MP3 fans will either love or hate the Cowon D2+ design, a player squarely aimed at the iPod crowd - but with more multimedia options that most Apple offerings for the same price.

There are more iPod nano challengers on the market than we’d care to mention, but not many put up too much of a fight, except this one.

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

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.

The 4GB Sansa Fuze handles music, videos, FM radio and voice recording with kick-ass usability, giving Apple devotees a good excuse to ditch their Nanos and embrace the joy of drag and drop.

Great in day-to-day use, but poor software and high price dent its appeal.

The new iPods are in, and so is our first take.

Sounds like the brand name of a Mexican cockroach bomb, doesn’t it?

MSI lines up to take a shot at the iPod Nano. Certainly a valiant effort, but was it a bullseye?

We reviewed it. Now please, get it as far away from us as humanly possible.

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.

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