iRiver Clix 2

The iriver clix is a portable multimedia player, like many others that can be seen on the market. It’s main rival is the iPod Nano. The 2GB and 4GB versions of the product were launched in April 2007 and an 8GB model was released later that year on 11th July. The particular iriver clix I’m reviewing is the second generation model. This is a much thinner, more stylish looking version than the original and it also supports AVI videos and a USB 2.0 connection. The iriver clix Second Generation (2G) is only available in one colour: black, with a glossy look to it. You can pick up a 4GB iriver clix 2G for around £100 – or an 8GB version for approximately £130. (Prices sourced from www.amazon.co.uk).

The reason I originally chose to buy one of these multimedia players was after seeing a friend’s first generation version. Once I got my own I realised just how many features this product includes.
First of all obviously it plays MP3′s, WMA’s, Ogg’s, the usual. It can also, however, play videos and it supports MPEG-4 video playback, WMV, DivX and XviD AVI. The 2G can also display pictures of the JPG format. First the music: The music player itself is very simple and nice, easy to use, easy to learn, and works great. Plain and simple. Though you can expand upon this by choosing the obvious play options – repeat, shuffle etc. The video player is also quite good, and although the screen is of a decent high quality it is only 2.2” big and is only really pleasurable to watch for short periods of time, perhaps to catch up on some Family Guy during class…

The operating system software that comes on the 2G is very easy and nice to use and can be learnt very quickly by anyone. It’s controls are simple and well known to most people who’ve used an MP3/multimedia player before, right is OK/go into the menu, left is go back, up is go up the menu and down is go down. The original theme that comes with the 2G is also rather pleasant and a small but nice detail is the background colour changes depending on the day. The 2G has the basic menu setup of music, pictures, video, now playing and settings, which are all customizable. The 2G also features a digital clock which can be changed to analogue in the settings or using a customized theme.

The obvious new feature of the screen is also the revolutionary D*Click button/screen combination. This is where the screen is more of a faceplate, suspended slightly above the device, and the user clicks on the edges to press the buttons. So for instance, if in the menu I wished to go left I would push down on the left side of the screen/panel and it would then click like a button (also hence the name D*Click, and the name of the device ‘iriver clix’). So, effectively, the buttons themselves are below the panel which is also the screen. And to navigate the user clicks the edges of the screen (It may sound confusing but when you play with it it makes a lot more sense – and in my opinion is really good fun). The screen itself is a new direction for portable multimedia players with it being an AMOLED backlit screen with a resolution of 320×240 (QVGA) and 18-bit colour depth. This means that it uses less power but is often brighter than most usual LCD screens used in portable multimedia devices. However, AMOLED is said to have a lesser lifespan than LCD screens – but the difference is very minimal.

A great thing about the iriver clix 2G is the fact that you can customize literally everything! The theme’s of the 2G can be changed at the users will and, with some software and creativity, the user can even design their own theme for the device – changing fonts, background pictures and icons.

Another good thing about the 2G is that it supports flash games, and there are many websites – if you search about – dedicated to creating games specifically for the iriver clix 2G. There are some great games out there including some card game adaptations, versions of Frogger and some side scrollers as well. If you’re into flash animation as well you can store short flash films within the games section of the player, although one unexplained fault with the system is that if the films are above a certain size they refuse to play.

The 2G has an extra programmable button on the side of it which can be set to do many things including turning off the screen, shuffling all the music and pausing/playing the track etc. The 2G also has a built in radio, which is uses relatively decent radio software, with the option to store radio stations or just scan the airwaves. It has a built in microphone, and usually on small devices the microphones are poor quality but I was quite amazed by how good the recording quality was on this particular device. It then saves the recording straight to the device in MP3 format ready for playback.

The 2G features MTP/UMS transfer, MTP used by Microsoft for transferring data such as photos or music between a computer and a portable device, such as a multimedia player, and UMS being the ability to explore the iriver clix 2G like it were just an external hard drive, enabling dragging and dropping of files in folders (something that cannot be done with an iPod).

The 2G, as most MP3/multimedia players have nowadays, has a built in lithium-ion battery that is charged via USB cable (though a lot of things use the mini USB connection, for example some Motorola phone chargers (such as the RAZR) and this can be used to charge the 2G from a wall socket). The battery life of the player is very good and has been boasted to reach 24 hours of continuous music playback and 5 hours of continuous video playback. Not bad for a portable multimedia player.

The good points about the iriver clix Second Generation:

• Fantastic battery life at 24 hours music playback and 5 hours video playback
• Totally customizable, the menus, fonts, icons and settings
• Doesn’t look half bad – is quite sleek and sexy for a multimedia player
• Drag and drop compatible
• Works very well with Linux (tested on Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron))

The few bad points I’d have to say about this multimedia player are:

So in conclusion I’d have to say that, although the 2G lacks memory in comparison to rival products, it makes up for it with good looks, great features and one hell of a battery life. I’d recommend it to anyone who wants a very decent, very customizable, very small and sleek multimedia player and doesn’t mind sacrificing memory for all those other advantages.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my review of the iriver clix Second Generation and I hope it has been helpful to you in deciding whether this is a decent multimedia player, or whether you’d rather go with something with more memory, but perhaps isn’t so stylish, or has so many features. Or maybe you’ve found the ultimate multimedia player with all of these attributes…

If you have, we’d like to know!