adapted by Austin Vaughan

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• Introduction

We've received many desperate e-mails, telling us to hurry up with finishing this review. This isn't a strange phenomenon, these days: as we speak the competition between all brands and types is enormously intense. Apple has just expanded the basic capacities of their standard revision 3 iPod's, Rio Audio returned to the world of the living and is pointing its' two spearheads (Nitrus and Karma) at potential customers; Samsung has just announced their new YP-910, a new player from Dell is coming soon, as are gazillions of 1.5 GB Cornice SE-based players.

Six months ago, we couldn't have imagined the current situation in our wildest dreams. Back then, we already knew that iRiver would release their own iPod-competitor. The rumours around the Philips HDD100 were only just beginning to expand. Little was known about both units, although it was pretty clear to us all: Apple should look back at what was coming their way.

And so they did! Despite all nice promises made by other manufacturers, it was Apple that caused another tremor in this branch of trade. Although the new iPod was hardly anything special, they did come with rather respective capacities. Apple pressed their competitors to take action - iRiver finally released their own little "precious". Philips was done beta-testing their unit only days after that.

Both units were looked at with lots of suspicion, since they're standard price fixings were pulled a bit out of context, compared to the new iPod's. Apple's new white/chrome devices were put onto the market with great precision, and as a result of this, almost everyone started to compare the new iHP-100 and HDD100 with the one and only market leader. The differences between the iPod and iHP-100/HDD100 are quite extensive, but people like to see the similarities: both iPod and its' "competitors" use a HDD for storage purposes, support mp3 and all of them are pretty small in size, lighweight and easily pocketable.

However, the iHP-100 and HDD100 are really highly-advanced adaptions of the iPod. The latter will play your music, and that's pretty much it. There's no digital encoding functionality, no FM-tuner, no optical in/out, no voicerecorder... Well, it's just the ultimate no-nonsense high-capacity DAP. Comparing this unit with other devices that do have added functionality is a bit unfair, since most people are easily biased by reputation or hard disk capacity.

Let's face it: the iHP-100 and HDD100 represent the first real "next-gen" 1.8" HDD players. There will be many successors, and most of them will offer extra functionality for fewer bucks - but this is today, the world of tomorrow will soon be near, but let's give the iHP-100 and HDD100 some attention first. These are the units which will show the competition that a new DAP-war is only a matter of time. The successor for the iHP-100 (iHP-120) has already been announced, and price fixings will certainly drop to sub-terran values.

Let's stick to the facts for now: these are two relatively new GB+ DAP's, and you might be interested in one or both of them. SO, the only option for us is to leave all the science of history behind - we'll return to this matter at the end of this massive review.

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• The Mission

Ok, so you've read the global reviews. You've seen at your favourite webshop which player is the cheaper one, which drove you to dispair since the other one had the better "looks"...

Unlike other review sites, we've tried to described both units into every details which could prove interesting. You'll probably read only 10% of the whole story, since you don't care about issues like playmodes or equalizer setting... then again, our next visitor doesn't care about the LCD's or remote controls, but (s)he wants to make sure that the user-defineable user equalizer is of decent quality. Overall, this review is there to fill the gaps that others have left us with. Of course, it's far from perfect and we could use your feedback like usual, but it's also the first step into in-depth reviewing from our side.

This is what our visitors expected us to do, we've taken a couple of days to arrange all of our data, and turned it into something worth reading and looking at. As long as you'll understand that this review was composed out of passion for our the business, and that our data is purely subjective when needed - which, strangely enough, will result in an objective reviewing method.

If manufacturers have made errors, we'll try to attend them to this - that's feedback they can use, and it's a warning towards you, the visitor: are you willing to buy one of these units, take a look at both advantages and disadvantages before relying the retailers' professional chit-chat. DAPreview.com's main purpose is to supply you with a _objective_ vision on this line of business, and that's why we've recently gained support from all kinds of retailers: they like our style and we like their gear. It's a perfect combination, since we're depending on each other to settle our daily jobs in a decent fashion. Good reviews need decent gear, good gear needs decent reviews. It's all about publicity, you - the visitor - are the perfect prove of this.

On this particular occasion, we found MP3shopper.nl prepared to equip us with the iRiver iHP-100. I'd like to thank mr. Taco van Voorst of [Linky] for the support and feedback. Might I add that buying the iHP-100 from this webshop would be as simple as taking a walk in the park, just go and see for yourselves.

The Philips HDD100 was a bit of a lucky shot: I actually won it by competing in Philips' "Things to do your things" contest. What are the odds? Well, don't feel jealous: look at what I've supplied you with... Ok, you can't touch the actual unit just yet, but after reading all of this, there's at least some kind of indication whether you should actually consider buying the HDD100.

