Still number one in the MP3 player arena, the venerable iPod family got a new addition in 2005. It is a pencil thin ipod nano, 4 GB model stores up to 1000 songs; supports AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC, MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF. It comes with earbud headphones, USB cable, dock adapter. This is Compatible with Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4 or later, or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later; Mac OS X v10.3.4 or later.

The iriver T10 not only supports subscription music services but also has an FM tuner for when you just want to hear the radio. It features a voice recorder for your notes-to-self, and its built-in sport clip makes it a handy workout companion. 3 fruity colors and sophisticated curvature-design. Like most Flash-based players, it comes with 512 MB of storage, or you can get the 1 GB model for about $50 more.

The new digital music player from Sony features spectacular ergonomic design and an exciting range of intelligent features that allow the user to enjoy. Sharing the stylish looks of the NW-A1000, the Sony NW-A3000 steals the attention wherever it goes. It does have its drawbacks, as evidenced by challenging interaction with the onboard music library and a mild case of obesity, but these irks are fortunately mitigated by good battery life and high quality audio output - provided a proper set of earphones are used. Those not in need of fancy multimedia features but rather decent music playback and good looks will find the NW-A3000 a very good choice indeed.

Retaining the roomy 20 GB-capacity, great sound performance and user-friendly music library interaction of its predecessor, the Zen Sleek Photo improves greatly on FM signal reception and boasts a brand-new 262K colour screen. In summary, the Zen Sleek Photo delivers the goods as an all-round performer with excellent sound output across a multitude of genres sprinkled with good photo viewing capabilities.

For the person who easily loses things, this clip type MP3 player is for you. Measuring 25.6 x 53.2 x 22.6mm and weighing just 20g, it can be clipped just about anywhere.

This is actually an MP3 player you can build yourself. Minty claims that half of the parts can be sampled for free, meaning you'll only end up spending around $50 along with countless hours of brain wracking.