Audio / Video, Avi's (Xvid Compressed), Mp3's, BMP's, JPG's, PNG's, Text and more. It also has a full range FM tuner that allows 20 presets, which is a great feature. One of the best features the E100 has is the fact that it can record FM, Voice, and Line in Directly to its internal memory, and saves it in WMA format. Using a headset I recorded a 1 hour audio lecture of unmatched quality, and later edited on the PC for the sections I wanted out.
There are many reviews that oppose the navigational buttons on the E100 (Left and right buttons control settings and back to main menu functions, while up and down control the track / video / photo forward or backward). Though this is unorthodox the navigational "D" menu took me a day to master, and can be controlled quite easily after this initial learning. It is not at all complicated, though menus require a lot of clicks left and right to get what you are trying to do.
The expandable memory slot is an advantage and a easy way to upgrade this player to double its capacity via cheap micro sd cards. The problem here is that files on the micro sd are not read in the database for browsing by track, artist, album etc, but has to be accessed rather crudely through a file manager. I have used a 4gb micro sd with no problems. Keep this memory for adding lengthy movies, where you may store 5 6 full length movies that are easy to access on this media. The player can be used as a portable hard drive (Obviously). Battery life was quite good, though the bad news is that this player comes with no wall charger and must be charged via a PC or Mac's USB port (Powered of course). I use my iPhone's charger to charge this device (USB Charger with 5 volts output with 1 Amp total output).
The audio quality on the headphones is quite decent, but the speaker is definitely weak and unpronounced. Only listening to the device on full volume in a dead silent room gives you a semi decent listening experience. The good thing here is that many problems have been fixed via firmware upgrades provided by iriver, which I have got 3 times already since purchase in April. Hopefully they will address the speaker volume in the next update. One of the worse features of the device is the fact that the screen is terrible. It is sufficient for mp3 menu options, but falls far short for photo and video options. When in portrait mode the screen is clear, but when used in landscape mode (For photos and videos) the screen gets inadvertently polarized and produces poor and unclear photos.
The iriver e100 is a decent media player, but by no means the best. It has good features and poor ones as well. It could have been a great media player had there not been so many mistakes. Yet I believe that many entry level media player buyers will enjoy this player, as well as some advanced users (Due to advanced recording functions / file support), though the large chunk of the middle spectrum will be unhappy with the many quirks. I have used better players and worse ones as well. The iPod nano is still a heavy weight in its class, though for users looking to break away from the iPod and iTunes bundle, and jazz up their player with FM, Recording, Direct MP3, Photo, Text and Video and a speaker at a lower price than the iPod, the iriver makes sense. This player is a jack of all trades, but master of none.
Pros:
Color Options
Lightweight
Multiple Files Supported
FM Tuner
Frequent Firmware Upgrades
Integrated Speaker
Line In / Mic In / FM Recording
Micro SD Expandable
Direct Copy without conversions
Cons:
Plastic Body
Poor Screen
Speaker Volume
No Charger Provided (USB Charging Only)
Micro SD Browsing Complexity
Buy iriver E100 4 GB Multimedia Player (Brown) Now
I got this player because I wanted a one I could take out to the woods with my me, plug in a decent microphone and record acoustic guitar songs. This player works great. What the specs don't say is that the line in is stereo not just mono, so you can use nice stereo mics, so its better than I thought. Also the recording quality is really quite good through the line-in. Its comparable to the line-in on my macbook.Beyond that, its a decent player. The battery life is good, the sound quality is fine (a little worse than my ipod but WAY better than my $20 player) The headphones are okay, the video is watchable. Its a little slower getting around than my ipod, it lags a little but it really doesn't bother me much.
One thing you should know is that you need access to a Windows computer when you first get it to configure the player and install the latest firmware, and also to put movies on it. After that, you change its settings so it can communicate with Linux or your Mac, which it does fine after the changes have been made.
The only disappointment was with the Micro SD expansion. I have not found a way to record directly to it, and it freezes on startup if it is inside, so you can only insert it once its on. Also it doesn't integrate with the music library, so unless you intend to watch movies/listen to long audiobooks from the Micro SD card, just skip the expansion card.
