My iAudio X5 player now runs Rockbox.

Installation was fantastic. Just copying some files via mass-storage.

I found navigation in rockbox hard to get used to (took me ages to find the full settings menu, the way I’ve found is like this: while playing, press the joystick a second, then press the record button.), but the info screen is very nice:

There are different themes for the playback UI, which include information on the next song to be played. Very nice. I’m looking forward to UIs that make use of the color screen.

Rockbox offers tons of features not available in the original firmware. Rockbox is said to have gapless playback, I prefer its crossfading. Replaygain is also available.

But even if some of that is not yet working: use the source, Luke!

I can’t comment on the battery life yet, haven’t used it on battery yet. This will obviously be a key factor; but the player has a battery life of up to 15 hours, so I used to recharge it only every other week. ;-)