iRiver finally decided to release the 8GB Clix2 on the US electronics market, confident enough it's going to break some nano nuts. Even though Clix2 has been wandering around the globe for some time now, the Americans are the ones to decide its commercial muscles.

Compared to Apple's iPod nano, the iRiver device sports a bigger screen of 2.2 inch. I still believe iRiver has some beautiful players in its portfolio; however, its prices need to go down, as the competitors are already adopting this marketing strategy.

However, with so many soft features integrated in the device, such as a Speedy Flash UI or built-in Fm tuner, I would actually say their competitors are most likely Creative Zen, SanDisk Sansa, Meizu M6 or Insignia Pilot.

Anyway, to remind you about the Clix2's capabilities I should tell you it can deal with almost all the audio and video file formats on the market, such as MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, WMA, ASF, WMV9 SP, MPEG-4 SP, Macromedia Flash Lite 2.1, TXT, non-progressive JPEG; it works with an internal Li-polymer rechargeable battery and doesn't work on Macs.

Besides that, there is the usual stuff, a 55g lightweight, some EQ modes and up to 25 hours battery life. Not to mention it comes in different storage capacities, of 2, 4 or 8GB.

With so many changes in the industry, I wonder why it takes so long for these players to hit the US market. And I definitely think iRiver should do better than that to compete with the big fish. They have to be quicker and smarter!

The most curious part of the new 8GB Clix2 device is its price, as $240 is probably a fair price for a decent PMP with 8GB storage, but with the new iPod Nano sucking the glory on the market, also with 8GB of memory and iPod Touch 8GB only $50 away, this sort of pricing might not work at all!

Here's a short review of the player: