iRiver T30 MP3 player

It looks great and keeps going all night. Please put your hands together for the fabulous T30...

Thanks to its large, four-line display and decent helping of buttons, this is the easiest to use of all the players on test. It also looks striking in its lime green shell.

Getting files onto it is child's play with the "Sync To" feature in Windows Media Player 10. However, while it's listed by Napster as a supported player, it didn't work with the To Go service, even after we upgraded the player's firmware.

Nevertheless, the sound quality on both WMA and MP3 files is exemplary. The bass is thumping on Fugazi's Repeater album and acoustic tracks by Devendra Banhart are bright and airy.

There's no rechargeable cell, but we got 19 hours of playback from a AAA battery, which is good for a unit this size.

Overall, this is a fine player - easy to use, with great sound quality. It's a shame there's no built-in rechargeable battery, but it offers the best compromise between performance and battery life.