Our system of handing out points in this review deserves a short explanation: since we're focussing on nothing else but these two DAP's, there's a 100% scale, of which 50% would mean that two DAP's are performing equally strong. Everything above 50% means that the unit is starting to outclass its' direct competitor - anything below 50% means that the competition has done a better job in some specific or global situation. The final scores are _not_ "normal ... out of 100%" scores. They're just indicating the unit's achievements in proportion to the other competing device.

Yeah, we like to make things more difficult than needed. This system works quite well, though. No need to worry, you'll get into it.

So, please enjoy the review and don't be annoyed by minor imperfections - we're only human, and that's why we felt the need to help out our fellow DAp-minded brothers and sisters.

Amen. Hell breaks loose!

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• Presentation

So, what's more exciting than one of those shiny new players, laying fully boxed and sealed in front of you? Well... two of those packages, of course!

Philips HDD100
The Philips HDD100 comes in a tiny rectangular, stylish carton box which was designed according to Philips' new house style: "things to do your thing". This terminology represents the Dutch electronics-giant approach to the more youthful share of market - it's a bit a mix of funky seventies slang and late-nineties text art.

On the top side there's this "All my music on the go" slogan, Philips' brandname in their own font, as well as a short description of what to expect from this unit. The bottom side of the box is strangely enough similair to the top side - expect the writings on this side were in French, whereas the left- and rightside of the package were written in German and Spanish respectively. Very international stuff, this HDD100 thing.

iRiver iHP-100
The iRiver iHP-100 has been packed inside a somewhat uninspired but smooth kind of carton box. Unlike with the HDD100, you can actually take a look at the unit itself already: it's staring back at you behind a thick layer of plastic - as well is the remote control.

iRiver's colour scheme is a bit pragmatic, since it only uses shades of grey. In one way or the other, this gives it a professional look: the unit's description is written in clear black-on-white, the company's logo/name nicely distincts from its' grey background (which shows a photo of the iHP-100) and at the top of this front side, there are some semi-offical logo's (e.g. labeled "firmware upgradeable" and "FM tuner"). iRiver also uses their own slogan - "The legend of iRiver continues", now that's a rather dramatic one - above the unit's type identification ("iHP-100").

The strange thing with this box is the visibilty of the iHP-100 already takes away some of its' magic feeling. It's just hanging there, not being unreachable for you or your friends at all... it should have been behind hardened glass or just a solid hatch. You know what I mean: it's less fun when you can already see what's inside your newly aquired present, even if you already knew for centuries what it would most likely contain.

Well, let's not wail about this too much: the package's rear side looks very nice - it's silver/grey shaded - and offers a more detailed overview of what to expect from the iHP-100. There's also room for iRiver's philosphy, a nice word from the founder of Inno Design (the creators of almost anything that iRiver has produced since the SlimX-cd player), as well as the necessary quality markings and a barcode.

Finally, the left side gives out a short description of the iHP-100 in English, German, French - as well as Italian and Spanish. Apparantly, iRiver ran out of options when translating "Mass Storage Device" into Italian and decided that just "memory" would do fine. Well, I guess it works for me.

The iHP-100's packaging isn't all that beautifull, but rather practical: you slide out the unit and all kinds of carton compartments show up, in which the respective accesories are packed. It's the type of packaging you'll throw away a bit sooner than the one found on Philips' HDD100, since it's rather hard to put the box all together again if you've just torn the whole thing to pieces (out of enthousiasm, of course). No real concern for you buyers, but for us reviewers it could be an annoyance after extensive usage.

On the front hatch, there's a short description of the boxes' contents in both pictures and text. Finally, the rear side mentions some system requirements (you essentially need a chair, two lightbulbs marked "0" and "1", one or more fingers plus USB 1.1 and Windows 98SE or higher... but your AMD XP2000+ with Win XP and USB 2.0 will do as well) and the units' essential quality markings, accompanied by a barcode.

Ok, so when we open the box, it's pretty clear that Philips will win this round as it comes down to design: the HDD100 is embedded into a nice tub, covered in felt. There even was a dustcover above my unit. Upon eyecontact, you'll easily fall in love with your HDD100, as you carefully try to remove it from its' sacred position. Underneath the felt-covered plastic in which the unit was laying, there's a nice dark grey storage compartment; this is made out of very solid hardened plastic. Underneath the boxes' top hatch, there's room for the DMM-software CD and the quick start guide.

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• Accessories

Of much greater importance is of course what's _inside_ these nice boxes. Here we will find some of the first real differences. Since this is a "versus" review, we'll compare each of the similair shipped accessories (everything except the unit itself and its' box), being earphones, remote controls, travel pouches, software and documentation.

