Digital audio player manufacturer iRiver seems to be on a release frenzy lately. We've heard about the re-release of the E100, the new entry market T5 and T6 models, and now it looks like they're preparing a metal body MP3 player, dubbed the E50.

By what we can seen from the relatively few available press photos, the E50 is pretty much identical with the E100, but comes with a more stylish brushed aluminum casing. Users will be permitted to choose between 2GB, 4GB or 8GB models. Again, we see iRiver using standard-capacity flash storage in order to keep prices low. This is not a bad thing though. If you don't want to have your entire music collection on the go, 4GB are pretty much all you need so that you don't get bored on a long trip.

Other features are also identical to the E100 and come in the form of an 1.8-inch, 262.000 colors LCD with an acceptable (for it's size), 176x220 pixels resolution. File support is pretty abundant, with all the popular music formats on the list: MP3, OGG, FLAC, WAV and WMA. It's good to see FLAC on the list since this is a lossless format and will provide users with a better sound quality compared to MP3 files. But keep in mind that if you want to use FLAC files, you should go for the 8GB model, since FLACs are about ten times more larger than MP3s.

The device also allows for BMP, JPEG and GIF pictures to be displayed, but the 1.8-inch screen won't prove to be particularly well-suited for the task. If you get bored by your tracks, you can always start up the FM tuner and even use it to record some new tunes.

What's truly impressive about the E50 is the 52 hour battery life. I think this is a lot better than most of the MP3 players out there and presents itself as a must have solution for situations in which an USB port isn't immediately available.

Expect the E50 somewhere in January with a moderate price of $90 for the 4GB edition.





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