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iriver clix Gen 2 Mp3 Player Review – The Slickest Mp3 Player There Is: Music, Photos, Videos, Games, Style
By Quang Bui
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The clix looking cool
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What was this tiny little black box? I tried to open it thinking it was a makeup compact. Then after a few seconds of fumbling around I accidently hit the power button and bam I’m introduced to the beautiful
iriver clix gen 2 welcome. This is the slickest and coolest mp3 player I have ever seen. It has a superbly beautiful 2.2 inch AMOLED screen and a discrete but intuitive four way direction pad that is built into the face. This is super slick black 4GB flash mp3 player with a 2.2” AMOLED color screen, FM tuner, voice recorder, and a 24 straight use hour battery life. And it’s only half an inch at the thickest part. This mp3 player has style.
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The clix, is it a makeup compact or a compact mp3 player?
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Look and Feel
The coolest part of this mp3 player is how cool this looks. It only comes in a black on black theme that goes with everything. It has 4 small buttons on the edges for power, volume up, volume down, and a programmable button. It also has a hold switch, mini usb plug, and standard headphone jack. The awesome part is you can navigate everything by pushing on the edge of the mp3 player face. It lets you control and view everything in landscape or portrait mode. The screen is very easy to get fingerprints on but you only notice them when the light hits it at the right angles. The second the screen turns on you forget about everything, It’s very clear, crisp, and bright. The
clix gen 2 now uses mini usb to connect and charge. In case you lose your cable you can pick one up in about any electronic store or charge it using the same cable from another device.
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The clix in Portrait and Landscape View
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Navigation
Navigating the menus on this beautiful 2.2 inch AMOLED screen is a cinch. There are arrows on the edge of the display that tell you where you can go. The face direction pad gives a nice clear click as you navigate through the quick loading menus with absolutely no delay. This is probably where the name
clix comes from. Only problems you make have are trying to reach the four buttons on the edges like the volume. It took some time to remember where they are since they blend in so well.
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The back of the clix
You can see the side buttons here too
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Compatibility
Right out of the box it supports Rhapsody To Go. With the ipod and itunes you can go and purchase all your music at about a dollar a song. With Rhapsody To Go and
clix for $14.99 you can download listen on up to 3 different computers and 3 portable music devices. It’s got a huge collection with everything you could want. It all works perfectly with the iriver clix right out of the box. This makes it really easy for the non-tech-savvy person to easily find all the songs they want with Rhapsody, download them to their
clix and computer, and listen to them legally for an inexpensive price.
Along with the compatibility with Rhapsody To Go out of the box you can do your traditional syncing with Media Player 11, Winamp, or through Windows Explorer. The
clix supports Mp3, WMA, OGG, WMV and MPEG-4 SP up to 30 fps. Sorry Mac users it’s only XP/Vista compatable.
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Looks cool even on my hand
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Audio
When listening to the quality of sound and volume range of the device everyone should be satisfied. The volume ranges from 0 to 40 but 20 is about all you need. For the audiophile inside each of us there are plenty of audio options to customize. You can edit the custom 5 band equalizer, TruBass boost, Focus, SRS, and WOW settings. The player supports playlists and has a Quick List to bookmark your favorite songs. You can access a sub menu, the only hard to find options, by holding down Right while a song is playing. This lets you add a song to the quick list change the playback speed, change the equalizer, shuffle/repeat, and other things. I had to do a Google Search to figure out how to find this menu.
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Black on Black goes with everything
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Photo/Video
This mp3 player isn’t only about music. It comes with a photo and video capability so you can show off pictures and clips from your latest party to your friends. The pictures load extremely fast. It’s as simple as dragging and dropping the pictures into the right folder in the “
iriver clix” icon in My Computer. Videos need to be converted using software that comes in the cd. With the awesome clear and bright screen, pictures and videos actually look alright.
Games
Popular with people are flash games online. The clever people from iriver decided to include a flash player so you can download flash video games right into you
clix. The games are basic and actually fun. For the soduku fan inside each of us there is a seemingly unlimited number of sudoku puzzles built in.
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Critter Crossing flash game on the clix
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Other features
The
iriver clix gen 2 also comes with other built in features. It comes with a voice recorder that works up to about 15 feet away, an FM Radio, alarm click, timer, and a text viewer.
What’s included
Out of the box it has the clix 4GB player, mini usb cable, earbuds, an install CD, and a quickstart guide. There is no belt clip, carry case, or arm strap so the only way to carry this around is in your pocket.
Overall
Overall this an ultra small 4GB flash player. You can easily lose this in your purse, car, and even pocket. The shuffle option was difficult to find. It works right out of the box with Rhapsody To Go which is great for someone who hasn’t found an affordable music service and wants to be legit about their music. The
iriver clix gen 2 is easy to use, fun to play with, has got alot style! With a retail price of about $189.00 this is a cool mp3 player worth considering for yourself or as a gift especially for the non tech savvy.
You can find the
iriver clix gen 2 here.
You can read our review of the Rhapsody 4 and Rhapsody subscriptions here.
FEATURES
• Plays music, video, photos and more
• 4GB internal storage†
• Supports Rhapsody To Go
• Includes access to Rhapsody Channels*
• Ultra-bright, 2.2” AMOLED color display
• Built-in digital FM tuner
• Integrated voice recorder
• Up to 24 hours of battery life**
• Fast USB 2.0 transfers
• 1 year limited warranty
• Flash Games
• Dimensions: 3.16 x 1.84 x 0.51 inches
PACKED WITH
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iriver clix Rhapsody 4GB multimedia player
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iriver earphones
• Installation CD
• 30 day trial membership to Rhapsody To Go
• Printed quick start guide
• USB 2.0 cable
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
• Windows XP (SP1 or higher)
• Windows Media Player 10 (or higher)
• CD-ROM Drive
• USB Port
• Compatible with Windows Vista
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