CNET Editor's rating: 8.7 out of 10
Reviewed by
Jasmine France
Review date: 01/03/07
The good: Sleek and stylish, the iRiver Clix offers a unique, intuitive interface and comes with extras such as an FM radio; a voice recorder; an alarm clock; support for OGG files and subscription content; and photo, video, and text viewing. The Clix includes SRS Wow sound effects, it has good battery life, and it's priced competitively.
The bad: The iRiver Clix's ample screen is a magnet for fingerprints, and the cool and useful cradle is sold separately.
The bottom line: The iRiver Clix is a superbly designed MP3 player that's easy to use and packed with pretty much every feature in the book. If you're looking for a stylish Janus-compatible device and you don't need a boatload of storage, this is your player.
If the iRiver Clix looks familiar, that's because it's simply an improved version of the iRiver U10. You get the same cool, miniature TV-like design and great features, alongside an enhanced user interface and superb integration with Windows Media Player 11 and MTV Urge. In fact, the device is launching in tandem with the media software and the music service because Microsoft, iRiver, and MTV worked closely to create the perfect symbiotic relationship between software, service, and hardware. We at CNET hesitate to call anything perfect, but iRiver comes close with the Clix. Tagged at $169.99 for the 2GB and $199.99 for the 4GB, the Clix is much more competitively priced than its predecessor. Of course, we'd love to see a 6GB or 8GB version in the near future, but if you're looking for a WMA device and don't need more than 4GB of storage, check out this MP3 player--we're enamored with it.
10 out of 10 - Perfect WOW!! This little unit does it all!!
This little unit is simply incredible! The Clix comes with a small black carrying case (I don't think I ...
This little unit is simply incredible! The Clix comes with a small black carrying case (I don't think I will ever use it, since you can't see the screen when the Clix is in it.), headphones (which really have quite a nice tone to them, I'm just not a big fan of earbuds), a CD (with Media Player 11 on it), a small instruction booklet, and, of course, the Clix unit iself. The Clix has a beautiful crystal clear tone to it. It has a bright full color screen which clearly shows the album cover, the title of the song, the artist, the rating, and even displays the song which will be played next. The music on the mp3 can be played by a variety of different orders, including playing all (which randomizes the music) to playing by artist, album, song title, playlist or rating. And this little until doesn't just play music, it can display your favorite pictures, and the pictures look CLEAR and BEAUTIFUL on it. Adding pictures to the unit is simple by going to media player and adding your pictures to media player then, on the next sync, your pictures will be on your mp3 player. You can even have a slide show of your pictures while you are listening to your favorite tunes on the Clix! And, there's even more!! You can also add video to the player! And the video is beautiful, clear and even plays sound (if recorded with it). Now, videos do have to be converted (at least mine had to be converted), but there is a lovely FREE program (called iriverter that can be downloaded from the iriver site) which converts video to a format acceptable to the Clix. Once the video has been converted, to add it to the Clix, all you have to do is add it to media player and on the next sync, your videos will be on the unit!! But, there's more!! There are also flash games! And, these are cute FUN FREE little games that can be played if you are looking for something a little different to do. The unit comes with 3 or 4 games installed, but more FREE games can be downloaded from the iriver site. They really are fun! Some of the games include Sudoku (which admittedly is pretty tough to play on such a small screen...but I did it), a Frogger type of game called Critter Crossing (very cute), a puzzle, a Simon type of game and several others! But, believe it or not, there is still more that this incredible little unit can do, it also includes an alarm clock, so now you can wake up to your favorite tunes and if you purchase the separate docking station you can even hit the "snooze" button!! Speaking of the docking station, I know there are some folks out there who don't care for it because it is somewhat expensive ($60) and the speakers aren't the greatest...BUT, there are some very valuable features you gain by purchasing the docking station, first off is the remote. If you purchase the docking station you get a wonderful remote which allows you to control not only the volume but allows full functionality of mp3 playback on the unit. The speakers aren't great, but they aren't awful either. I think they are as good as you can expect to get from such a small docking unit. And the docking station is simply adorable, it looks like a mini tv and there are outputs on the back of the cradle, there is a USB input, and line in and a line out. I use the line out to connect to my receiver and oh, what a great sound I get then!! And, as mentioned before, there is the snooze button on top of the unit, so the unit makes a perfect alarm clock!! We also purchased the FM transmitter ($50), which works equally great. With the FM transmitter, you can listen to your Clix through your car radio which is great if you don't have a newer car that comes with an mp3 input. We also bought the accessory kit ($29), now this is the one thing that I truly think is overpriced. For nearly $30, you get a lanyard (and believe me it is not a great lanyard), a case, an armband and 2 screen protectors and 1 tiny cleaning cloth. Yes, as noted by many others, the Clix LOVES fingerprints, so be sure to get a screen protector on it. It's a good thing the accessory kit comes with 2 of them, 'cause the first one I tried to put on was full of dust specks on the sticky side. But, the good news is, that screen protectors can be purchased at WalMart (I found them in the cell phone accessory area where phone cases and earphones are carried). A package of 10 screen protectors cost about $10 at WalMart (these will have to be cut down in size to fit the Clix). If you are looking for an mp3 player, you can not go wrong with the iRiver Clix.
