I have been the owner of this MP3 player for over a year. I must say that compared to other flash MP3 players, this one is quite antiquated in storage capacity, technology, and sound quality.

128 MB is barely enough for 2 CDs; lacking for today's music collections, especially when compared to similar products with 1 GB and 2 GB storage capacities. Also, this player does not support USB 2.0, which means waiting a relatively long time for file transfer. Luckily, iRiver made a smart move by allowing savvy users to reflash the firmware with experimental UMD support.

Sound quality is decent, but don't expect it to match a certain shuffling competitor's near-perfect square wave reproduction. Frequency response is not flat, and extraneous harmonics are introduced into the output signal.

A third thing I would like to mention is the use of AA batteries. This thing goes through them like nothing, with minimal listening time (2 to 3 hours). If batteries are as hard to come by for you as they are here, you're going to find yourself being without music often.

The durability is sorely lacking. A month after purchase, the buttons and the joystick had lost their responsitivity. You would have to press the same button repeatedly 3-4 times for it to register. The battery case no longer wants to stay shut without tape. The last straw is when the joystick broke off and stopped functioning completely, causing me to write this review.

This is an on-the-go music player. It should be able to hold up to the stresses of being in a backpack. If you are looking for an up-to-date, functional MP3 player, "shuffle" to another brand.

There is an as yet unspoken reason to find this series of iFP's (meaning 380, 390, 395). When flashed with the UMS firmware, the iRiver Manager software is longer required, and your line-in recordings and voice recordings are named .mp3 automatically. Also, the bitrate of the line-in recording could be set up to 160Kbps, and 128Kbps for voice recording. Using the UMS firmware also means being able to load whatever you want onto the player as if it were a USB key. This was true for the UMS 1.0 firmware and I'm not sure if it still holds true for newer versions.

Of all the mp3 players out there, this series has the *best* quality microphone recordings. Just remember not to pocket it while you're recording since the microphone is very sensitive.

the only reason i bought this one is cause my girlfreind has it. but i take it to class with me and use it every day all day long. i'm into bike riding and take it with me, work out with it,hang out with it, and it has never really failed me. the only two down sides are that the little joy stick is starting to crap out on me... but i've had it and beat on it for almost 2 years now! and it only hold 128(90 songs low res), if you put it on shufle then it's not to bad. and it was like $170 new! now ones like this are like $50 bucks! o-well. IRIVER MAKES A GOOD PRODUCT!

i haven't had the problems with the player breaking, in fact i use this thing probably more than my cd player! it is EXTREMELY handy to have, too, as it fits in your pocket (ANY pocket) with earphones too! (the sony h.EAR are the kind i use). i haven't had the firmware updated, but i can bear the less-than-great software that comes with it. the sound quality is amazing, the equilizer works wonders. i wish it had a bass boost on top of the equalizer, though. if you get the right headphones this won't be a problem, though. overall, the best thing about this mp3/mic/radio/line in recorder is that it has GREAT battery life! it's insane! overall, i would highly recommend trying this mp3 player!

I've had my iRiver for a long time (since christmas 2003) and It hasn't stopped working yet. It's an awesome player, sounds great and is really cheap. Its only drawback is its little memory but I have 57 songs on mine and i never hear the same song twice in a day unless I want to. I reccomend it if you have a smaller music collection or only like one or two songs on a cd.