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iRiver's H320 product gives very little away with its title. With just a letter and number it could be almost anything. So let's clear up the mystery straight away. The H320 is a portable music player, with some appealing additional features, that is based on a hard disk. With this particular model, the capacity of the hard disk is 20GB which should provide enough space for 5,000 music tracks or other forms of data such as photos, text or voice recordings.

Stylishly decked out in a pinspot carbon look with orange and blue providing some relief on the navigation control panel, the H320 measures 103 x 62 x 22mm (H x W x D) and weighs in at 183g. A two inch colour LCD, capable of displaying 260,000 colours, decorates the front of the unit and this is mounted just above the previously mentioned navigation console. Connectivity with the computer (Windows only) is via USB with socket sockets provided for versions 1.1 (useful for downloading images straight from a digital camera using the supplied adaptor cable) and 2.0. The unit also has connection sockets for LINE IN, LINE OUT, earpiece, remote control and mains or battery power. The latter is via a clip-on battery pack that holds four AAA batteries. The remote control can be used to stop / start, cycle between tracks, and adjust the volume level.

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The colour LCD provides excellent feedback while giving the user a fair degree of control over its settings. You can adjust the contrast and brightness of the display; specify the on-time duration or opt for always-on for the backlight with different settings for battery and mains power; and opt whether to display track information and playing time. Of course the use of colour with the LCD does have an effect on power consumption which is presumably why iRiver offers mains, external battery and a built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery that can provide up to 16 hours of playback.

While Windows Me and later users will not need to install any software, those using Windows 98SE are provided with the required drivers. Data is transfer from the computer to the H320 with Windows Explorer as the conduit using copy & paste or drag & drop. I do have one slight criticism of the initial linking of the H320 to the computer. As standard the H320 is set up to automatically recharge its internal battery whenever it is linked to the computer. Useful as this might be, it does stop you from carrying out any other tasks until the recharging has been completed. Fortunately you can deactivate this feature via the USB Charging option on the Control menu.

iRiver has taken the decision not to supply any software application to help manage the data on the H320. Instead it relies on basic windows features and any third-party software that might be available to carry out any management tasks especially regarding music tracks. Generally this approach works fine but I did encounter one problem. You are meant to be able to index your music files held on the H320 by right-clicking on its icon from within Windows Explorer. Unfortunately all my attempts resulted in an error message.

The H320 can playback any of your music tracks with support for MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA and ASF. It can also display images in JPG and BMP format plus TXT files. The device can also be used as a pocket recorder using either the built-in or the supplied external microphone.

Completing this product's list of features is its ability to act as an FM tuner. It uses the earphone cable as an aerial. You can either instigate an auto scan for channels or conduct a manual search. Up to 20 channels can be allocated a preset number and you can record direct from the FM radio.

The H320 kit consists of the main device; sturdy carry case with belt clip; external battery pack; earphones (which most will quickly replace with a better quality set); external microphone; LINE IN / OUT cable; USB lead; USB adapter; remote control; AC power adapter; and driver CD. While the H320's menu system is hardly intuitive, it can be mastered with perseverance. Pricing has been set at £260 but shop around and you could find a bargain.

http://www.iriver.com/eu/index.asp