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by MerileeJean (see profile) -
December 31, 2006
2 out of 10 - Terrible Great player ruined by poor battery life
This player isn't really a 2 rating. It's a great player but I am so disappointed by the ...
This player isn't really a 2 rating. It's a great player but I am so disappointed by the battery issue.
The problem is this: When you shut down the player it still uses battery. If you use the player for say 3 hours every day over three days (say 10 hours listening) it is out of battery and needs to be recharged. A long way off the 25hrs quoted. You get 25hrs if you listen coninuously but not if you "Shut Down" the player.
If you bought this player because of the long battery life for trips away (like me), then this problem sucks big time.
It is a great player but the battery issue really has ruined its fit for purpose. I look forward to a fix by iRiver.
Updated "The problem you are describing is not a problem with the player, but actually how the player was designed.
Most players take a long time to boot up when you power them on. Our customers have asked for the players to not fully power down so that if they power the player back on, it INSTANTLY shows back up where it left off, and they can pick right back up.
Now, we made this change to the player based on the feedback from customers and other industry experts, and there are a small number of people that do not like this functionality. Unfortunately, we can't always make everyone happy.
The one thing is, like you said, if you play the player for 3 hours every day, you get 3 or 4 days worth of usage. This should allow the player to be used and recharged anytime in those 3 or 4 days. The ability for the player to power on instantly came with the price that if you use it every single day, you may need to charge it every 3 or 4 days. Charging the player once every 3 days or so was not something that we felt was out of the ordinary.
As you have pointed out with your link to the above thread, the math has already been done, and we have acknowledged that the player was designed in this way. We can pass your feedback on to the engineers that designed this as feedback from you, but I can not say that this feature will be changed or not.
In the meantime, if you would like to fully power the player off yourself, put the ?Hold? switch in the On Position, and then use a paper clip to reset the player with the reset located on the bottom of the player. This should fully power the player off."
Updated Read more here: http://www.misticriver.net/showthread.php?t=50834
The 4gb Clix is a fine example of a quality product with innovative design. I am very pleased ...
The Excellent:
The 4gb Clix is a fine example of a quality product with innovative design. I am very pleased with the sound quality, customizability, and ease of using the interface if I?m carefully manipulating the device. It truly should make a person that loves to listen to music a happy owner. I can find the music I want fast. The player feels of quality, and the neat things like randomly using your pics as a background is neat even for an old guy like me (30?s). I fully recommend this player, but read what could be improved below.
What I think you should compare it to before buying:
If you want something to compare the Clix to, I?ve considered that I should of investigated the Sandisk e200 series players, but I did not because they didn?t have video capability? turns out the Clix video feature doesn?t really work. The converter they recommend did not work for me. After many hours I had inconsistent results with several different converters and gave up. I did get some videos to play, so it is possible, but if you are not well versed in video formats and expect to just plug and play you are in for a big disappointment. I think the video feature was thrown in to push it up to the video capable class (which is why I bought it and didn?t investigate the e200 series), but it really isn?t in that class IMHO. That?s why I wish I had not thrown out the e200 series since really this device is just to listen to music. The techie in me got the best of me!
What I find inconvenient and how it could be improved:
This section is long, but only because I?m trying to explain what I find less than ideal. This truly is a great player, I?m just trying to put this info out their so you can see what I think is less than perfect about it, that way you can compare its short comings to your needs/values. This is detailed and explains what I think it needs to be perfect.
The player never seems to turn off. Since I don?t charge my player and then listen to it for 24 hours straight (up to 24 hours indicated bat. Life), the fact that it stays in standby mode leaves me with pretty disappointing battery life. For example, I use my clix at the gym for 45 min. each night. I only get about one week of use out of the player before it ends up dead in the middle of a workout. I would like to see the option to either go into stand by or total power off in a firmware upgrade. Also am I crazy or does it not charge when I want it to sometimes?.... almost like it decides on it?s own if it needs to recharge, but maybe I?m just mistaken. In contrast my Samsung player would last a very long time on single battery (granted it didn?t have a nice color screen like the clix). As I understand it batteries have a limited number of charges, so for what ever reason Iriver did this it ultimately makes it where the player will be viable for a shorter period of time if I?m correct about limited charges.
