Pictures are supposed to be the H10's big innovation, but we were disappointed with the feature. The display can handle 260,000 colors, but it's only 1.5" (3.8 cm) in size. Its postage-stamp format doesn't let you make out much detail in a picture, and you have to be exactly in front of it to avoid reflections. What's more, certain files - even though they're in JPEG format - aren't recognized, for reasons that remain a mystery.

As for the text browser, it can only display documents in .TXT format. Again, the small size of the display limits its use to reading Post-its of an address or reminder. A bit of a gimmick, but why not? The H10 has more than one little accessory like this: a voice recorder, an FM tuner (no great shakes), a radio (or normal) alarm, a clock, and preprogrammed stopwatch. Enough to let you use up the 10-hour battery life pretty fast!

Conclusion: A Keeper Nonetheless

Having not learned their lesson from the poor technical performance of the IFP 1090 and its built-in camera, iRiver has again tried to mix photos and music. The result is functional, but they seem to have forgotten one little detail: screen size. On a Picture Phone, 1.5 " is enough to display the face of the person you're talking to close up. But on an audio jukebox, a picture function isn't very useful - except maybe for choosing which photos to transfer to a friend's PC. Aside from this novelty, the H10's technical performance is on par with its competitors. For the same price, I personally would prefer the Archos Gmini XS200 with its 20 GB of storage, and do without the radio, alarm clock, and Dictaphone.