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• Accessories::Earphones

There's always the issue of "Can I keep the supplied earphones or should I buy new ones?" when it comes down to buying a new player. Truth is, most often you will find yourself buying a new pair of ear/headphones within a week after buying the unit. Although there are exceptions to the rule, the manufacturers' main objective was to develop a decent unit - the accesories are not sporadically of second-degree importance. Customers are very often prepared to buy new accessories as long as those are universally applicable - such as headphones and analog line-in/out cables. I mean, your $3 AM-tuner at work should be able to work with same $30 earphones you've just bought for your HDD100/iHP-100, right?

Philips HDD100
Suprisingly enough, the earbuds found inside the HDD100's box are of great design. With their silver finish, rubber in-ear cushions and fenced buds, these things are quite something to look at. Although they don't feel as classy as their looks are hinting, they perfectly integrated with the in-ear part of my body (ehm... well, before you'll start asking: that's a _good_ thing, ok?) and I never felt the urge to refit them within the hour or so.
However, the cord is way too short for non-remote usage - it's barely 35 centimeters (about 1 ft, 1 ") so you'll have a hard time finding something that's worth connecting to if it comes without a remote control. Luckily enough, the buds are labeled "L" and "R" - unlike some previous Philips earbuds (I always get the feeling that I'm the one with the funny-shaped ears with those non-labeled earphones). Finally, the cabling seems very fragile which can hardly be looked at as being a good thing.

Philips' ones look smooth but the sound they're producing is only of moderate quality. Basses are quite pounding but the sound is being dominated by strident high-tone sections. Of course, you can adjust the equalizer every time you switch to another type of song - as we will see later on, Philips has well thought this thing out - but it's just too noticeable to ignore. I found myself listening to Coldplay while wondering whether the lead singer was trying to break glass by singing "Yellow". After a couple of hours I took the easy way and replaced the earbuds with something else... Sennheiser MX400's. Which brings us to iRiver's earbuds, but not before mentioning that adding your own headphones to the HDD100 will make you end up with a very, very long cable, because of the remote controls's added length.

iRiver iHP-100
iRiver supplied its' iHP-100 with much less eyecandy, as for headphones is concerned. The iHP-100's earbuds are camouflaged Sennheiser MX300's: iRiver's company logo is noticeable on the earbuds' sticks - as are the markings for "L"(eft) and "R"(ight). There's a grey "swoosh" at the rear side, but it doesn't manage to supply a bit of tension to the earbuds' design job. MX300's always looked boring and felt rather cheapy (lightweight plastic), which isn't a big deal to me, since the cabling seems sturdy enough.
These earbuds come uncushioned; however, there is a pair of cushions enclosed in the package - so you will have to put those on the earbuds yourself. In this particular case, all went relatively quick and smooth but I didn't like the earphones fit as much as I did with the HDD100's supplied phones. Sennheisers; cushions tend to be too "slippery" for my ears and because of this, the darn things keep coming out every ten minutes or so. I've found the perfect solutions of this: I just switched to the Apple iPod's cushions, which are a bit more sturdy (and in my opinion, their earbuds - iPod revision 1 - aren't all that to begin with... so they could well do without their nice grey cushions for the rest of their lives).
iRiver's buds are of the neck-band type, which means that the left cord is significantly shorter than the right cord (the distance between the two buds is the amount of cable that rests on your neck): when you'll have to pop them out on some ocassion, they just keep dangling down your necks, rather than falling towards the earth.

Sound quality is of course the key issue with earphones. I've tested both sets of earbuds with my own stereo equipment, as well as with the respective units - so there's no argument as to "not having tested them extensively enough".

Well, the Sennheiser MX300's are excellent gear for the money and so I have little to complain about them, a part from on thing: why didn't iRiver include MX400's? The added costs are like 3 or 4 Euro (US Dollar for that sake) but the overall sound quality is somewhat noticeable, in my opinion. The MX300's performs great overall, but just misses a surplus of ambience. It just produces sound, you don't really "experience" what your music is telling you all the way. Well, that's my opinion of course - since I'm used to the MX400's, I've learnt to appreciate the overall depth these cheap buggers supply my ears with every day. Going back to the MX300's feels like sitting behind a long fellow at the cinema: it could have been your place, and you can still see 8/9 of the movie screen... but you would prefer sitting at this guy's place, wouldn't you?

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• Accessories::Remote Control

It's already a very nice thing to see that both units are equiped with a remote control. Many people feel the urge to leave their rather expensive HDD-player inside its' travel pouch, while controlling their music from the outside - but there are few units which are in fact being shipped with a remote control.

You won't have to be some sort of genious, in order to find out which unit offers the most advanced remote control. The iRiver obviously claims that title with its' huge-LCD'ed remote control.

