When I was packing my bags to go travelling and money was a little tight - I decided to get myself a Shuffle to take on my travels. Money was an issue at the time and I wanted to save for the trip rather than waste money on things to take with me. So I picked a red shuffle at about £50 from the Apple website. It arrived promptly after ordering in secure packaging.

Size isn't everything and the shuffle looks good! It's probably the size of a matchbox and has a clip on the back which can be attached to your clothing. It has the standard Apple controls and a headphone jack and that's about it! There aren't any features that come with a shuffle - which in my opinion is fine - I want a music player not a gadget to play games on.

The shuffle is perfect for exercise - it simply clips on to your clothing and there is no need to worry about it falling off. Mine was always secure and even when running, I never worried about it becoming detached.

The reason I replaced my Shuffle for a Nano, I found 1 GB just wasn't enough for my needs. I tend to stick songs on and then never get round to replacing them. With the Nano it held enough so that when I did my quarterly (ish) update of albums and play lists I wouldn't be bored of everything on there. Also, with the Shuffle I found (and I'm not the most patient of people...) that I was always skipping to the next track to see what it was, I that's more an issue with me though than the Shuffle!

Battery life was always fine - it would last a week or so (with heavy use) before I would need to charge it. It could be quite annoying though as there is a light on the side which indicates the battery juice - I prefer the old fashioned bar going down.

I never had any problems with the Shuffle, it was dropped on numerous occasions and always worked perfectly. There are obviously well made too as I had it for a couple of years and it didn't have a single scratch on it.

If you are looking for a light weight, simple MP3 player then I think this could be the one for you. Although I would recommend opting for a larger size - it's worth the extra few quid.