If the lack of a display or hold button don’t bother you, this is a superb player

It’s more tweaky and involved than most players, but it’s also got far more features

The PC peripheral finally hits the mainstream with this easy-to-use touchscreen device offering loads of extras

The Vision M is something of an iPod imitator, but it doesn’t quite match its inspiration

Once you’ve mastered the touch-screen you’ll have plenty of fun with this great effort from LG

An excellent player from Samsung, combing outstanding innovation with great sound and picture clarity

If you want an alternative to Apple, here’s a great (and cheap) place to start

One of the best performers in this category – if you’re a PC user on a decent budget, you must hear this sporty Walkman

Good to have WMP compatibility, but it needs better sound.

It may be pricey, but Sony's Walkman is a fine MP3 player and a good alternative to everything Apple

The SlimX imp-550, from iRiver left us speechless in terms of the quality and design of this MP3 CD Player/FM tuner. Being possibly the thinnest CD/MP3 player on the market, this is also one of the more feature-packed.

Features voice recording and an FM tuner. The device can be fiddly to operate, and the LCD screen doesn't display any track information other than the title. There is no playlist management, and no directory structure for your tracks. Voice recording allows the sampling rate to be set up to 48,000Hz.

For the price, this unit doesn't have a lot going for it. It is clumsy to operate, and the display is too small. It has a slot for a Memory Stick, although a 'MagicGate' adaptor is required.

As the iPod continues to be enhanced, and storage capacity increased, we had a look at the latest from Apple.

A bog standard CD/MP3 player, with a minimal feature set. Apart from the typical controls such as resume, shuffle, repeat and so on, this player also has 'Digital Dynamic Bass Boost' which provides minimal strengthening of the bass signal.

Priced at the budget end of the MP3 Player market, this device doesn't perform too badly. Sound quality is acceptable, considering the price, and the preset EQs come in handy. The bass is reasonably full, the high tones are clean and not harsh, although the mid-range was a little empty, with just a hint of background hiss at higher volumes.

There is little to distinguish this from the EXP322, with the exception of a wired remote for basic track controls and the ability to play games on the LCD screen similar to black and white LCD mobile phone gaming. This model also buffers up to 420 seconds at 128Kb/s, providing a more exotic anti-skip protection than the 100 seconds of the EXP322.

The Targa TMU-401 MP3 player, whilst a little light in on-board storage, outperformed devices with larger storage capacities.

The JNC has a reasonable range of features, including FM radio and voice recording, although no capacity for storage expansion. It can be also used as removable storage, for any file type. The software includes a simple tool to format the device, a firmware upgrade utility and RealOne Player Gold. There is no support for playlists, however, unless created within the player itself.

This player has its own speaker which would be handy for instant playback of voice recordings. There is 128MB storage on board, with a MMC card slot, located in the battery compartment. The headphones clip over your ear, and are quite comfortable to wear.