The iRiver iFP-390T delivers 256MB of digital-music playback in a rugged, unique design.

Making a great device even better is no easy task, but by adding a significant feature and improving the design, iRiver has developed a worthy sequel to the blockier iFP-190T. With its winning combination of strong design, features, and performance, the 256MB iFP-390T is hard to top.

Measuring 91 x 35 x 26.7 mm and weighing 35g, the rugged iFP-390T is a tad bulkier than iRiver's previous iFP models. Still, it's light and compact next to most other players. Like its predecessors, the iFP-390T has a triangular design, albeit with more-rounded edges. The shape seems a bit funky at first, but it enables you to view the display while the body rests on a desk, and the device slips nicely into a shirt or pants pocket.

All the controls are well placed and easy to use. The Play/Pause/Power, Memory/EQ, and Mode buttons reside on one edge; a small, thumb-operated joystick is on the front face. The joystick's functions vary, but navigating the menu with it is relatively simple after a bit of practice. While the four-line display's attractive blue backlighting is strikingly bright in low light, those with poor eyesight will struggle with the minute type.

Overall, the iFP-390T keeps what we liked about the iFP-190T's design and fixes what we didn't. For instance, the company discarded the iFP-190T's flimsy flip-open battery cover in favour of a more-sturdy sliding mechanism. And though the goofy neck lanyard remains, an armband now comes along with it. You can affix the case to the armband or a belt, and the unit's new rounded aesthetics mean the joystick no longer snags on the case's hole when you slide out the player.

For such a diminutive player, the iFP-390T has surprisingly many features. Its 256MB of non-expandable internal memory holds about four hours of MP3, WMA, and ASF digital music encoded at 128Kbps. A 20-preset FM tuner provides a change of pace from your own collection. You can also record MP3 files from FM radio stations at the standard bit rates.

New to this model is line-in MP3 encoding, which bypasses the PC altogether and records directly onto the device--a neat trick for digitizing vinyl, cassettes, and any other analog source. Additionally, a quality voice recorder saves memos as 8Kbps-to-160Kbps REC files, which you can convert to MP3 while uploading them to a PC. As the device records, it smartly displays its progress in a countdown of the remaining time. You can upload any of your recordings to your computer.

The iFP-390T connects to a PC via a USB 1.1 connection and the bundled iRiver Manager. We like how the application lets you drag and drop files into different folders to create separate playlists, as well as change a playlist's song order. But you can't place data or music on the player without using the software or move tracks between folders.

Another concern is that iRiver Manager thinks the system can handle protected WMA files; it transfers them onto the device, but they don't play. We'd prefer the software to automatically ignore such files, rather than leading you on. Furthermore, you have to navigate the main menu to toggle between repeat and shuffle; accessing such basic functions with a click of the Mode button would be much more intuitive. These issues are all very minor, however, especially considering the iFP-390T's otherwise exceptional design and performance.

Getting up and running on the iFP-390T is a breeze. Software and driver installation took only two minutes. Once connected to a computer, the device transfers files over USB 1.1 at a relatively quick 0.69MB per second; we moved 55MB of music in 80 seconds. With the player's 90dB signal-to-noise ratio, the audio quality was superb through our Sennheiser test earbuds; we heard almost no hiss and good response in the high and low registers.

As you'd expect, the quality of MP3 music encoded from FM airwaves isn't particularly high, but it's good enough for casual purposes, such as saving a snippet for later identification by a record-store salesperson. Line-in MP3 recording, however, was phenomenal. We recorded songs from a portable CD player directly to the iFP-390T, and the results sounded just as crisp as if we'd ripped and encoded the files with a PC.

Although iRiver rates the battery life at 24 hours, we measured a still-respectable 17 hours. The player's power output, at 12mW per channel, is less than half the iPod's, but that won't be a problem for most listeners. The volume exceeded our requirements even when we listened with large Koss headphones.

iRiver iFP-390T
Company: iRiver
Price: AU$459.80
Distributor: mp3direct.com.au

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