Philips HDD100
Well, I'm not sure where to begin this. The Philips HDD100's remote is outclassed on every aspect by the iHP-100's one. First off, the HDD100's remote is tiny and lightweight, but this makes it feel kind of cheap - fragile even. The buttons aren't labeled in a very clear way: they're completely black with the labels embossed inside of them. When it's the least bit dark, you'll find yourself wondering what each button is supposed to do. There's one big button which allows you to play/pause a track (or power up the unit). Beneath that, you'll find 4 buttons of similair size and shape: volume up, volume down, next track/ffwd and previous track/rrwd. That's it, no LCD or something like a LED to assist you when struggling to find the top and bottom of the controller - after having figured out that, you'll have to recall the position of the buttons (I somehow often tend to reverse these positions). Now, maybe Philips thought out that people would hold their remote controls within the backlight of their HDD100, but the main purpose of any remote controller is that you do not have to take out your main unit: that's supposed to be safely inside one of your pockets.



The belt clip is made out of aluminium, is rather sturdy (it doesn't use a hinge: just pull the piece of metal back until it can be clipped onto your clothing) but very small as well: it isn't going to support a lot of weight; so don't expect pickpockets to drag you along with them, when they've grabbed this remote control.
There's more bad news to report: the controller doesn't come with a "hold" button - true, the buttons aren't ultra sensitive unless sat on - and the cabling is way too thin: it really gives you an icky feeling. One good yank and the remote control could be ruined, which isn't a good thing since this is the type of accessory people expect to last for years and years. The remote's output - a "female" jackplug - offers only little comfort to 90 degree-bend headphone jacks. The cabling will misshape sooner or later when not using a non-bend jackplug, which could result in either inaccurate operation of the remote control or noisy output on you own headphones.

Finally, the remote control is completely analog: it doesn't give any output on your HDD100's screen. If you're adjusting the volume level, you'll have to guess at what level you in fact are, rather than just looking the standard volume bar - which won't appear, despite your best offers. No option of going through any menu's whatsoever either: a real bummer.

iRiver iHP-100
Ha! iRiver did a great job on the remote control! They already had equiped their SlimX-units with very neat remote controllers, and they've continued doing this with the iHP-100. The difference between the two remote controllers is completely obvious: the HDD100's one is the bare minimum (even less in my opinion), the one found on iHP-100 is almost a surplus of class.

The iHP-100's controller offers no less than 3 jogdials - "navi" (ffwd, rrwd, menu, track navigation), "source" (selecting source for input, bitrate for encoding) and "volume" ("volume up/down, playmode) - all of which can be used as an extra "push" button as well. There's also the "hold"-button, which makes the remote control insensible for accidental operation, and which won't render the main unit uselss: you can still use that if its' own hold button isn't enabled. This also works the other way around: if the main unit's on hold, you can still control it by using the remote control (seems obvious, but hey: life isn't obvious 24/7).

Furthermore, there are play and stop buttons placed on the front of the remote control, as well as a classy aluminium-like window for the LCD (again with the iRiver-logo embossed inside of it). The remote control is entirely made out of plastic though, which makes the belt clip a bit vulnerable for wear and tar throughout the years. Nevertheless, the clip offers a nice grip on most clothing and manages to cover a "bite" twice that of HDD100's remote control. With the HDD100's belt clip, you simply cannot tell whether you could pull back the little piece of iron some more - maybe it'll break after stressing it to0 much. With the iHP-100's controller, you'll feel much more comfortable because of the hinge it uses.



Overall, the sheer size of this remote control seems a bit out of proportion (2/3 the length and 1/2 the width of the iHP-100 itself), and one could argue whether it's necessary for the controller to be this advanced, but reallY; I didn't find it too much of a hassle to carry it around with me. It's lightweight but still sturdy enough for everyday usage, so why complain about the size?

There's room for the headphone jack on the same side as that of the remote controller's output. This is something that's typically of iRiver's designing team (Inno Design). Some people like it, some hate it - most of us don't care too much about it. It does seem to keep your cables from getting damaged, although I cannot verify that just yet. Speaking of cabling: this is only a zillion times better than the cabling find on the HDD100's remote. Nice, thick cabling makes me feel much more scure and they fit the player's design without any problem.

The main aspect of iRiver's remote control has got to be the LCD screen. Amazing stuff, this. It manages to show all kind of important data simultaneaously (tracknumber, time elapsed, playmode, battery juice remaining, album title, track title, track progress bar, file format, file bitrate in KHz and kbps and equalizer setting) while still offering an orderly overview on all information. Even when searching for files, the remote control can be perfectly put to good use: 4 track titles fit onto the screen, and so do 4 lines of the main menu. The graphical menu for searching your database of files also fits easily inside that nice LCD.

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• Accessories::Travel Pouch

Philips HDD100
Uh oh. Another miss from Philips here. The HDD100 is shipped with some kind of... gothic wascloth. It's more a bag than anything else: it only has one opening, located at the top. Furthermore, there are two straps you can pull, might you want to close up the bag. When left open, the units' top side is still available for USB-connection, headphone output and line-input, as well as powersupply by AC/DC adapter. Seems fair enough, but still: this bag is a disgrace for everyone who bought the HDD100.

