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I have been playing with iRiver’s newest PMP offering, the SPINN for two weeks now, and am finally ready to put some of my meandering thoughts down concerning this fascinating new device. It is literally unlike any MP3 player I have ever used before and has been great fun to test.

For those of you who have missed reading about this device on the blogs or seeing one in the shops, the SPINN is a small PMP with a retro twist…a small analog wheel at one end that can be used in combination with the 3.5 inch AMOLED screen to do just about anything on your unit, at least according to iRiver.

The unusually striking design and mid-sized capacity (8G or 16G) puts the SPINN directly in line to compete with the new iPod Touches and Nanos and smaller Zune 2s. In that space, iRiver will have it’s work cut out for it, facing not only Apple and MS but the multi-headed Sansa line from SanDisk and a few stray Cowon devices. How does the SPINN turn out? Read on for my full review.

From the first moment I held the SPINN, I knew it was going to be a serious design challenge to Apple. Way beyond the normal blingy rectangular box of most mp3 players. The technical specs are certainly impressive and more then a match for all comers.

For me, the nature of the SPINNhinges on four review points: Hardware, Software, Style, and Performance.

Hardware

Physically, the main focus of the SPINN is on the groovy analog wheel and the AMOLED touchscreen. In tandem, the two are supposed to control all aspects of the device’s operation, but I found a few snags with that system.

First of all, the wheel itself is a lovely feature and is very very useful. It terms of sheer usability I found it worked much better for me then the standard D pad. Spin it to go through menus or a playlist or a video, click it to select an option or play. Very intuitive, very convenient. One of the things I life best about the wheel is how it can be used for so many different tasks…for example when the device is locked, it becomes a volume control. However, it is not all cakes and ale. The snag comes from the fact that the wheel is actually a little too sensitive. It is very easy to accidently touch it when you don’t wish to, or spin it too far and miss what you are looking for. Some way to adjust the sensitivity of the wheel would have been nice touch. The finicky analog wheel was actually made worse by the touchscreen. Don;t get me wrong, the screen looks great, nice and sharp and clean, with a very Spartan GUI that I loved after coming from the big splashy pop icons of the IPod Touch.

The screen looks fantastic, no question, but I found usability is an unexpectedly major problem. The Touchable items in the GUI are indicated by an orange underline, which is all well and good, but the spots are so small, and so often at the very edge of the recessed screen (like OPT in the picture to the right, to open the Options menu), that they are almost impossible for me to get to respond. It usually takes me at least three tries to get the screen to sense my touch on those areas.  Nor being the most patient of souls I tend to give up and just use the last resort Back hardware button on the top of the unit. I could say this is a Software problem, but I feel it has more to do with hardware, that is the use of the recessed screen. I also think the screen has some responsiveness issues in general. All in all, except for the main options which are thankfully written large in the middle of the screen, such as MUSIC, I found the touch screen almost useless. It sure is pretty though.

Beyond my unhappiness with the screen, the device has the great build quality one expects from iRiver and is one of the lightest players I have held. In terms of weight it feels about the same as a Sansa Clip in the hand, but that is partially psychological since it is in reality double the Clip’s weight. Still, this is a LIGHT MP3 player…a little too light for me. I kept being concerned that I was going to toss it across the room by accident. I prefer a little more heft to my devices, but that is very much a personal quirk. I was also unhappy with the small door that covered the sync port. It feels quite flimsy and doomed to die long before the rest of the device. Also, I was very annoyed to see that the device requires a proprietary connector rather then a Mini or Micro USB.

My wife, who is more or less half my size (give or take a foot) played with this device and found herself very happy with both the weight and the touchscreen on the SPINN, so this may be a matter of just having hands that are too large for the device. Manly men at the height of their manlyness, such as myself, may want to keep that in mind.

The physical volume control, the power button, the hardware back button and the hold slider are all well positioned and solidly built. Very easy to use. The same can;t be said for the headphone jack. it is positioned on the end of the device, on the other side from the rotary wheel. The way it is position, it makes being carried in a case potentially impossible if you keep your headphones plugged in, as the connector will jut far out of the device. This can only be partially alleviated by using headphones with an L shaped connector. If it REALLY bothers you, use Bluetooth phones (more about that later).

SOFTWARE

Most of the elements of the GUI are very clean and straightforward. What problems exist have to do with the touchscreen as described above. While you can use a standard Windows directory to move videos and mp3s onto the unit, an install disk is provided for iRiver’s proprietary music management software, iRiver Plus 3. This can be used to convert videos and to sync music and other files to the device. As such things go, it is bare bones, barely covering the bare minimum required for a software app of this kind. As far as features are concerned, it is light years behind both iTunes and Zune software. A case in point is album cover art. Of the 10 albums I loaded onto my SPINN, iPod and Zune, the SPINN was able to find none of the art online automatically and each one had to be added manually. iTunes was able to find 7 out of 10 while the Zune found all 10 with no problem. The desktop MP3 player functions reminded me of a mediocre Winamp 2 skin, in both look and feel. I always prefer to use the software package designed for a certain piece of hardware, but in this case I deleted iRiver plus 3 and load folders onto the device manually. While the Zune software is a joy to use in general, and iTunes works well and intuitively to keep your iPod up to date , iRiver Plus 3 seems like a lame afterthought. In my opinion they would have been better off going the same route as the Sansa line and shipping without management software, letting the user use Windows Explorer or a third party app of their own, such as Winamp.

