iRiver H320 - Battery Test
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This is one of the most important factors when buying an MP3 player. The iPod lasts only a few hours; I hoped the H320 would last a little longer. The LCD can be set to turn off while letting the player continue playing. By default it is set to five seconds; it can be changed to not turn off at all, or to turn off after anywhere from three to 60 seconds. I found it really annoying that, while playing music, the LCD just cut off. I wanted to look around the menus, and the LCD just kept shutting off.
I figured that whether or not the LCD is on would have a major effect on the battery life. The first battery test was with the LCD always on. iRiver rates the battery up to 16 hours; however I achieved 14 hours and 20 minutes with the LCD off and playing music at half the total volume. I am very impressed with the battery life. I can’t think of too many instances in which you will need over 14 hours of power without recharging. Then I tried seeing how long it would last with the LCD screen on. This really shortened the battery life. I was only able to get three hours and 25 minutes. Your battery life should be somewhere between these two times, depending on how long you leave on the LCD screen.
Extra Features
The people over at misticriver.net have done some amazing stuff with the iRiver Players. Note that these functions could possibly void your warranty, and should only be considered after assessing the risks involved, and the possible outcome of a very expensive paperweight. All H320s aren’t created equal. Here, in the U.S., we can get only a stripped down version.
If you are in Asia or Europe, you may say I’m going crazy with this review. But the U.S. version has many of the great features disabled, and only a firmware upgrade could fix this. To get around the impaired U.S. version, the people over at misticriver.net have been able to flash the player with foreign firmware, and unlock many features not found in the U.S. player. Some of these features include video playback and USB-ON-THE-GO. You could then transfer pictures from your digital music camera to the H320. The disadvantage is that DRM, like Napster, will no longer work. I have emailed iRiver about future firmware upgrades to the U.S. version, but received response.
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