First of all: there's no window for the LCD screen. Now, that's dull! I want to be able to actually see what I am doing on my screen and since Philips supplied me with this ever so useful remote controller, it would be nice to take a look at what's going on at that inverted LCD.
With this pouch, you will have to take the unit out every time you want to access the main menu or just simply search for a specific track; voicerecording won't work with a pouched unit either, since the mic is hidden inside the bag and you need to push some buttons before you're able to commence your recording.
In fact, the optical line-in is reachable, but you still need to confirm that you want to record something: so again, you have to slide the unit outside of its' pouch. Awful designing job, and certainly not the kind of accessory I expected to see inside a 500 Euro (550 USD) package. The materials are as good as any (the interior is quite unit-friendly through the use of some soft kind of fabric), but that's pretty much it: if it happens to be raining and you forgot to strap the bag, changes are that it'll fill up with water, even.

iRiver iHP-100
Again, iRiver has done a better job. Their pouch offers almost full functionailty for every aspect of their player. The iHP-100's travel pouch mainly consists out of two parts: the pouch itself and the "flap" that will protect the unit's LCD screen from getting scratched. Now, we already know that the iHP-100 comes with that extraordinary remote control, so when we're on travel, the pouch can easily be closed up: you could well navigate through all of your files by using the remote controller only - it might take some practice, but it's certainly an option we would not rule out. In that way, you wouldn't have to take out the iHP-100 at all. With the "flap" buttoned up to the travel pouch itself, you can still control all functionality of this player, with the exception of the optical line in/out. Just pop up the flap, and those last two options become available as well.

The materials that have been used are neither flesh nor fowl for my sake. It's sturdy enough to take most poundings and beatings, although it might seem a little thin on left-, right, and bottom sides. The "flap" and rear side are somewhat thicker; the "flap" has - agian - embossed the iRiver logo inside of it.
Still, there are some annoyances too: when taking the unit out, the navigational section - the joystick - tends to get stuck behind the top of the pouch. Same goes for putting the player inside the pouch. Also, the chrome top of the player isn't protected from scracthing completely (the area around the remote control connection is somewhat vulnerable) and the belt attachement at the back of the pouch doesn't offer very much margin, so you'll have a hard time connecting this thing to your belt if you're already wearing that belt. The belt-"clip" isn't very sturdy either: those people who like to pogostick through their lives (and sporty types as well) , should pay attention to this, since the belt attachement-thingy can come of sooner than you'd like to see. The pouch seems to be sewed and then glued together at some points, which makes it vulrenable to rough treatment. Also, the interior fabric of this pouch is somewhat rugged, which _could_ cause a minimal amount of wear and tear throughout the years.
But these flaws are nothing compared to Philips' failure to produce a decent pouch.

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• Softare & Documentation

Philips HDD100
I was very much surprised to find out that the HDD100 was shipped with only a couple of warranty booklets and a single leaflet, telling me how to quick start. There was no manual at all, which I don't understand. Sure, I could download the manual in PDF-format at any given time of the day, but why would I _want_ to do that?
Maybe it seems like no big deal to you, but it sure was annoying to experience my first lock-up with the HDD100 and not knowing where the "reset" button was supposed to be located. Was there even a reset button? Should I poke with a paper clip into that little hole, ah wait: that's the internal microphone, let's just _not_ do that... After 3 minutes I gave up and surfed towards Philips homepage manually - with a locked up player, the software cannot locate HDD100's "main page" - after which I finally managed to confirm that there was in fact a reset button (well, it's made up out of a combination of two simultaneaously pressed buttons, rather than being a button by itself).

I've got to be honest and state that the HDD100 seems to be much more userfriendly when it comes down to navigating through menu's, thus one would find less use for a user manual, but still: how much effort does it require to put that PDF onto real (black and white for all I care) paper and put it into my nice little HDD100's box?

The software supplied with the Philips HDD100 is called "DMM" or "Digital Music Manager". The version shipped with my unit (1.0) was a bit buggy and very slow when starting up, reading data from the HDD100 and updating data from my selected directories. You see, DMM always checks out whether there has been any change inside the player ("updating from device"), as well as it checks for changes inside your mp3 collection ("updating from library"). Even though you haven't changed anything at both, DMM still takes quite some time to check whether you really really did not change anything at all.

Some nice features of DMM: the equalizer section, where you can adjust the equalizer settings for different types of genres (pop, jazz, classical, rock, normal) and link those to all other genres available. For instance: you've got a trillion songs with the id3-tag information "genre: house". You can assign the genre "house" to any of the given equalizer presets, and the HDD100 will adjust its' equalizer stetings to the ones you've defined for that specific preset, as long as you tock "match genre" in the HDD100's equalizer menu.

