3. LG MFJM53, Continued

There's also an EZ button for changing settings like shuffle and repeat or screen brightness. You can use it to start a slide show of photos (with or without background music) or to switch between music, photos and text files. The main menu settings include the ones you'd expect, some welcome extras like fading between tracks, displaying lyrics if you have them, setting an alarm so you can wake up to music and controlling power-hungry options like how long the screen is on. More unusually, as well as setting the recording quality, you can also slow down or speed up playback - handy for transcribing recordings.

Sensibly, LG gives you a choice of using its (Music Centre) software or Windows Explorer to transfer music , photos and video to the player. This means you can use any software that treats the player as an external drive. Plug the player in to a PC where you use Windows Media Player and AutoPlay will fire up and ask you if you want to synchronize playlists automatically. This makes it very simple to get content onto the player - including automatic playlists - so you can have your newest music or TV recordings transferred without having to pick and choose them manually. Files transfer quickly - a 4 MB digital photo copied across in about four seconds.

The LG MFJM53 supports Microsoft's Plays for Sure and shows up as a player Windows Media Player can sync to straight away.

You can charge the player over USB while it's connected; the same USB cable fits straight into the power adapter which is a neat power plug. Don't lose the cable because it has a proprietary connector.

The earbud headphones look basic but they're well suited to the player's sound and the slightly softer plastic surround makes them more comfortable than many similar earbuds. The sound quality of the player is reasonable but a little muffled, without as much range, bass or detail as we'd like to hear.

There are media players that sound better, or that have a better screen, but you won't find them with this much storage and battery life at this small a size. There are some compromises here, but the LG MFJM53 crams in the features. If you want a very portable player than can play almost anything, this is it.