Portable sound at it's best

To start with, when I bought clix2, I wasn't after video playback, as I'd rather use my laptop to watch video playback on the move.

Let's comment on everything else though

Pros:
- incredibly beautiful sound (and I really mean it)
- very very good looking
- flash based gui
- video/picture support
- fantastic amoled screen
- good battery life
- fm radio

Cons:
- switching between modes (mtp/msc) causes weird behaviour on occasions
- supplied headphones not what you'd call 'great'
- lack of accessories (apart from cradle speaker which is worthless anyway)

All in all, if you're looking for a great sounding mp3 player with some nice features (flashlite games, animated programmable gui - plenty of themes to download from net for free) get one of those and you won't be dissapointed.
The sound is absolutely fantastic, although you won't be abke to enjoy it fully with supplied headphones. Do yourself a favour and get a pair of Sennheiser cx300s or iGrado or whatever fits your preferences, and make the most of the sound Clix2 provides.
Clix2's screen is absolutely beatiful as it's using 2.2 amoled screen. When I first saw it switched on I just couldn't believe my eyes.
Another feature I just love is programmable user interface. Setting wallpapers using any pics and fonts is extremely easy. If you want to create your own animated themes though, you need to learn flash. Then again, there's plenty of them to download from the net. Also, flash means flash games... Not the full blown ones. Flash lite only, but still =]

Usually, when I buy portable players, I buy them because of sound quality. And so far, Clix2 is unbeatable.


Here's what others had to say:

itreviews.co.uk:
"The iRiver Clix 2 is possibly the best all-round multimedia player we've used. It ticks just about every conceivable box and if you're in the market for something that offers excellent all-round media support and performance, you simply cannot go wrong with it."

reviews.cnet.co.uk:
"The first model we've seen that can take on the iPod nano -- and win"

stuff.tv:
"The Clix 2 is a more capable media player than the iPod Nano. But its cheaper feel and quirky navigation system mean it's destined to remain more cult hero than mainstream star"

Personal Computer World:
"The Clix2 is one of the most impressive multimedia players we've seen and scores highly for portability, performance, features and usability - there's very little it can't do"

very good but still room for improvement

This mp3/radio is generally rated as the best flash memory player currently available and who am I to say otherwise. However nothing is perfect so here are my comments.
THE BAD: poor headphones,terribly inadequate instructions that you have to print yourself,not easy to set up,software does not recognise many video files eg. Sanyo,software not user friendly,fm tuner is insensitive and has poor sound quality,hard to see screen out of doors,let alone in bright sunlight,when it becomes invisible,so much for the OLED screen,apart from indoors it is useless!!!
THE GOOD: superb styling,ease of use once your files are loaded,did not corrupt my files or mess up my filing system,lots of nice extra features,good sound(radio apart) with after market phones,handles video well and looks like a tiny flat screen TV.Despite my criticisms,I know of no other better player and ipod owners who have tried it tell me it is easier to use than their ipods,so i can still recommend it.

A nice little player, but nothing is perfect. . .

I bought this as a replacement to my aging Creative Zen Micro as I have heard very good things about iRiver. When I received my package, it was tiny, this player is small! The player comes with preloaded movies, music and photos as a demo. I plugged it in and started transferring my own music which all went well.

It was after I plugged in my headphones I realized two things. 1) The unit does not come with a wall charger. This is a large let down to the product, as you can only charge with a PC. I would rather have a plug to charge it over night or on the train. This seems to be the norm in players these days though. 2) The unit's sound is very clear. iRiver's players are very good at delivering the standard of music you expect.

The navigation system is very easy to use, however compared with other players on the market; there is a lack of buttons. This means simple tasks such as adding a track to an existing playlist isn't an easy task. The D*Click system is simply a fancy name for the iRiver button system, but they are solid buttons.

Pro:
1) Unit sound is fantastic
2) Small player
3) Pretty menu system

Con:
1) No wall charger
2) Radio only works with enclosed headphones
3) Lack of buttons means simple tasks are difficult

Overall, the player is good with delivering outstanding sound quality at low levels, but I would read all the reviews before purchasing.