Furthermore, DMM manages to organize your files in avery decent way: I've placed lots of wrongly tagged files within range of my decently tagged files, but the Philips prodcues a very nice and tidy database of almost every song available. Firmware upgrading, software (DMM itself) upgrading as well as id3-tagging can be done quite easily within DMM too. However, it is adviceable to download version 1.1 from the net straight away, since 1.0 was somewhat buggy and slow to begin with.

iRiver iHP-100
Of course, iRiver _did_ think of supplying a manual with the unit. Well, I'm the last one to complain because the iHP-100 is much harder to control (on some areas) than it's Philips counterpart. However, if you get stuck at any given point, the manual will help you out... unless it has got to do something with unimplemented firmware, such as FM recording which simply isn't yet available.

iHP-100's software CD comes with 2nd party applications: musicMatch and Moodlogic, both programmes do have their fanbases but I'd rather skip both of them. You see, you'll just have to install "iHP manager" and you're done. Even that isn't compulsory: you can just drag and drop your files to the iHP-100 and it will recognize mediafiles by itself. However, when you do have "iHP manager" installed, things get even more enjoyable. Just right-click on the drive letter whcih represents iHP-100, choose "Update DB file" and the unit will create its' own database of tracks. You will still be able to browse all of your files, using the directory-structure option, but with a decent database file, search operations can be based on artists, albums and genres as well - just like on the HDD100.

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• Accessories::Other

Both units come with standard USB 2.0 cables, as well as an adapter for recharging or indoor usage of the unit. Furthermore, the iHP-100 comes with an analog line-in/out cable as well as an "earphone adapter" for use with the remote control. The iHP-100's remote control was meant for usage with straight-shaped plugs only, so you'll have to attach your "90-degrees jackplug" to the earphone adapter, if you want to use both your own set of earphones as well as the remote control.

Well, to be quite honest: I managed to directly plug my own set of non-straight-plugged earphones into the remote control without too much pain. iRiver just recommends that you use the adapter instead, and I wouldn't find it a problem to agree with their wishes.

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• Exterior

Ok, so we're approaching our destination: the bare units themselves. Let's take a look at all kinds of factors that could prove to be somewhat important to us.

First off, my impressions on the exterior casings and the materials that were used. The HDD100 looks extremely nice on pictures and it doesn't fail to fullfill most of that prophecy when it's actually within the palm of your hand. The iHP-100 always looked a bit "toy-like" to me, when judging it from pictures. However, you'll understand that's it's everything but a cheap toy when it's inside your hands.

Philips HDD100
Philips did an excellent job on the colourscheme: the unit's all dressed in piano black, refined with two bands of pure chrome: the type of material you'll find at the rear side of your typical iPod.
The utilization of chrome is always a bit controversial: it improves the unit's looks, but also makes it much more vulnerable to scratches as a result of extensive usage. Well, since the HDD100 was supplied with that stupid travel pouch, you'll end up with the bare naked unit in your hand more often than the chrome bands can eventually cope with. However, the type of chrome used on the HDD100 seems to be quite solid: there's also a small "dent" on both chromed sides of the player - this angle provides some additional protection against wear and tear. A rather significant disadvangtage of putting the chrome onto the left and right sides of the unit, is their "slippery" feeling". When you've got sweaty hands (like anyone has had this summer), the unit starts to slip through your fingers a bit. It is really more a psychological thing (you've just bought this 500 Euro device, and you're not planning on dropping it onto the concrete floor right away) rather than a lack of quality within the material itself.

For the most part (the black part), the HDD100 is made out of very solid plastic. Both its' front and rear side, as well as bottom side are use the same type of material. It gives the HDD100 a very stylish look, and from a distance you won't notice any smudge or damage... however, this is a result of the piano black colour rather than the real sturdiness of the material. In fact, I found the rear side of the player very vulnerable to scratches - a lot more vulnerable than the chrome bands, to be honest. I've got several ugly srcatches on the back side of my HDD100 - but as long as you don't shed too much light onto it, you will hardly notice that are there.

The front of the player doesn't seem to suffer from the previous problem, strangely enough> I guess this is a result of the "curved front" design: at the rear side, the player is entirely flat whereas the front curves a bit (in a rather strange way, since the top of the player is thicker than the bottom side). The front is still pretty sensible to fingerprints (as is the rear side), but again: you won't find this much of a problem as long as you'll keep some distance.

On the front, we'll find a nice company logo which can easily be peeled off if you want to (you'll end up with an extremely ugly spot I guess). The LCD screen is something we're not going into too much for now: we'll come back on this later on. There is one detail I want to mention right away, however: unlike with 99% of all other Digital Audio Players, the HDD100's screen is totally black - even when the unit's not powered up. This gives the overall design even more appeal, since it makes the front appear look like it was totally black to begin with.

