2. A Dream Display

But the major strength of the H320 is its screen. The size of a digital-camera display, the screen has unprecedented luminosity and clarity for this type of product. The H320's photo viewing function is actually worth using, whereas this feature is often of no interest on units like this (the Gmini from Archos for example) due to a pale, lifeless screen.

But though the display makes for fine viewing of JPEG files, it knows no equal when it comes to navigating among folders of song files, playing audio or accessing the many configuration options. In each situation, all the information necessary for easy, intuitive use is presented on the display with astonishing clarity. A note for those who might prefer to default the display to one of the many available languages, however: The H320 relies heavily on English regardless of the language setting.

The bad: It's a shame that the buttons that let you access all these functions are not up to the level of the display. The blue "NAVI" button is easily accessible, but the same is not true for the "next track," "previous track" and volume buttons, which are set in a narrow border around the NAVI button. As a result, you'll usually prefer to use the remote control located between the player and the headphones. Even though it's not very convenient either - lacking an LCD display, for example - it's still easier to use.