IRiver has been spoiling us rotten with its high-quality MP3 players lately, so it's no surprise we had high expectations when this number arrived at our lab. A recent addition to its iFP series, the 256MB iFP-790 offers a numberof significant enhancements over its predecessors, the most enticing of which is its incredible 34 hours of battery life and line-in recording. But it's the player's good looks, top-quality sound, and onboard extras that makeit difficult to resist.

This high-performing, long-lasting MP3 player has it all.

The first thing you'll notice about the 1.3-ounce iFP-790 is its revampeddesign. Gone is the gray, prism-shaped body of the original T-series, and inits place is a tubular, cherry-red player that looks as slick hanging aroundyour neck as it does strapped to your arm. The navigation pad remains the same,as does the interface. That's a good thing; it's as wide-rangingas it was before, letting you customize everything from the screen's contrastto how fast you can fast-forward through tracks. The only difference with theiFP-790 is that the display has a cool indigo backlight, and it displays thecurrent time.

The other major update relates to the player's ability to record outsidecontent via a line-in jack. The recordings are encoded as MP3s and you can adjustthe rate from 32 Kbps to 320 Kbps (a lengthy line-in cable is included with theplayer). In addition to recording from outside sources, you can record from theplayer's built-in FM tuner, which was solid enough to give us good receptionin both Manhattan and the New Jersey suburbs. The old USB 1.1 port has been upgradedto the faster USB 2.0.

Even the player's software got a slight facelift, with a friendlier, icon-driveninterface. That leads us to our only complaint about the iFP-790. Though thesoftware is simple and hardly takes up any space, iRiver requires you to installit before transferring songs. It would have been nicer if it were plug-and-play.You also can't upload songs from the player to your PC, though you canupload other non-music files.

Sound quality on the iFP-790 is top-notch, with a respectable 90-dB signal-to-noiseratio. We gave N*E*R*D's first album, In Search Of..., a listen and wereblown away. Voices were razor-sharp and the bass was deep, not muffled. The playeris also relatively loud; we found that turning it three-quarters of the way upwas just perfect.

The included earbuds are better than what you normally get, so unless you'rea true headphone snob, you'll do fine sticking with iRiver's. Justas impressive is the battery life. In our tests, the iRiver lasted 34 hours and35 minutes on a charge, which is less than the 40 hours of rated battery lifebut still a lot more than you'll get from most hard-drive based players.

If you've got tons of music stored on your hard drive and want to takeit all with you, this MP3 player is not for you. However, if you're constantlyon the go and want a player that's lighter than the iPod mini, will neverskip, and boasts first-rate acoustics, the iFP-790 is sure to please.

View the quick specs for this product iRiver iFP-790 >>