MPIO HD200

This iPod lookalike is a doddle to use but there's a fairly big question mark over its price...

Ooh, it's white - how on earth did they come up with that idea? MPIO has obviously decided that since Apple isn't offering its traditional livery in the iPod mini line, it should step into the breach. Even better, the Korean brand has chosen to use a 5GB hard drive rather than the Apple's 4GB variety, putting this player in direct competition with Creative's new colourful Zen Micro (T3 107, 3/5).

When you plug the HD200 into your PC or Mac via USB 2.0, it appears to the computer as a standard removable hard disk. This means you can just drag and drop music files onto the device - it may not have the glitz of other systems, but it's dead easy to use. Thankfully, this ease of use carries over to the unit itself. The interface is intuitive and easy to navigate, even if it's all a bit slow. The player is also light and small enough to fit into any pocket, bar those little ones on Levi's where you're supposed to put nails or something.

In the sonics department, it puts in a solid performance and supports a laudable number of file formats, including MP3, WMA, ASF and OGG. You also get an on-board FM radio. When you consider that if you shop around, you can pick up jukeboxes with 20GB of storage for less money than this player, it does put its value into question. However, compared to other mini hard disk models with similar capacity, this is a good- looking, easy-to-use device that doesn't sound half bad.