There are 4 tiny circle-shaped buttons on the front, as well as one somewhat larger rectangular (with curved edges) one. We'll take a look at what these buttons are supposed to do later on; for now I'll focus on their firmness, which is ok, but nothing special. I mean, they're black coloured buttons made out plastic and they produce a discreet "clicking" sound when pressed, nothing special or unique about that. Although the 4 buttons on the front are relatively small, they're big enough at first glance.
At the top of the player, we can distinct the USB mini-port, DC power adapter plughole (5 V), (optical) line in and headphone out. None of these outputs is equiped with some kind of dust protection (USB ports are quite often sealed of by rubber dustcovers), and as you'll know by now, the travel pouch won't help you out very much either (since the top of the player is fully exposed even when pouched). Well, that's a minor detail: all ports and plugholes seem to be of decent constructional quality.

Finally, both bottom as left side of the player are completely empty, whereas we'll find some additional buttons on the right side of the unit. These buttons are probably made out of plastic as well, but you really wouldn't notice this upon eye contact: the four remaining buttons perfectly fit into the chrome colourscheme and they're of decent utilization quality as well.
To conclude all of this, there's a little hole at the top-right side - this is the microphone, which also lacks protection against dust or the likes.

Overall, the Philips HDD100 doesn't cease to impress most of its' admirers and has already drawn respectable masses towards Philips' distrubution call centers: people tend to judge a product by what its' looks are like, instead of caring whether the final design is actually somwehwat practical. We'll find out whether the design has really been well-tought of in the various subsections of this review, such as "Installing & wiring" and "Navigation".



iRiver iHP-100
When putting the HDD100 aside and replacing it with the iHP-100, I just had to think about all those times on which iRiver's design didn't appeal to me at all. I hated the slight" curve", making the top thicker than the bottom... but when I finally got the device in my own field of vision, I was a bit surprised that the iHP-100 isn't all that ugly. It's hard to imagine how small this type of player actually is, without actually have it on you. Anyway, this "curved" design is of course still noticeable, but in one way or the other, I've stopped caring about it too much.

There are other elements that I kind of disliked when looking at all those pictures available of the iHP-100: the dark grey bands on both the left and right side. They looked a bit silly in my opinion, especially combined with the buttons on the right side of the player - they just reminded me of something like a nicely buttoned up suit or something. After receiving the iHP-100, I still don't really like these grey strips, but I figure they're functional (they help you distinct the different buttons placed upon the right-hand side) so I'll just have to cope with them being there.

Like the HDD100, the iRiver iHP-100 uses some chrome decoration - but somehow, it seems a bit redundant and overdone to place two chrome strips (located on the top and bottom) onto this unit. Personally, I would have like to see some more of that dark grey colour smeared across the player's body. The overall colourscheme isn't bad, but it tends to be a bit disorderly every now and then. The chrome fits nicely with the buttons on the left-hand and right-hand sides, but stands out a bit against the brushed light grey material that has been used on e.g. the whole rear side and the bottom part of the front.
However, the iHP-100 feels very sturdy compared to the HDD100 and doesn't have the tendancy to slip through your hands too often. Like with the HDD100, there are small "dents" inside the left and right sides, which help improve your grip a bit.

The front of the player shows the chrome strips I've just mentioned, with a nicely windowed ("iHP-100, Multi-codec jukebox" labeled) LCD screen, which takes about 1/3 of the front's length and most of the unit's width. When switched off, the LCD screen appears to be coloured somewhat greenish - which is pretty much standard issue in this world, if it weren't for HDD100's black-coloured screen.
Beneath the screen, we'll find something very specific: some sort of joystick, which is used for all kinds of navigational purposes. In my opinion, this part of the iHP-100 is too distinctive - in a negative way. I do like the little joystick's appearance, but the area around it is dominated by an elevated "platform" or "ring" - which has the same silvergrey colour as the joystick itself. Someone took big bites out of this "platform" and inserted really big symbols in between the gaps. These symbols are so big in size, that I started to wonder if they would transmit some kind of mysterious message to my brain cells, but nothing happened. Really, putting the symbols there is a good thing, but these hieroglypsh are almost three times the size as the ones found on the HDD100. Of course, I know that Inno Design has a designing knowledgebase that's about 13 billion times more extensive than mine, but I would have preffered a simple, completely circle-shaped silver/grey ring with little icons embossed inside of/next to it.

There's another annoyance in this section of the designjob: there are nicely curved little LED's which are placed parallel with the "navigational platform": these are used for e.g. indication for "unit is charging" (green LED, found on the left) or :Hard Drive is being used" (red LED, found on the right). However, by theirselves, these LED's somehow seem to be part of the whole joystick-platform... but they aren't. Well, to fullfill my redesigning prophecy, I would have removed the chrome strip on the top of the player, replaced it with something rubber-like and integrated those two LED's into this. But that's just another one of my many trains of thought. Too too!

