iAUDIO I7-16RD 16GB Portable Multimedia Player Red

Recently I was in the market for a new mp3 player as my second generation 10gb iPod was showing its age. After an exhaustive search I narrowed it down to another iPod, particularly the 8gb nano and the I Audio I7 16gb player. After reading several reviews on both players I noticed that there was a type of zealot praise regarding the I Audio players which I have only seen with Apple based products. My decision came down to looks, I just thought that the I Audio player looked sleeker than the newer nano. I regret my purchase.
First the pros. The battery life is nothing less than incredible. The company states 60 hours of use per charge and I would have to agree with them. I haven't timed it, but I also haven't charged it in days. The visual design of the player is both sleek and durable. It is slightly bulky compared to other players but just as light. It has a crisp 1.8 inch screen that can be used to watch movies, and it allows a ton of formats. Everything else it does it does poorly, at best.
The navigation, both the physical location of the buttons, and their ability to navigate through the player are troublesome. The location of the buttons and their sensitivity cause a major problem even when the sensitivity is turned down. You have to use a combo of the buttons on top of the player as well as the buttons on the face in order to navigate your files. This makes it nearly impossible to use one handed, especially while in motion (walking, working out, etc). There are also different browse modes, which seem to change the way you use the buttons as well. But I have noticed that if you have a large amount of music on your player, choose the file browse. If you don't, the more files on your player, the longer it will take to boot. In file browse mode it wasn't affected as noticeably.
There are NO PLAYLISTS. What it uses is a DPL or dynamic playlist that can only be created with the player itself and can only be used in the File Browse mode. You select your songs in the order in which you want them on the DPL and then add them. You cannot move them around once they are in the list, only remove them.
Linux support is a gross mis-representation of the truth. Yes it will play .ogg contained files and it mounts like an external drive. THAT IS THE EXTENT of its compatibility. The player isn't even recognized in Rhythmbox or Amarok. The only way to transfer files is through copy and paste from your music folder to the player. Further the jet audio software WILL NOT WORK IN LINUX. This includes trying to run it under wine. This doesn't sound like a big problem, until you try and use the players video features.
THERE IS NO SUPPORTED VIDEO PLAYBACK FOR LINUX. In order to play videos on the player they must be encoded using the jet audio software. The I Audio releases the formats, bit rates etc, on what will playback in terms of video, but it also states that you must encode using the jet audio software, as nothing else will work. So far that claim is true, as I have tried to use ffmpeg and handbrake to encode video. So far I have tried many different variations of what they say it should support and nothing. It seems they are tagged or something that only works when files are encoded with their software, which again does not work with linux.
Finally, their support is horrible. It is via chat room. Do I need to say more, because I can. On page 25 of the included manual it states that a 16gb player cannot hold more than 200 folders and/or 2000 songs. I addressed this issue with customer support and they didn't have a clue about what I was talking about. Further they said that that was a lot of songs to have. I said well its a 16gb player what is the point of having a player that big only to hold 2000 songs. They responded that it could also play movies. But as it turns out not if Linux is your OS. Avoid this player to avoid headaches.

I ALMOST found the perfect mp3 player for me. I listen to audiobooks and sometimes music, I have pictures, a few movies, and some txt files, too. I have my books and music organized into folders and this is just like a jump drive. I can plug it into ANY computer without any software preloaded and just drop and drag. My audiobooks play in perfect order and they sound great. It has a delete right on the unit, so I can delete as I go. Its 16 gbs so I can carry a lot of music and books and listen to what I want when I want. I have approximately 700 songs and 200 books, along with a handful of pictures loaded at the present moment. I love running and since this is a flash player, I don't have to worry about messing up a hard drive based player. The unit is tiny - smaller than my cell phone. It will record, play movies, FM radio, view text files and all that if that is what interest you. My only problem is the slide selector. Even at the least sensitive setting, it is HORRIBLE. I am hoping I will get used to it with time, because I would even read some txt ebooks on here if I could get used to the control. Instead, I keep going back and forth trying to pinpoint the exact spot I want to be. I have almost 6000 files on my player, but they are all in folders and the player recognizes them all. I was concerned when I read an earlier review, but it must mean if they are all lumped onto the player. If it wasn't for the selector, this unit would be the perfect player. Update: 2 Oct. I found that when I was using the player for running or anything, I would have to put it on hold and not touch it. This got to be a pain if I wanted to rewind a bit and listen to something I missed on my audiobook or skip a song or whatever. I couldn't do it without being able to SEE the screen. I love Cowon and have the XL5, but don't want to run with that. I ended up buying the 8 gb U5 for running with. I just reach down and skip, pause, or rewind. I don't use this player much anymore. The sound, battery life and everything else are still awesome on this player, though.

I am disappointed. This device has awfully slow usb data transfer. When I upload files into it I have only 600Kb/sec - 1.1Mb/sec, 800Kb/sec in avg. When I download files from the device it gives ~1.5-1.7Mb/sec. So what is said in tech specs - "File Transfer Speed Max. 40Mbps (Upload Max. 40Mbps)" - is a LIE. Do not buy this device if you get used to players with fast usb transfer (such as cowon d2) - you defenetly will be disappointed.

On the same usb port of my computer cowon d2 gives me 3-4Mb/sec of upload.

I'm in love with this little device. I wish it had more than 16GB of memory, but for a flash player it's about the best you can get right now, and your really can't beat its price for it either. A 16GB flash based iPod or any of the other mainstream players will cost you at least $100 more and won't be nearly as nice either... This little guy does everything I wanted it to. When I was shopping for a PMP/DAP I was primarily concerned with finding an "mp3 player" that could play Ogg Vorbis as well... not only does it do that, but it plays FLAC too! It does allow you to watch (minuscule) videos, look at pictures and read plain text files...but those are all bonus, and not really the main focus of the product. The little OLED screen on it is pretty nice, and I don't mind it being tiny since I just want to listen to music 99.9% of the time anyway. As an Ubuntu user, it was very important that it be fully Linux compatible, and it works just fine. There is some sort of software that comes with it, but it's Windows only. Once again, I'm fine with that as it mounts up just like any other flash drive.

It seems to have a really nice battery life so far (built-in lithium ion), but I am concerned about what will happen 2 or 3 years from now if it gets warn out and I need to replace it or something. I also find the scroll bar to be a little too sensitive, even set to the lowest sensitivity setting. Also do beware that the manual that comes with this thing is practically worthless. There's a .txt file preloaded on it that tells you a little more about some of it's features...but it's been pretty much trial and error for me figuring out all of its intricacies.

Besides those few minor gripes, this thing is awesome! I'm so glad I bought it :)

Just about everything in the specs are pros. It plays a large array of file types, has linux compatibility, sounds great, awesome battery life, is small but not too small and the package was easy to open (not in that hard, sealed plastic). I couldn't be more pleased with this music player.
It can show video and pictures (as well as other features I will not personally use) but I wouldn't watch video from the screen nor would I save pictures to it to show to friends.
Overall, I don't know why anyone looking for a flash based music player would go with anything else