The interface is thoughtful and intuitive (for me), but if you are like me you will find it frustrating. I often need to pause my music or want to advance to the next song. While some may consider this a personal problem, it is bothersome to me as follows. Since the very nice color screen drains the battery it must be turned off, and since the music controls and volume don?t work when the screen is off, you must first push the screen or vol buttons to get the screen to activate (1.5 seconds), then the player starts to respond to inputs. This can be fixed by forcing the screen to stay on all the time, but then you have a serious battery drain and the screen buttons always being active is bad because you end up pushing them when you don?t want to since they are part of the ?body?, especially if you carry it on your person. Since the screen buttons (4 in each of the four directions) control the menus, if you don?t push exactly to the right which is pause, you end up advancing the song or going back in the menus, meanwhile the reason you wanted to pause the player is waiting or passing by. This is no fun when somebody starts talking to me because I inevitable push the wrong direction in the process and get in the wrong part of the menu (imagine scenarios when it?s in a pocket ect.). I think this could be improved by allowing the vol buttons to function independent of the screen so it increases or decreased at the moment I push the button the first time. I?m always waiting for the screen to come back on! Also dedicated pause and song advance buttons would be nice.
The video is really not a viable feature as described above IMHO.
Updated the e200 series is not comparable in sound quality based on others opinions if you look up e280. Turns out the e280 does have video capability?. I was incorrect.
What I find inconsistent is Cnet points out the short comings of the video feature in the e280, but completely overlooks the same problems in the clix.
10 out of 10 - Perfect Clix - 1, Nano - 0
I can't believe that this thing has been so low profile! I really had to dig to find this ...
I can't believe that this thing has been so low profile! I really had to dig to find this and I'm so glad I did and didn't just go along and get a nano or something more publicized.
The MOST AMAZING FEATURE has to be the recorder! I can set it in between a group of us all between 3-6 feet away and it records crystal clear!
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by rv36116 (see profile) -
January 14, 2007
3 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Believe the Hype - Blows my IPod away - Can't Say Enough About This Little Item
I love this thing. When it came I was surprised how small it was. I was aware of the dimensions ...
I love this thing. When it came I was surprised how small it was. I was aware of the dimensions and was still surprised how small it is. Both my wife and I find the navigation easier and more "logical" than our IPods. I have a skin cover for it so the finger print thing isn't an issue anymore (cost me $8 + shipping).
I have the 4GB - I'm not sure how much space was taken up by all the stuff (pics I don't use etc) that came on it (I'm taking them off today), but as of right now I have 3170 megabytes to go (4096 MB = 4 GB) and I have about 10 pictures of my own, 80 songs (ripped from cd's so I think that takes up more space) and one full length movie (Batman Begins).
The sound is great though I had to replace the ear buds. I had a pair of Shure E2's with my nano, lost them so I went for the Etymotic ER-6i this time around (bout $69 on Ebay/ I can't see paying more for my headphones than I did for the player ($170 also on Ebay). I have to say I prefer the ER-6i's over the E2 but you really won't be disappointed with either.
It really didn't take any time and no real intelligence to be up and running with this thing. It installed VERY easily. Transferring songs was also easier than my IPod as I'm very familiar with Media Player. I'd heard people say converting video/movies was "hard" and "complicated." NOT SO. While I'll admit it took me two days to figure it out, that was only because I didn't READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. After I couldn't get the thing to convert, than had it convert to French..., I decided to read the instructions and guess what? NOT A PROBLEM! My laptop is slower than a snail so converting a DVD took hours. I think that had/has more to do with my slow laptop than the product. Once it was done though it ran with no problem.
Bottom line: You won't be disappointed with this product. If there is a better one out there I haven't seen it and I took 3-4 months researching this time. I had a Dell DJ30 (garbage), an IPod Nano (nice.., like it. But has NOTHING on this one) and a bunch of smaller $70-$90 ones (garbage).
Updated I've had my clix now for about 1 1/2 weeks and I love it more today than when I first got it. I was wrong about the storage thing though.... CD's take up about half as much space. That said, about the only thing I can think of is more storage space. I have it about half full now and I have two full lenght movies, three short videos and about 300 songs. Can't say enough how easy it is to nav with the clix methods. Now my son wants one.... That makes three in the house.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Wonderful performance!
I love this player. The sound, the display and the easy operating system all make it a big winner for ...
