Music on my domino (Iriver T30 1 GB)

Member Name: rocknro11

Product:	Iriver T30 1 GB
Date:	14/08/06 (264 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Looks great, excellent sound quality, value for money

Disadvantages: Menu navigation could be better, text on screen a little small, no FM radio

About the size of a standard domino it certainly looks the part but will it knock spots off the rest of the competition?

The Iriver T30 was given to me as a gift, up until then I had used my Qtek S100 pda/phone (see my previous review) to play my mp3’s. I hadn’t really even thought about purchasing a dedicated mp3 player, as the Qtek was adequate for my needs and if I’m honest it still is.

So when I came to first use the T30 I was not like a kid with a new toy itching to break the seal of the packaging, however that said its electrical, it plays music, it’s a functioning gadget. It got my attention.

--- First Impressions ---

I’ve got to say my first impression was regarding its size being 6.4cm in length, 3.2cm wide, only 2.2cm thick and weighing in at a mere 27grams, it is extremely compact. Looking straight down on the T30 the face is oblong in appearance, it did remind me of the shape of a domino although the corners are slightly rounded. The front is completely flat but overall you would really have to describe its shape as triangular and this is mainly due to the battery housing on the rear of the unit.

The T30 is pleasing to the eye, the majority of the casing is metallic rose wood red in colour and there is a matt black facia around the LCD screen in the shape of an elongated watch and strap. The screen did look small and at this stage I was concerned as to what would be displayed on it and would it be clearly readable. Just to the left of the screen can be found the small built in microphone.

The two sides above and below the screen each hold a cluster of three buttons, slightly raised from the casing for ease of use. One cluster controls Play/Stop and Skip, whilst the other controls the navigation menu and volume up and down.

On the end of the T30 can be found the earphone socket (3.5mm stereo jack) and also a line in mini-jack (again 3.5mm) for external audio sources. There is also a USB mini port (2.0 high speed) for data transfer from your PC.

All in all the T30 looked very ’tidy’ and on looks alone would appeal to many.

--- Lets turn it on ---

A standard AAA battery powers the unit and the battery is housed in a compartment located at the rear. To turn the T30 on hold down the play/stop button, instantly the LCD screen illuminates with a vibrant sea blue colour, the colour you would also associate with most gadgets depicting a bluetooth connection. The screen is essentially a 4-line graphic liquid crystal display, so it’s not for displaying pictures of any quality but as small as it is, Iriver have managed to squeeze on all that is needed. This includes current time, battery level, equaliser setting, total songs stored, song title, length of current track and how many seconds have elapsed on the current track you are listening to.

Navigating around the menu system took a bit of getting used to but was by no means rocket science albeit slightly annoying. The main obstacle to overcome when navigating around the different options is remembering where each button is located and what it controls as you cannot see the buttons whilst looking at the screen. Accessing the menu is by holding down the button marked M, cycling through the options back and forth is by means of the skip back/forward buttons and selecting the option displayed on screen is by selecting the play/stop button.

For its size it has several features built in but an Ipod its not. The menu system gives you access to a 10 preset equaliser as well as the ability to customise the equaliser settings yourself, a memo voice recorder, a standard file storage device (like a usb flash drive) and many different play modes such as Repeat, Shuffle, Intro, to name only some. I have only used shuffle, as I prefer not to know what track will play next. There’s a clock with a handy alarm feature and if you’re like me this is invaluable as I tend to doze off if I’m lying down listening to music for a period of time.

---Down to Business ---

The first thing you will want to do is load on your mp3 tracks and here lies a snag, if your operating system is not Windows XP running service pack 1 or above forget it, its not compatible. Several manufacturers are creating partnerships with Microsoft for various reasons but the result is as we see here, the mp3 player has a restricted consumer market. That said the T30’s audience would still be vast as the XP operating system is commonplace in many households.

The T30 came bundled with Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 and this is required to transfer songs from your pc to the T30, well it is if you read the manual. In reality I found I could simply drag and drop the mp3 files using explorer as you would with any other mass storage device. I preferred to just connect the T30 to my pc via the usb cable (Windows XP recognises it immediately) and then drag and drop the files I wanted.

Right the music was loaded, I’d just about mastered the controls, what did it sound like? Well, I was very surprised, it sounded fantastic. Pump up the volume and the sound quality was still superb but don’t pump it up too much, it is very loud. The T30 was so much better than the sound quality I was used to when listening to mp3’s on my pda/phone. The earphones bundled with the T30 are very good quality and this was a big contributing factor to the overall sound quality itself. When I used the same earphones on my pda/phone I certainly noticed the improvement on that also, although the T30 overall still edged out my pda on sheer power and quality.

Skipping from track to track is virtually instantaneous and you can select fade in and out option, the title of the song playing is displayed on screen and if too long to fit will scroll without any interaction required from the user. The text on the screen is clear but for me is still a little too small to be comfortable on my eyes.

The T30 supports both mp3 and wma standards and can create mp3 files itself if you decide to connect the player up to your hifi system via the use of the line-in port. The battery lasts for around 20 hours continuous play (one is supplied) and the 1 Gig of memory can hold around 250 mp3’s or 500 wma’s. It comes with the standard 1-year manufacturers warranty and a printed manual, which I much prefer as many companies now include the manual on cd, which is a pet peeve of mine.

--- Final Thoughts ---

I liked the T30 a lot, I was not so impressed with the navigation system when accessing menus but I think with regular use, it would become second nature. The screen colour looked stunning especially under low light conditions but the text on the screen was a little too small for my liking. Sound quality is excellent and it certainly looks the part. One feature missing is the inclusion of an FM radio, which seems to becoming ever popular these days. For me though, I’m still using my pda/phone but with the headphones that came with the T30.

Even though I will not be using it frequently I would recommend this player to others. With a price tag of around 75.00 you are getting value for money.

In the words of a famous ‘rocknro11’ singer… ‘Thank you very much’ for reading.

Summary: Great value for money, sound quality is very good but no FM radio.

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