iRiver SlimX iMP-550

I purchased my iRiver SlimX iMP-550 portable mp3 player 1 week ago from Amazon (£104 inc. p&p) which was the best price that I had seen. It got to me 3 days later and after charging the stick (14M 1430mah) batteries for 16hrs (always charge for at least 12 hours to condition any battery the first time) I stuck them into the player (I have a separate charger).

Main unit

The first thing that strikes you is how slim the player is. In fact, Iriver state that at 13.7mm it's the slimmest CD/MP3 player in the world with a die-cast Magnesium lid (plastic base) which is barely larger that the CD itself.

The CD player will work with a large array of different audio formats including MP3 (including variable bit rate - VBR), WMA (inc.VBR), ASF.

Firmware

The player which I obtained was loaded (www.iriver.com) with firmware version 1.04. The latest firmware version is 1.50b which is a beta copy which caters for Ogg files and gives you extra sound graphics including 3D sound DBE and if you're very bored snakebite game. There is also a 4-digit password setting to lock the player, although anyone stealing the unit wouldn't know that until they had stolen it.

Remote

Although the actual CD player is sleek and beautiful the in-line remote is another matter. It is probably the most un-ergonomic design I have ever had the miss fortune to use. Firstly, the clip to the rear of the unit means that clipping the remote has the display upside down or the leads are twisted. To make matters worse the user interface is extremely complicated and very un-user friendly.

Most units of this type (or mobile phones) have either a 4-way type buttons or a "joy stick" type of control. Instead Iriver has opted for 3 separate jog dials and separate play/pause and stop buttons. Each jog dials operate 3 different functions and work differently depending on how long you press the dial down or the direction of use. I consider myself as pretty savvy when it comes to picking up any type of unit and just using it without looking at the instructions, but this is a very confusing system with a number of different sub-menus on offer and you must read the instructions to get the best out of this unit. I believe the remote to be a universal model working for other players including hard drive units.

Secondly, the 3.5mm input jack will not cater the majority of head phone plugs. In fact it won't take any "L" plugs directly into the unit, but Iriver has thought about this and supplied a short extension adapter although if they thought about it a bit more they could have just made the socket so it could just take any 3.5mm plug.

The FM tuner is a real bonus with a reasonably good pickup of all the major radio stations on auto scan and has a memory for 20 preset stations, but you can't access sound graphics whilst in radio mode. The remote also has an adjustable contrast and time controlled indiglo back light with 4 line dot matrix display for CD text and ID-tags.

MP3 & WMA files

I made my first MP3 disk via Nero 6.3.1.10 with every track at 128bits or higher with 9 albums on 1 disk. The player recognised every track and gave excellent audio out via a set of Panasonic headphones. The headphones that come with a unit are adequate, but not as good as branded ones (Sony, Philips and Panasonic). If you stop the unit and switch it back on again it will play from the point you stop which I very much like and if that is not to your taste you can turn that function off.

I then made a second disk with Nero, but this time as a data disk with MP3 & WMA files mixed on 1 disk via sub folders. This proved to be a bit of a problem for the player with MP3 tracks cutting out and whole WMA files not reading. This might have been something that I had done rather than the player itself since it did suggest that writing a blank CD should be done at the lowest speed (x4 or even x2). There is no software which accompanies this unit.

Battery life

The battery time of this unit is claimed to be at 55 hours continuous play. The best that I can get out of this player is 18-20hours before it begins to start cutting out. The battery level indicator has only 3 bars which doesn't give an accurate account of how much power you have left. I then noted that the claim of 55 hours is actually the COMBINED use of internal and external batteries and the internal batteries only give up to 22 hours continuous play.

Although this sounds poor in comparison with personal CD players (not CD/MP3) which can average 16-36/40-55 hrs (AAA & AA Ni-Mh batteries) this does not seem to be the case with CD/MP3 players. All the Panasonic range of CD/MP3 players bar one (36hrs) have a maximum play time of 20hours with internal batteries (at no point does Sony state internal battery life only on any of their CD/MP3 players)

The unit comes complete with charger, belt loop snug fit carry case and an external x2 AA battery adapter which has come in very useful.

Conclusion

Although I seemed to have portrayed a rather poor CD/MP3/WMA player I don't regret purchasing this product since it has a great scope for adaptation to the individual's preferences and firmware upgradeability means that it's future proof. Sound quality is excellent with a wide array of setting to suit all tastes and if you're bored with the 150 or more tracks that you have you can always listen to the radio, which I have not seen on any other portable CD/MP3/WMA player.

The unit is slightly high on the price range, but no other unit offers both WMA and FM radio built-in (Sony doesn't support WMA, instead favour their own ATRAC system), but if you're put off by the price consider the Panasonic SLCT510S for £58.40 at www.empiredirect.co.uk or Iriver iMP-700T. Iriver are planning to bring out a new portable CD/MP3 player which will play DivX/Xvid and even one with a small screen incorporated onto the unit (iMP-1000/1100 respectively http://nordic.iriver.se/products.php?p=15). Spare 14M batteries can be purchased from www.tantronics.co.uk for as little as £4.99 each (inc. p&p).