The iRiver replacement

My iRiver iHP-120 died. I got in the car, turned it on, plugged it in, started the car, fastened my seat belt, grabbed it to see how the bootup was doing, and a circuit-frying bolt of static electricity jumped from my finger to the play button. I heard a loud pop through the car speakers as the jolt passed out the headphone jack. From then on, it would power on and complain that it couldn't contact its built-in hard drive.

Luckily, I bought a warranty. Sadly, the one I had is no longer made. I had to spend $14 on an upgrade to an iRiver H320, which is functionally identical with the exception of photo viewing, which I haven't tried.

I'm here to tell you what's good and bad about the new gadget.

• Good
  • Pretty color screen!
  • All the controls are on the face.
  • It charges off a USB connection, so I can leave the blocky charger at home.


• Bad
  • When the display turns off, the first button you hit does nothing but turn the display on. It makes eyes-free operation harder.
  • Case covers up the data port (so I have to take it out to plug it in). The case isn't really necessary, but I figure it might offer a little protection from pavement plunges.
  • No power indicator. I ran the battery dry not knowing I'd left it on.

All in all, I really like it. Its faults are minor enough to get used to, and it still has what I really liked about the old one.