However because of the quality stereo line in recording, I give it 5 stars.
Read Best Reviews of iriver E100 4 GB Multimedia Player (Brown) Here
The iRiver iFP-899 has been an indispensable companion for recording college lectures and meetings. I was looking forward to trying the new E100 because of the larger storage size and display screen. Unfortunately, the E100 is a major disappointment. Numerous web sites detail the poor sound quality, slightly undersized enter button, and other problems. Let me focus on a few seldom discussed issues.Many people report sporadically having the iRiver Plus 3 software not recognizing the E100. The dust cap on the E100's USB connector can interfere with fully inserting the USB cable connector by catching on the dust cap. Should this occur, the E100 will display Power & Play, and Power Only which makes you think everything is OK when, in fact, the iRiver Plus 3 has not actually recognized the E100. If you fully insert the connector without catching it on the dust cover, the E100 will display Power & Data, Power & Play, and Power Only the iRiver Plus 3 will now recognize the E100
For the last five days, the iRiver Tech Support at 562-758-6393 has not returned my calls. They have not replied to my email. By-the-way, the iRiver Technical Support is outsourced to a third party company.
The iFP-899 has an Automatic Gain Control (AGC) setting for recording which does not appear in the E100 settings. When I recorded a talk with the E100, the sound level was so weak that it was almost useless. I looked at the file with Sound Forge and found the signal was down in the mud. In contrast, the iFP-899 recorded the same talk without difficulty.
Having External Mic and Line-in recording are a major plus which separate iRiver products from others. However, what good are they if there is no incoming signal level indicator to let you know how much to adjust the line-in gain. Moreover, adjusting the line-in gain should not be buried in the settings but readily available while recording. The E100 needs AGC and Peak Limiting for the internal mic, external mic, and line-in to be effective. With such features, they could address a large market of users who would like to directly record from wireless microphone systems in lecture halls and churches. Let's hope they add such features.
The feature list of the E100 would have set the E100 above the competition. Unfortunately, the implementation was not up to par. Let's hope the next version puts iRivers back in the driver seat for producing dynamite products which outshine the competition.
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I bought this for my husband Albert for his birthday. He initially wanted the iPod, but it was too expensive, plus he loses tiny things. I asked him to search around to see if there was another item that could substitute. Reluctantly, he chose the iRiver E100 8 GB Multimedia Player and he has fallen in love with this product. I haven't heard a peep about him still wanting the iPod. He constantly has a new thing to tell me about how great it is for recording his music. He is a musician and he takes it with him to jazz jams as well as his regular gigs and it picks up everything and sounds crystal clear in the playback. He loves it, so I love it...
I was looking for something which has line-in recording with mp3 play. Most of mp3 players don't have line-in recoding. So I bought Olympus WS-321M voice recorder(Linein recoding.) It works great for voice recording but not good for line-in music recording.
After long research, finally I decided Iriver E100 for Line-in recording and mp3 play. It works great much better than Olympus WS-321M voice recorder(Linein recoding). I returned WS-321M when I have Iriver E100.
Pro: with $99.99
1. Line-in recording you can hook up a headphone jack and record any sound from speaker specailly music or performance. recoring time is long enough. tape recorder has time limit 30min or 1 hour.
Ex, When I rocord music performance, I record sound and video seperately to make better. Sound recoding is done with Iriver E100 and edit with Video. It gives great result. Most music recorders are expensive.
2. External speaker many mp3 pleyers don't have. Volume is not very loud but good enough for a person hearing. sometime, I don't want to use a earphone. It gives an ear pain.
3. Small and lighter Video Play I like it. It converts and plays all my music videos and movies without a problem.
4. Radio, Voice recoding, 8GB Memory (ex, WS-321M has 1GB)
Con:
1. Plastic button and menu control. Could have better material than plastic button. Menu control is not familiar with other product users. But after 1 day use, It's O.K. for me
2. USB power should have regular A.C. adapter.
For me this is the best choice. With $99.99 I got what I want.
For me, money works I am happy now.
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