I recently bought my mum one of these as she's doing a french course so finds it helpful to be able to listen to her listening comprehensions on the move. Needless to say she was delighted with the present and it works brilliantly, you can set it to shuffle or straight playing and the on off switch is a handy feature as when she used my iPod I often found it had run out of battery where she'd forgotten to turn it off! It's a nice size and can discreetly clip to your clothes especially on inside pockets. The only downside is no screen but to be honest most MP3 users don't want one so it's great!