Iomega is a late arrival at the MP3 ball, but its HipZip has a key extra. It stores its music files on removable, £8 Clik (sorry, Pocket Zip) disks. This means you can build up a stack of disks much more cheaply than using memory cards and leave files on disk, rather than having to download new music before every trip.

The HipZip is a chunky, well-designed unit which can easily be operated with your left hand. The menu system controls are on the right side, with playback controlled from four on its front panel. The menu system on the backlit display is straightforward and download is via USB, as it is with all five of these players.

The supporting PC software comprises MusicMatch and Iomega's Iomegaware. MusicMatch handles download of files from the Internet and converting them from CD, as well as copying them to your HipZip.

There are three hang-ups with the HipZip, which may slow its adoption. First, it costs a lot, not much less than the Creative DAP and £100 more than any of the other main contenders. Second, £8 per Pocket Zip disk may look cheap against memory cards, but it doesn't measure up against MiniDisc, where blanks cost around £1.50 each. Finally, if you want decent audio quality, a 40MB Pocket Zip disk only holds around half a typical album.

The HipZip has a lot of potential, but the player should cost no more than £199 and an 80MB Pocket Zip disk (Iomega's working on a larger capacity) should be no more than £3. Sales would then fly.

Iomega - HipZip price

£290 inc. VAT

Iomega: 020 73659527