Manufacturer: XS Drive
Model: MP3
Price: £65
www.cardmedia.co.uk

XS Drives seem to come and go at a tremendous pace, with each one offering more storage, smaller units and newer features.

This is one of the smallest yet, and is XS Drive’s answer to the iPod.

Not as slim as the latest-generation Apple players, the XS drive has the advantage of accepting any media card, except Smartmedia. This adds necessary bulk to the unit, but at 19mm thick, it’s hardly a brick.

The units come in a choice of capacities: 20GB, 30GB and a future 40GB.

Transferring a 1GB card to the unit takes around 8 minutes, so it isn’t the fastest unit in the world, and it offers download and upload to PC via a USB 2.0 hi speed connection.

It also includes 64MB of flash memory, offering up to 10 hours of continual MP3 playback.

The Hard Drive can store much more music, but you need to copy the files to and from the flash memory to play and gain the battery life.

We found this far less convenient than other multimedia players. There’s no image-viewing option, just a blue LCD with an unattractive font.

Similarly, the menu and operation is effective but dull and the five-way controller is flimsy.

Verdict:
The unit is certainly small and convenient, but is basic and artisan rather than cool and funky like some of its competitors.

Pros:
Size

Cons:
No image viewing option, menu and operation boring and controller is flimsy

What Digital Camera Score: 79%