The H10 is an important player for iRiver because it works to contravene the techie, high-performance-but-complicated image established by the H320 and earlier players. With its color screen, touch scroller, and slimmer case, the H10 is mostly a pleasure to operate, marred only by the undifferentiated forward/pause/back buttons on the side. And of course, with its FM receiver, excellent audio recording, and photo viewer, the H10 does more than most of its competition.

The vertical touch surface controls menu navigation and volume. Sensitivity has been improved since our first test, but you can't tap the surface to select an option. Rather, you must press the Select button. A Back button takes you up a level, or if you hold it in, brings up the top menu. The forward/back/stop buttons are insufficiently distinguishable by touch, and we had to press carefully to get the right one.

We thoroughly dislike the H10's belt clip/protective case. Although the device can probably survive a relatively gentle fall without damage, the case hides the beauty of the player and is hard to get on and off a belt.

Early versions of the H10 suffered from severe distortion with all EQ settings, but new firmware has cured this. Audio performance with or without equalization is clean, with no sign of harmonic distortion until you push the volume control beyond 35 (out of 40 steps). That level generated 110 dB peaks in the provided earbuds, so that shouldn't be a problem. Frequency response with the EQ off is flat, and the EQ settings boost and cut response appropriately. We think that having 30 presets is overkill, and the differences among many are imperceptible except with test equipment. The H10 also includes SRS surround effects, and these detract from the audio quality. We drove the provided earbuds to a constant 101 dB of in-ear loudness, with peaks of 105 dB on our standard loudness track.

Contrast and brightness on the color screen are very good, but like most other color screens, it is unreadable once the backlight goes off.

The FM radio is easy to program and operate. The tuner is selective in cities where every channel is occupied, and holds onto fringe signals reasonably well in rural areas.

You can choose three quality levels for voice recording, and the quality at the medium and high settings is remarkably good. You should use the lowest quality setting only to make a long recording or if you don't have much storage space left. The H10 records directly to MP3 and can record audio from either its line-in or its built-in microphone, but you'll need the optional dock to record line-in. You can record from FM as well.

You can download photos to the H10, but the screen is smaller than that of most cameras and the resolution is too low for good viewing. The H10 is not a USB host, however, and cannot download directly from your digital camera. One nice bonus: You can transfer text files to the H10 and read them with the browser.

The H10 charges from USB and from the supplied wall wart, and an LED in the interface cord tells you when it's charging. The battery is removable and easily replaceable—a plus.

Although it has a more cumbersome interface and navigation than the iPod mini and Rio Carbon Pearl, the iriver H10 is a good value, given the feature set and the improved audio quality.

Compare the above products side by side in our comparison table