If it goes wrong TOUGH LUCK!!!!

W.A.R.N.I.N.G.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I-River has next to no customer support.
If it goes wrong TOUGH LUCK!!!!
Bought a H140 mp3 player. Went wrong. No one to speak to.
i-River took forever to answer multiple e-mails.
Eventually sent off to I-river in Germany for repair.
Sent back to me with a note saying `customer did not answer cost estimate.
FUNNY!!!! I never received a single contact. Now going in the trash as a lost cause.
Never will I Purchase I-River again.

Don't buy

I had this for a while as I was looking for an alternative to the iPod shuffle. It looks great and sound is good but unfortunately there are too many annoying features. The click system is very sensitive and so it turns itself on in your bagpocket, brushing against to clicks it onto the next song, if you don't want to use their earphones then there is no other way to secure your own. Go for something else instead.

pretty good but...

I've had this for about a month now and it's pretty good but with a couple of key caveats.

The ergonomics are intuitive and the whole thing seems fairly well bolted together, (I suppose the aerial could be fragile but since it's housed snugly at the back you'd have to be a bit clumsy to break it). The sound quality is good, (better than an iPod to my ears) and the FM radio is good - even if it has an unbelievably stupid preset tuning system in which you have to enter the frequencies using the proprietary software provided on a computer rather than on the device itself, (you can tune it manually on the go but not set anything) - and though the DAB isn't great - I found a ROBI on an iPod was better - so long as I wasn't cycling I could get most stations including the BBC ones in London, (though there is a pretty poor drop off in the centre of town). It does tune out, it does go....blank for a while but I haven't had a - portable - DAB device that hasn't done that; unfortunately it appears to be the technology that's the problem.

My main bugbear is with the software/proprietary system.

I mentioned the FM radio issue but unless you use the bundled software to download albums you'll also find that you have to select your albums one by one, the artwork won't have ported across and you won't be able to play on shuffle. This is - admittedly - a fairly minor point but actually it's fairly annoying if e.g. you've got singles downloaded which will obviously just play and then stop. You have to keep backing out and selecting something else. It's doubly annoying for me since I cycle everywhere which means I tend to have to set it off playing a whole album or a suitably long podcast; browsing it on the go is a no-no unless you fancy disappearing under a bus, (by the way if you're wondering why I haven't used the software it's because I have a Mac though at least you can drag and drop without any problems).

The memory may be an issue for others but it's fine for me; on the other hand I don't keep pictures or video on mine so it's more than adequate.

So it's good but not perfect: on the other hand maybe, (at present) this is about as good as it gets for portable MP3 and DAB in one? Without understanding exactly what the issues are with bolting the 2 together there clearly must be problems since the technology has existed for over half a dozen years for both yet the number of dual-players on the market is tiny and those that do exist seem to have serious issues either with poor memory or performance, etc. It's frustrating to have to purchase something that compares relatively poorly with pure MP3 players of the same price but if - like me - you want a DAB and MP3 player in one I don't think you're going to find anything better than this on the market currently.

Everything's there ... just too flimsy

I bought one a couple of weeks ago - it was about the only product that had DAB, MP3 player, a speaker & FM. When I got it - it did everything it promised and was easy to use; but had a couple of problems:

- It's very flimsy. I felt it would last about 6 weeks.
- The screen design, which includes the buttons to control it, was clever but way too sensitive. Just closing the cover (bought separately) changed radio station or track - which made it almost unusable.
- The earphones were cheap and had no volume control or clip. Annoying rather than a fatal flaw.

For me these made it unusable - so I sent it back.

A couple of other small things - it only comes with a lead to charge it from a USB port, ie you can't charge it directly from the mains. The I-nique cover I bought obscured some of the buttons (eg the Lock button which I really needed).

I was very impressed with the company I bought it from (Advanced MP3 Players) - really good customer service and they took it back without quibbling.