Samsung's YP-S2 Pebble MP3 player is a unit for those after something basic. It does a good job with music playback and it looks stylish, but it lacks the features of its more expensive counterparts.

Creative's ZEN Stone Plus is another good entry into the digital music market. It does suffer from poor battery life and a slightly slow interface, but if you're after a small and relatively stylish unit, it is a reasonable choice.

We liked the fact you can always see on-screen information about albums and songs on the Philips GoGear SA2845 — a crucial detail missing from some other makers’ micro MP3 players. We also enjoyed the ability to jump with such ease between successive tracks, but we were less taken with the way we were expected to navigate the rest of the music library. Relying on a very small hardware button jammed up against the headphone jack seemed rather a waste given the presence of the far easier and more intuitive pressure-based arrow navigation on the main player.

The Sansa Shaker is a great introduction to the world of portable music and will no doubt keep kids and pre-teens amused for hours.

Sandisk's Sansa Clip is a great value for money MP3 player. It has an intuitive display, great audio quality and a low price tag, as well as a clip that helps hold it in place making it ideal to use while exercising.

An incredibly cheap MP3 player, the Linophir's design and performance reflect this. If you can spare an extra couple of dollars, don't bother with this player.

The design, ease of use, folder support and low price tag make the ZEN Stone an attractive and superior alternative to the iPod shuffle.

Only minor aesthetic changes have been made to the new iPod shuffle. It may serve you well as a secondary music player, or a device ideal for jogging or exercise, but the lack of a screen and below average sound quality diminishes its value.