iRiver H320 Music Player $329

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I finally got a chance to test drive the iRiver H320. It's just as capable as the iPod photo, it costs less, comes in the lovely shade of black and can play video on its postage stamp screen, if you can find the Korean firmware update to enable the movie mode. The H320 is by far the best looking large hard drive player in the Windows Media compatible space, both in form factor and navigation. The color screen improves menu readability over every device I've tried by a factor I can't begin to count. I'm considering making the H320 the replacement for my Rio Karma, which is a great device but doesn't support Audible audio and isn't Plays For Sure compliant. 20GB of storage, 16 hours of battery life, 6.9 ounce weight, and dimensions of 2.4 x 0.9 x 4.0 inches round out the vitals. A built-in FM tuner and voice recorder make the price difference between the H320 and an iPod photo look even more significant. Like most of the devices that almost kick iPod chrome, the H320 has one fatal flaw- the button to launch the track browsing process is a royal blue little rectangle with the letters NAVI on its face. Granted, many other players commit far more irritating offenses and I can only assume NAVI is short for navigate, but what were they thinking? Two extra letters to create the word 'SEARCH' might have some meaning, but who do they think NAVI resonates with? These are the dumb mistakes hardware vendors could eliminate by simply engaging users in the design process. Still, I like the form factor, the buttons are easy to use once you unlock the acronym riddle, and the feature set makes the H320 a no-brainer.

Double the storage capacity and keep all the features with the iRiver H340.