Rating: 
Summary: Overall i-river quality
Review: This is a warning about i-riverI do not have this specific i-river product, but I have purchased two of their products in the past, and the quality of both began to deteriorate within months. Both of them damaged numerous sets of headphones, wearing the connectors to the point that only one earpiece would work. On one of my players, the backlight on the LCD stopped working, and on the other the connection between the player and the USB chord no longer holds properly, preventing me from changing any of the MP3's on a 64 MB player. When I contacted the company about these problems they gave me the good ole runaround, basically vouching for the poor qaulity of their products. I will not being buy any of their products again.
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic, will be close totop of line for at least 2 years!
Review: This player is the best one can ever own for at least the next 2 to 3 years. It has possibly everything one could want in a mp3 cd player, including firmware upgrades! I admit it is a bit overpriced at 150 odd dollars, but hey I bought mine at 190 and was very happy with what i got. (I still am happy with it) If you look at all the stuff youre getting for the bucks, you might look at the price tag a bit differently.Like everyone before me has said, you should research all the players available before you take the plunge. i would recommend checking out sony, which some pretty hardy ones that have the minimum necessary features. If youre looking for a player that can play mp3 cds and regular cds and don't want to spend too much, then a sony is your best bet. But if you want to take control of what youre listening to, you must check out the iriver stable. in terms of what is available from iriver, the 400 seems to be the best of the lot, compared to its siblings, the 550 and the 350.
the 550 comes with digital optical output, which apparently helps you if youre wanting to pass this output onto another system. They also claim that it looks better, but i guess that might vary from person to person. i for one am very happy with the looks of the 400 and i think it wont look dated even after 4 or 5 years! Besides i dont notice too much of an improvement in the 550. It seems like you pay an extra 30 - 50 bucks for a different look and an optical output capability.
as for the 350, for starters, I don't like the look of the player. It looks like its dying to get dated. Its too sleek, possible great looking for 2002, but I don't think I like it. I definitely prefer a cleaner look on my player! As for the features it doesnt have as many preset equalizer modes, and it has 16 mins of buffering as opposed to the 32 mins on the 400. honestly im not sure if that makes a big difference in performance! but where the 400 scores is in the sheer value of the entire package. you get a headphone for starters, which most of us prefer over earphones, it also comes with a complete car kit and i guess these would cost about 35 to 40 bucks if you wanted to buy them separately! of course on top of this, you get a much better and easier-to-use remote. the 350's remote has fewer lines and it doesnt have the clean button interface like the 400. Id say, if your next meal doesn't depend on the 40 odd bucks you might save (if you went for the 350) youre better off with a 400, considering what an awesome deal it is! if you read all of this, and are still interested in the 400, lets get to the good and the bad.
The 400 has "VERY" good battery life. i dont think it goes for 12 hrs like the company claims. but it does about 7 to 8 hours (with all that constant fiddling i do!) which is fantastic!
the other thing thats great about this player is that it has a discharge and charge mechanism and an auto-cutoff mechanism which means you could leave the player plugged in(to recharge) and walk away someplace. if youre wondering how that helps, thats because most rechargeables last longer, if you dont leave them plugged on after theyre fully charged and also if you can run them to a complete discharge once in a while. this was a total opinion swinger, when i was looking for a player! I was looking for a player that had a builtin FM receiver, and yes this has it, and whats better it comes with 20 presets! (and the reception is decent for a portable player) Finally, Its got firmware upgradability which is a HUGE plus! as for the cons, the one thing i dont totally admire is the lack of a stop button and a volume control on the main unit. there have been times when i dont want to have the remote - like when im jogging or something. It would have been great if the main unit had this basic functionality, so I could play audio cds. But I guess that's only noticeable, if you sorely need that ability. i knew about this when i bought the player, and willingly decided to put up with it. so if you think this isnt a big deal, hey thats great!
Theres one thing that no one seems to have pointed out. this player has a "SUCKY" battery indicator. basically the battery indicator on the remote has 4 bars (4 for full and 0 for almost out) For some reason, the indicator cant seem to make up its mind between displaying 3 bars and 1 bar. at times you boot up, to see a single bar (which can be worrisome if youre going out for a long trip someplace). but then hey crank up the volume up a bit and let the player play for sometime, and chances are youll see three bars?? what on earth is that? I guess its some stupid bug in the design or probably something with the way batteries work (because ive also seen this happening in other battery operated devices) But this thing in no way affects your battery life. in summary, this is a fantastic package and you must go for this, if you think you need a very smart player (with FM capability) at a very good price. i am sure you will love it as much as i did. In fact I worship my player these days!! Pros:
Battery life
Discharge and Charge option + auto cutoff during recharge (great for rechargeable batteries)
FM player
Firmware Upgradability
Worshippable!! Cons:
No stop or volume control buttons on main unit, for standalone operation
Sucky battery indicator (cant make up its mind at times)
Rating:
Summary: my god
Review: when i bought it, it was 174.99. ^.^ i can't believe it~~
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