Hi,
Been using the H4n quite heavy for 2 years now, tested it almost every way possible, its built from a piece of plastic (junk, but it works, even when it fell to the floor several times, no harm done) but no other recorder can beat it in terms of versability/cost, the internal capsules are OK, similar to the sony D50 (more neutral), a bit heavy on mids and highs, 4 ch and XLR with 48v... if you dont push them, the preamps work without any added noise, it depends on your mics.
If you're in some place (outside) and you want to record something, this unit is very straight forward, no need for other mics, pre-amps, the works, like the case of the M-10, with crippled internals (a pair of omni's that cant translate the stereo image because they are so close together)... I've used it several times in 4ch rec, with internals and a Shure VP88 on XLR, or with a pair of Church audio binaurals (with PIP on), and the same Shure, it cant do 2 mixing on the spot, you get 2 stereo files... i use enloop batteries and it last quite a lot, 1h to 1h30 in these setups...
Sorry for not going to the point in your question, but I see a lot of people bashing out the recorder, when it does quite well...