July 6, 2005
iRivers are goddamn tanks
Seriously, if you are considering buying a harddrive MP3 player and tend to be a bit clumsy, buy the H340. This little box is invincible. I was walking home from work today at a pretty fast pace and listening to my MP3 player, when I somehow snagged my arm on the wire and pulled the whole thing flying out of my pocket. Realizing my $300 investment was soon about to meet Mr. Sidewalk below, I launched forward for a desperate saving grab. This stupid maneuver only resulted in me accidentally shotputting the thing 10 feet. I watched helplessly in horror as it landed on CONCRETE at high speed with a sickening sound and proceeded to tumble over itself several times like a cracked out gymnast.
I figured that was the end of my iRiver: there was no way a spinning harddrive could survive that kind of impact. After a rather unholy amount of cursing, I rushed over and cradled it like a weeping mother, and with the absolute faintest hope I plugged in my headphone jack. The exact same song was still playing uninterrupted..at full volume... IT WAS WORKING! This fucker took a fall that would have shattered any other electronic gadget (if my cellphone or GBA landed like this, they'd be finished), yet all I was able to notice was a little scratch on one of the corners..on the ridge in the corner. Not even chipped casing. It's like the iRiver had impact bumpers. What the hell?
I spent the rest of my walk nervously waiting for the player to suddenly crap out, but it didn't. I ended up playing another full hour waiting for some disaster to happen before finally shutting it off. In short, iRiver is awesome. Thanks for building the H340, a tank of an MP3 player without sacrificing form.
Posted by Paranda at July 6, 2005 1:50 PM