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There’s been a lot of talk on forums regarding iriver’s solutions and apple’s alternatives.
Since we have iriver’s S10 and Apple’s Shuffle with us, let’s just go along and compare them rather than making baseless conclusions and flaming.

Sound:
First of all, sound, the most important feature that everyone considers before buying any digital mp3 player. In comparison with shuffle, I have to be honest with you here, S10 sounds far better than Shuffle. Although it might sound a bit biased but it’s true. If I were to describe it, the output is vivid or more electrifying, kind of happening sound rather than dull or normal like shuffles’. The shuffle’s sound isn’t as bad as your everyday $20 mp3 player either it just isn’t good enough. When you compare two things, it is evident which one’s better and here, iriver’s S10 takes the cake.

Display:
S10 wins hands down. There is simply no display here in shuffle. No Display = no picture viewer, no on hand custom eq and so on.

Usability:
This is something you would find interesting. iPods are acclaimed for their easy to use interface but what good an interface would do when your product doesn’t even have a display to work with. As I stated before, iPod’s shuffle lacks a display so you might have to work around the whole list to find that specific song you want to listen. While in S10, just go back by pressing left and highlight the song from the list you want to listen and press right. Simple as that. Thus S10 wins here as well.

Wearability:
Shuffle takes the prize here. The S10 is wearable however compared with Shuffle’s Clip, it’s just one of those hanging players. When working out or doing some road work, you need something that doesn’t hit your chest everytime you take a step. However S10 can be improvised to be worn using the earphones’ clip but it isn’t actually designed to be worn that way. It’s possible that sooner or later you might break the clip.

Software:
Both of these players carry resourceful softwares to help customer’s need. But it’s fact that itune’s feature list outgrows that of Plus 3’s. Therefore, it can rightfully claim to be one of the best Mp3 Player associated software from manufacturer in the world. While Plus 3 is all out simple and basic software support system for it’s mp3 product lines. Offering features like editing, identifying and making ID3 Tags and copying, editing and creating playlists in .pla format. That seems to be the basic functionality that I would want in any associated software. Apple’s iTunes on the other hand seems to cover more bases than iriver’s plus does. It supports other features like reducing the bitrates and randomly selecting songs and other features that just make it better to use. Not to mention the 99c shop. iTune wins the battle here. However having so many features can make iTunes a bit unstable and incompatible with some systems, Plus 3 on the other hand works fine and dandy with most systems I tested with.

Compatibility:
Now this is where the fun begins. iPods can’t play music without iTunes or any other open source programs, S10 on the other hand can do that. I mentioned before that S10 just needs to be connected to a computer and that’s it. Dump any mp3 or supported file format in here and you’re done. The S10 will pick it up. So if you’re at your friend’s place and like this particular song and forget to put your little itune software in your shuffle, you’ll have to copy the song on the shuffle’s storage, head back home and make iTunes recognize it. On the other hand, S10 will pick the song up as soon as it’s copied on its drive. In truth, any player more compatible than Apple’s iPod.

Conclusion:
Overall, iriver’s S10 is way better than Apple’s iPod shuffle even though they share the same “i” nomenclature. The difference is too big. The S10 has colored OLED screen that shows what song you’re listening to and not to mention the visualization, which I really adore by the way. S10 or any other digital mp3 player in its category has such “similar” visual display and at its price? I don’t think so or atleast I couldn’t find one at review time. Other than that, sound quality is just better than the shuffle. Better than shuffle, certainly better than made in China $20 mp3 player. S10 sounds healthier, enhanced and detailed than shuffle’s. Other feature’s as stated above make small but valid differences like the compatibility, usability and capacity size per feature ratio just makes it a better choice.
However, with an added OLED Color screen there comes a price. S10 is a tad more expensive than the apple and other players in its category. But the reason why it’s expensive is the added 1.15” OLED Color display and in my opinion paying Rs. 900 over the Shuffle 1GB’s PKR 6,000 (£ 55.00) is worth it. While an S10 1GB, on the other hand, costs somewhere around PKR 6,900. In short, iriver’s S10 can be termed as one of the best small miniature mp3 players ever introduced in Pakistani market. Globally, there are many choices to consider however iriver’s S10 still is a distinct product among them. The only thing that this player needs is a bit of theme customization and added accessories to along with it.

Pros:
- Display
- Easier Controls
- Better Compatibility
- Amazing Sound
- Neat Visualizations
- Better Time Keeping
- Fast and Bugfree Software

Cons:
- Neck Earphones can be a little annoying
- Simplistic Software
With that in mind, we give this amazing little product our Award of Innovation. iRiver has really come through with an interesting yet nifty little product. This Player has most of the attributes which an Mp3 player of its magnitude should have. (MD)