The joystick itself is made out of plastic, but it's not really annoying or too cheap for my sake. We'll test its' performance later on ("Navigation")... just have to add that it can be moved up, down, left and right. The joystick can also be pushed, a key feature for navigational purposes of course. The only thing that bugged me, was the very noticeable amount of sound the stick produces when pressed. It's no "Click" like the manual says it is, it's just a decent "thump".

Well, moving on: the rest of the front shows a change of colours (from dark grey to light, brushed aluminium grey). Again, there's a little "curve" in the design here: the dark grey coloured "face platter" curves into the lighter shade of grey, where we'll find the embossed company logo again, before ending up with the bottom chrome strip.

The rear side of the iHP-100 is entirely made out of a type of material that I find very hard to define. It isn't exactly plastic - nor is it 100% aluminium, I guess. However, it does feel very nice and sturdy and although scratches will occur eventually, this type of material tends to be less vulnerable than the one used with Philips' HDD100. This is strengthend some more by the brushed colourpattern: breaking of light on a damaged plain surface (e.g. by scratches) is more noticeable than that of breaking of light on brushed surfaces. Wow, that was a bit too complicated, luckily there's a disadvantage as well, which is more easy to explain. The lighter shade of iHP-100's colour (when compared to the HDD100) makes scratches more visible once they're there. Since the Philips is black, you'll have to take a very good look at it before noticing damages to the actual unit.

On iHP-100's rear side, there are two ugly stickers (feel free to remove them if you must, but one of them contains the vital serial number + barcode... it's best to keep that one closely with you - the other sticker rpresents some stuff that you'd better prevent from happening, like exposing the unit to strong magnetic fields or using it as a doomsday device in order to start World War 3) and a short description of the right-hand side buttons' functionalities. Bit strange place to put it there, but once you've noticed it, it actually does come in handy once every while.

Speaking of the right-hand side: it contains three circle shaped buttons and one curved-rectangular slider. The latter one is the hold-swicth, and it's by far the worst piece of navigational instruments found on the iHP-100. After I had unpacked my iRiver, I gave the unit a friendly shake - which resulted in a very faint sound, indicating some kind of loose part. This sound was in fact being caused by the hold-slider, which isn't very stable and tends to get mobile a bit too soon. Sliding this thing is more "pushing" it anyway, which is of course a good thing when it comes down to hold switches, but I've got the awkward feeling that this is the type of control that will fall off the unit at some stage (after _very_ extensive usage, of course... it's not like it has to be handled with silk gloves only).

The three other buttons on the right side are tiny, but like with the HDD100's controls this doesn't seem to be too much of a problem designwise. The material used for these buttons is noticeably more kind of plastic than the ones found on their counterpart's right hand side.

At the top of the player, there's the input for either any 3.5 mm headphone or the digital remote control. Nicely seperated from this, we notice the optical line-in and -out plugholes. None of the inputs is sealed of with any form of dustcover, although the travel pouch makes this obsolete anyway.
Unlike with the HDD100, the iHP-100 has got two additional input possibillities at the bottom: a port for USB 2.0 and a plughole for the DC adapter (5.0V). There's also a little hole next to the USB-port: this is the reset-"button". You'll need something very thin to get into this one, I guess. As with the top end of the unit, there's no real protection from dust getting in one of these inputs. In this case, the puch doesn't offer extra protection since there are openings for both USB as well as DC-power inside of it.
Finally, we'll find some sort of fence with non-punctured holes on the left-hand side of the unit - there's only one hole that's actually pierced: the internal microphone. Again, no real protection for dust/dirt but the pouch takes care of that in a decent way. There's also an additional circle-shaped button with a red dot on it: the record button.

Well, to conclude all of this: the iHP-100 doesn't have the "finished" or "organized" look that the Philips HDD100 does have. The joystick adds some additional depth to the player, the application of chrome is a matter of taste to me, and I think the front could have been much prettier than it is right now.
However, the "feel" this unit offers is very good: the player lays solid as a rock in the palm of your hand, it weighs even less than the HDD100 does and since you'll do most of the navigation with the joystick, it's perfectly manageable when operated with one hand only.
The thing I like the most about the iHp-100's design is the "cold" feeling it offers, when it's between your fingers. The material used for e.g. the enitre rear side gives out that extra classy feeling, which makes you shiver out of pleasure.

Both units are perfectly pocketable, although the iHP-100's joystick seems a little vulnerable to rough treatment. Well, that's where these travel pouches were designed for, right? Somehow, the iHP feels extra light, but the HDD100 has got this more "robust" feeling to make up for this. It's not that the iHP-100 is made out of carboard or something, although on _pictures_ it does look a bit cheapish every now and then; this comes as a result of my poor photgraphic skills, rather than anything else.

END PART 1