Posted by SansaUser on 10/24/07 00:25

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 14:48:32 -0700 'skarkada@gmail.com'
wrote this on alt.music.mp3.hardware:

>I bought iRiver e10 about a week ago and tried many of its features. I
>used to have Sansa e260, but was stolen. I was willing to try a
>different product this time - that should tell you that I wasn't in
>love with Sansa.
>
>Overall build quality of e10 is solid. It is little bigger and heavier
>than Sansa, but quite comfy in the shirt pocket. Most functions are
>intuitive and the interface is easy to learn and understand.
>
>USB cable is very thick (almost as thick as a mouse cable) and ear
>phone wire is also much thicker than that of Sansa. I don't like the
>ear phone cable - it sticks out and draws attention due to its
>thickness.
>
>Once charged, my computer recognized e10 as an external drive (without
>having to install their software) and I was able to transfer some
>files into the device just by drag-and-drop. Music files transferred
>like this can be played, but with limitations. First, you have to
>navigate to that folder to play the music. Second, if you copy
>multiple music folders, you can only shuffle among the files in a
>particular folder. Note that files transferred directly like this are
>not in the device's database. None of this is really negatives. (Sansa
>also allows to copy files like this, but some times it destroys the
>database and causes numerous problems.)
>
>Then I installed their software. When I connected the device now, it
>prompted me to upgrade the firmware. Firmware upgrade was quick and
>transparent. Then I transferred some music via the software interface.
>Those songs go into the database and provide full functionality such
>as shuffle.
>
>Data transfer from computer to device is very fast. Charging is only
>via USB and the battery charge lasts very long.
>
>One very good feature of e10 is that the start up is quick - just
>takes about a second. Apparently the device only goes into stand-by
>mode when turned off so it can come back up quickly. Anyway, I like
>that feature very much and hated the startup time on Sansa.
>
>Alarm: Alarm feature of e10 is basically useless. You can set only one
>alarm. It can ring once or daily. There is no calendar function, so
>you can not set the alarm to go on a specific day. Worst part is that
>when the alarm goes off, the sound only comes through the ear phones!
>I don't know how that can be useful.
>
>Games: Fantastic! 3 flash games are supplied, one of them being
>minesweeper. I could find hundreds of flash games on the Internet and
>many of them work fine on this device. I like this feature of e10 very
>much.
>
>Radio: Works as expected. 20 presets are supported. Auto scan works
>fine. Recording from radio also works fine.
>
>TV Remove control: I haven't used that feature and don't plan to use
>it. This feature probably made this device bulkier than Sansa.
>
>One big drawback of e10 is that you can only use one feature at a
>time. For example, you can't listen to radio or music and play a game
>at the same time. You can see pictures while listening to the music,
>but you can't do that while listening to the radio.
>
>I like this device better than Sansa because of the games. Also, e10
>is cheaper than other comparable 6GB MP3 players.

Thanks very much for that really useful feedback for the e10.

I'm also a Sansa e260 with 2GB MicroSD card user and find it quite
nice but I do wonder what'll happen when my battery needs replacing.
The point you make about start up time is well understood but I live
with it ... it's even longer with the added memory card!

ISTM that the stock software on many MP3 players leaves a lot
to be desired ... maybe a good reason to look at RockBox?

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