2. Small But Powerful

One of the main criticisms of the first Jukebox was its size. This has now been addressed, and the makeover has produced the Jukebox 3, smaller by one-third and much lighter. But it is still too big to carry around easily, so unless you have a big jacket with deep pockets, you'll have to lug it around in a backpack. Still, this can be forgiven, since it can hold your entire music library and plug into any device with its two mini-jack analog line outs.

On the surface, the Jukebox 3 looks pretty much the same as Jukebox 1, with its rounded shape and metallic blue-gray color. Creative Labs has even thought of removable fronts for the fashion-conscious. The only trouble is that the plastic used is a bit tacky for a device of this class and price. All you need to do is compare it with the Apple iPod to get the idea. The same goes for the 132 x 164 LCD screen which, though impressive, is undermined by an oversized font and a display somewhat lacking in style. By the way, it can lit with a blue or green background.

The Jukebox 3 does pretty well for buttons. There are the four standard buttons for sound playback: play/pause, fast forward and rewind. Its chief advantage is the scroll button on the right, which makes it very easy to browse through the menus. On the left is the Menu button as well as an EAX button for setting environmental effects and the line outs for the speakers used (stereo or surround). The two buttons on the front right are for volume control and the three just above the LCD screen are for search, menu scrolling and MP3 library display.