Another strange thing about the software is that elements that are included in the GUI which do not appear to be supported yet, with no information about how or if they will ever work. For example, in the Settings menu of the SPINN you have an option for loading a Theme. No themes save for the default are listed, and there is no information as to HOW you would get a theme onto the device. At least it would have been nice to know how the system will work.

When it comes to key features however, the GUI is spare, efficient and straight-forward. The GUI does a fine job at previewing and listing music and video choices, and has several nice touches, including a tiny preview of the selected video. The Now Playing screen is quite typical of most MP3 players giving you the album cover if available and relevant details of the song. Tapping the screen in either music or video mode will bring out controls, and you can move backwards or forwards through a video or playlist by using the rotary wheel.

STYLE

The SPINN gets top honours from me for sheer style. This is simply a sexy looking device. Using it in public, I have had over a dozen people ask me about it, and a lot more simply stare at me while I play around with it…and after all, isn’t the “Dig Me” factor part of the fun of a new gadget? This is a device that turns heads.

I also love the look and feel of the GUI, with it’s clean, minimalistic style. Windows are clear and uncluttered, information is very readable, menus look sharp. I found it a welcome relief from the busy GUIs found on other devices. Not icons, words….something sort of comforting and old school about that.

I have to say that as far as the sheer appearance of the device and the GUI, this is my favorite of my MP3 players. It makes an impression without being as easily recognizable as an iPod. The SPINN is the road less taken, for those who still want strong design without being just one of the fanboys.

PERFORMANCE

The SPINN’s performance music wise is top notch for me. I tested it with Motorola S9 Bluetooth headphones, the basic ear buds included with the device and Sennheiser  CX 300 earbuds and had no complaints with any of them.

Of course, you must understand, I am not what I would dare to call an audiophile. I don;t much understand woofers and tweeters and will take the word of people who say MP3s sound worse then CDs which would worse then vinyl. Whatever. I am a simple soul music wise. Like many of my fellow 40somethings, I prefer my MP3 players to be able to go up to 11. That is, I want them clear, LOUD and with a bass that I can feel in my unmentionables. Give me that, and I am happy. The SPINN made me happy.

The SPINN sounded crystal clear to me, and is likely the loudest of my MP3 players save perhaps for my beloved Zune. The software comes with the normal set of EQ presets, including SRS WOW settings which like most proprietary EQ systems I have found, seems to be designed to simulate how a goldfish hears music. I set my SPINN’s EQ preset to ROCK and I was in goth metal clover.

I was not expecting much from the SPINN as far as video is concerned, and I wasn’t disappointed. The player will only work with .avi files that must be converted by either iRiver Plus 3 or a special conversion tool provided on the CD. I was never able to completely work out how to optimize a video file to play at wide screen on the device, but then video codecs are not my forte. The image was small (obviously) and had decent quality for it’s size. I could quite enjoy watching a film on the device if I had no other options while killing time on a long bus ride. The SPINN would NOT be my choice for a portable video player however and to be fair to it, I doubt it is trying to be.

Battery life is great on the device is great. I didn’t do proper tests but I used it for 2 hours at a time, both music and video, with very little battery drain, certainly only a fraction of what I see on my iPod Touch or Zune.

Lastly, I was very very impressed with the SPINN’s Bluetooth capabilities. Pairing to my S9 headphones was effortless and the sound quality was fine. It did have a few little quirks however, such as the Bluetooth transmission getting a little spotty when the SPINN was carried vertically, but putting it my bag horizontally solved that. It’s wireless capabilities were one of the main features that drew me to the SPINN, and it performed exactly as I hoped it would.

CONCLUSION

iRiver’s SPINN is not a device without problems. For example, I was very unhappy ultimately with the touchscreen which really mars the user experience for me (but which may be no problem for smaller hands) and there are certain elements of the GUI, such as the Theme options, which were clearly not ready for release when the device when to market. The video capabilities are only average, and the desktop software provided, and thankfully optional, is downright useless.

All that aside it has many strengths. The sound quality is excellent, the video is certainly passable for it’s class and the Bluetooth functionality is worth the price of admission. The device is small, light, attractive and drop dead stylish with a clean ,efficient GUI. This is certainly, for all it’s faults, a device that iRiver can be proud of and hopefully build upon.

If you are looking for a solid all around PMP with good battery life that can easily fit in any pocket, I would reservedly recommend the SPINN. I can’t wholeheartedly endorse the device, due to both the problems with the screen and the somewhat high price. but the Bluetooth and the sharp styling both add value to what I feel is a great, if quirky little MP3 player with bonuses.

Zealot (469 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).