I looked far and wide for an MP3 player that would suit all of my needs, and I had quite a few of them. I wanted a player that could hold a lot of high-quality music, a player that didn't "eat" up batteries, a player that was relatively inexpensive, and a player that looked nice and wasn't too large to fit in my pocket. The Iomega HipZip was the only player that I found that fit all of these!

I selected this product mostly because of its built in rechargeable battery(most used AAA or AA batteries) and the fact that is uses Clik! (or PocketZip) disks, which each hold 40MB and are cheap. Just the money I am saving on batteries alone makes this player a worthwhile choice.

I bought my player online and, when I finally received it, I couldn't wait to try it out. Only one problem, it was missing the power cord! I then figured out that this player was returned since it was already almost fully charged and had several parts that were not plastic wrapped like the new one I received later. I contacted Iomega support (since the box said not to return the product to the retailer) and they simply told me they couldn't help, so at this point I was getting a little annoyed. I returned the player to where I bought it and they sent me out another one. This one was perfect.

The battery charged quickly, although I learned that it only charges while the player is on, so you can't just leave it plugged in when you're not using it. This is kind of annoying, but it still beats putting batteries into the player every other day. Once it was charged, the first thing I noticed about it was that it was pretty loud. The disk "spins-up" about once every minute, and it can be very loud if you're in a quiet room (like on a train), but it doesn't bother me. The sound quality is great (although I never tried the headphones that came with the player), and the information displayed on the screen is also great. The player displays the artist/title of the song, the play mode (repeat all, repeat track, scan, etc.), the volume, the time, the track number, the battery status, and the equalizer setting. The equalizer can be set to several presets, or you can select your own bass and treble levels. The player never skipped anytime that I've used it, and the disks are easy to copy to, either with the included USB cable, or the $25 Clik! drive you can buy for a laptop computer. The player will also tell you how much space you have left when you insert the disk which is nice to know.

The sound is crisp and clear, and with the wide range of equalizer settings to choose from, you can custom fit the sound to just how you like it. You can also play WMA (Windows Media) files, although I've never tried them. The only problems I've had are the player locking up at the ends of some tracks. This happens quite often, and I have to wait about a minute for the player to automatically shut off and turn on again, which is a pain. Hopefully this will be addressed in future firmware upgrades. Speaking of firmware, that is also another good feature of this player. You can upgrade the firmware (software controlling the player) at any time through the Iomega website. I've done it once, and it went smoothly. Usually, the update includes additional features or fixes to the player.

Overall, I'm happy I bought this player, and it's nice to just remove and add songs as I like, unlike with a CD player. The player was definitely worth the money, and I would recommend this to anyone who wants an affordable and great MP3 player!

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 99