I bough my Elonex unseen on the strength of the reviews here. It's my first E-reader so I can't compare to the iRiver, sorry. The Elonex does everything I could need. It's simple and intuitive, the screen is excellant (I read for 8 hours yesterday, a complete record for me!) and suffered no eye strain, headaches etc. My wife and I love it so much we bought a second Elonex. I'm not sure if that helps at all but in making my own decision I could not see the point of spending more and I still hold that view.