The iFP-890 is a flash memory audio player. It does not have a removable card, nor can it be expanded, and it offers a total capacity of 256 MB. The product also comes in versions with a choice of 128, 512 or 1,024 MB, which vary in price according to capacity. The device is connected to a PC through a USB 2.0 interface that is indispensable when you get to that level of memory. We measured the stream while transferring thirty or so MP3 files representing a total of 100 MB of data. It took a total of 85 seconds! That's pretty reasonable for an audio player with memory, even though the transfer rate of around 1.2 MB doesn't really do justice to the USB 2.0, which can reach a theoretical maximum of 60 MB. The transfer rate would not be considered fast enough for a Walkman with a hard drive.

The iFP-890 powers up quite quickly. It took barely two seconds to initialize the firmware and to see the list of tunes appear. Switching from one title to another is also a fast process, and it was actually better than certain audio CD players. As for the power supply, iRiver preferred to opt for a simple AA battery rather than for a rechargeable battery. This was a good choice. The iFP-890 ran for a whole 26 hours of continuous play before the battery went dead. This isn't quite up to the 40 hours that the product claims but let's not be too picky. At least you won't go bust buying batteries.