Cowon iAudio U2 MP3 player

The small but sonically sweet pocket music player.

It might look like a high-tech pack of gum, but this player has decent battery life and brilliant sound quality.

The down side to such compactness is that it can be tricky to use. Almost everything is controlled via one joystick. This leads to frustration as certain menus are accessed with one tap of the joystick, others by pressing and holding it.

When transferring tracks, it's best to ignore the outdated JetAudio application and just drag and drop files onto the player. Songs like Club Foot by Kasabian, in MP3 and standard WMA format, sound powerful, with booming bass, but it also does justice to the likes of Father and Son by Cat Stevens. Protected WMA files aren't supported, but playtime from the rechargeable battery is good at 18 hours.

With a better interface and support for more formats, this could have been a real contender. As it is, though.