I love this player. The sound, the display and the easy operating system all make it a big winner for both music and photos. The introduction of the 4GB model made a huge difference. 6 or 8 GB would be even better, but 4 was enough to give it an edge over the other models I considered -- With only 2GB, I might have purchased a different brand.
So far I have only 3 complaints: 1) It froze several times in the first few days. This was easily fixable, and hasn't recurred since then. 2) It continues to occasionally and inexplicably go into slow-playback mode, like a 45 rpm record played at 33 rpm. Once again, this is easily fixed by restoring the original settings. It's just a little frustrating that it has happened so many times. 3) The in-car FM transmitter gives substandard sound in the best of circumstances and becomes virtually unusable in major urban areas. The transmitter relies on finding unused frequencies on the FM spectrum, but in the SF Bay Area, I couldn't find any unused frequencies that were free of interference from external broadcasters.
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by samiamd (see profile) -
January 14, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Rock star unit
Everybody who sees this thing loves it. 4 Gigs made the choice easy, see-sawed over 2. Wouldn't get the ...
Everybody who sees this thing loves it. 4 Gigs made the choice easy, see-sawed over 2. Wouldn't get the cradle again, speakers are too small to put out. Super easy to load thru media player, only glitch is converting videos to format. I use "Badak", google it. Not too user friendly, but easy once you break the code. Need to move all of the presets to Bakak in windows explorer, then use iriver U10 presets to convert. Have mini videos of my kids, aviation videos, all kinds of cool stuff. No AC conv. so have to fuel it thru usb.
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by tweed81 (see profile) -
January 12, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular It clixs !
bye bye apple im not getting any more ipods now!!!
bye bye apple im not getting any more ipods now!!!
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by thegratchling (see profile) -
January 5, 2007
2 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.
10 out of 10 - Perfect One Great MP3 Player!
I usually do not write reviews but felt compelled to do so because of this super player! This is one ...
I usually do not write reviews but felt compelled to do so because of this super player! This is one terrific player. I've researched them all and decided on the 4GB Clix. I also own an older IRiver 256MB player which is still working like I bought it yesterday! You will not be disappointed and will enjoy the functionality and looks. I play music,video and store pictures and text. Very compatible with WMP11 (or WMP10). If your in the market for an MP3 player look no further!
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by jmoran (see profile) -
January 9, 2007
2 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
9 out of 10 - Spectacular Amazing Player - Spoiled by 2 (deliberate) failures
Ok... maybe spoiled is the wrong word (I gave it a 9 after all). But they aren't trivial issues ...
Ok... maybe spoiled is the wrong word (I gave it a 9 after all). But they aren't trivial issues either.
I have a desire to write a 20 page review on all the positives, but I will suppress it. You can find all this info here on CNET and elsewhere.
===> Bigger screen, Slick Interface (check out youtube videos about it), FM tuner, voice recorder, equalizer, Great Sound, Docking Station, Macromedia Flash Player, Flash games, alarm clock, on and on.
It was (and still is) the best player available.
BUT... I need to express some of its hidden flaws.
FLAWS:
1) The battery is not actually 25 hours. It is *designed* to not fully power off so that it can a) start-up faster and b) resume play on your last song. SEE THIS CNET USER REVIEW FOR DETAILS INCLUDING IRIVER RESPONSE==> "Great player ruined by poor battery life" by timothyjburgess - January 22, 2007 - RATING =2
Mine will lose the charge in 3-5 days even if "off" (but if played continuously will go 25 hours) for example.
Iriver says that they "can't always make everyone happy" and people should "use a paper clip to reset the player" to completely turn it off. This is not a solution (except for people who carry around paper clips).
How hard is it to design this as a selectable option????? Guys, I love ya but, Why take a "well,deal with it" - attitude? If people care so much about a fast start (3 seconds vs. 6), or resuming a song in the middle, they can choose it -- And for those who don't want to plug in their mp3 player every night like a mobile phone and have it hog a precious USB spot - they can choose it.
SEE IRIVER -- EVERYONE CAN WIN.
2) MTP DEVICE
The clix is an MTP device (see wikipedia for quick description of advantages and drawbacks) which meant only one thing for me... MANDATORY INSTALL OF CURRENT WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER
That's right. Not true plug-and-play for everyone. If you don't install it then it won't recognize the player in Windows Explorer for drag and drop etc...
This too is deliberate (and also not so nice for those who don't want to go along for the ride).
IN SUMMARY: We can truly say that this time IRIVER has thought of everything. The only problem is, if you?re like me, you may not like everything that they thought of (and decided to do).
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by Sweiver (see profile) -
November 23, 2007
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