iAudio U2 1 GB Digital Music Player Review

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(More customer reviews)This review describes the complete thought/research cycle for deciding a digital player. It includes hdd based, flash based, different flash based capacities, features, battery life etc. The features etc for any player are already available on the detail pages and else where so I'm not including those, instead doing the comparison exercise. I've also written this review for other flash players which I considered in the comparison.

I've been using iRiver SlimX iMP-CD350 CD/MP3 player for quite a while now and decided that its time to move to a smaller player which is more versatile and portable. I'm just not a CD person, and as soon as I buy a CD, I rip it and get the files all over my computers/laptops.

There are lot of smaller digital music players available in the market. My first decision point was to decide between HDD (hard disk drive) or Flash memory based players. HDD based are available from 4GB to 60 GB and since it has a mechanical drive, it's not suited well for my activities (gym/running etc). While flash based don't suffer with this draw back, they come only in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, 1GB and 2GB.I wasn't buying a player to make it a permanent repository of all my music and having up to 1GB of music (16 hours of CD quality, 32+ hours otherwise) was good enough for me. For this reason, I decided to go with Flash based player. Plus, most flash based players have direct USB connectivity and some of those can also be used as a regular flash disk for document transfer and storage.

Next step was to decide the capacity. I was inclined for a 2GB player since it'll store even more songs, but found some warning in iAudio (Jet Audio) site where a 2gb version can store only up to 450 (files + folders) and the player cannot address the last 260MB memory of the player. I had also used a flash based 2gb usb storage device which had similar storage problems. So, I went with 1GB version and decided to give more time for 2GB+ technology.

Next was feature sets and brands. I had following things in mind in terms of features: formats capable, battery life, firmware upgradability, and FM player. I considered Creative (MuVO Micro N200), iRiver (iFP 799),Apple (iShuffle 1GB), and JetAudio (iAudio 5, G3, U2).

iRiverhad drawbacks were not being able to work as USB storage device, limitation on Ogg audio and MP3 VBR files. Apple was not just my thing since it lacked a display, FM tuner etc and accessories like FM player are added cost/size/weight too. Creative was also limited only on WMA amd MP3. It seemed like most of the players butiAudio/Jet Audio have format limitations.
Jet Audio (iAudio) had most of the formats available (MP3, WMA, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, ASF etc), firware upgradable, trendy size, good reviews, USB storage deviceand good choices. And, I was totally bought on iAudio.

The last step was to decide on the model. I considered iAudio i5, G3, and U2 version. The main differences are that I5 is based on 'AAA' batter and lasts only 15-20 hours, G3 is slightly wider but less longer model with 'AA' battery and supports up to 45-50 hours on one cell, and U2 was similar to '5' but had internal Lithium Polymer battery and the same 15-20 hours playback time. U2 model also lacked Ogg Vorbis format capability.
If I was travelling long distance and not able to charge LiPolymer battery, it's a waste. And, 15-20 hours just doesn't turn not ecnomical with 'AAA' battery, so I ended up with iAudio G3 1GB player and I'm very satisfied with the player itself.

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Product Description:
iAUDIO U2 is a ultra-compact 1 GB digital music player with FM Radio, Voice Recorder and Direct MP3 Encoder. Enjoy the highest-quality sound powered by BBE, 4 lines wide graphic LCD and 20 hrs of continuous playback with a built-in rechargeable battery.