I honestly cannot remember when I got this mp3 player. It was at least 4 years ago though and probably longer. The fact that I have not replaced this player yet probably gives you an indication of how much I love it! I got it initially because I didn't want to pay the price of an ipod when there were other options out there that I felt were equally as good.


This player looks really great and even now I still think it is modern and attractive. Mine is the black version with a white case on the back and it lights up a lovely blue colour. The combination of colours is great and looks really classy. I was surprised when I got this player as to how small it is. It is more bulky than the modern ipods but still much smaller than my mobile phone and easily fits in a pocket. The screen is just less than half the size of the player which makes it a really good size.


Ok, so the main reason I got this product was to listen to music. It performs this function very well. Adding music to the player is easy using the software provided with the player. The software is also easy to install and very user friendly. The instructions provided with the player tell you all you need to know. Listening to the music is also easy and the quality of the sound is great. I have obviously had to replace the headphones that I originally got with the player but all of the ones I have used have worked well.


There are 6 buttons on the front of the player. These are the play/pause button, the skip forward and skip backword buttons, the return button, the scroll bar and the menu button. The small number of buttons makes the player really simple to use. On the top of the player there is the on/off button which also doubles as the lock. The buttons are really touch sensitive and they all still work just as well as when I got the player.


The menus are really simple to use and give you all the usual options like music library, now playing, photos, radio and system. I'm very untechnically minded and I still find the menus really simple to use and can work my way around quite easily. Even creating playlists is easy and the DJ option is great. This gives you lists of songs like your favourites, least played and sorts songs by genre.


I don't really understand the photo function of this player. There is no camera and I don't really know why I would want to store all my photos on my mp3 player just to look at every so often. It also would use up memory so I have never really used this function.


I have used the radio function which was also easy to use and quite a good feature. I wasn't expecting to get a radio included with the player so it was a bit of a bonus.


The player has 8GB of memory which I know is quite small compared with what is available today. However, I have never come close to filling the 8GB and unless you really do have a lot of music it will probably be adequate. Apparently it will store around 4000 songs and thousands of photos. I'm not sure if this means you can store more songs if you have less photos or if it means either of the options.


The battery life is still really good and I can play music for a good few hours before having to charge it. It did last longer when I first got the player but I can't complain after this long! The one annoying thing about charging this player is that it only comes with a USB charger. My brother bought me a mains charger about a year after I got the player which is much more useful.


I am very impressed with the durability of this mp3 player. It has survived several years of use, being carried around in multiple handbags, travelled to several hot foreign countries, been dropped in sand, water and from a height and is still working. I feel this is really impressive bearing in mind that most stuff I have I break in some way.


When I got this mp3 player it cost around £100 which bearing in mind how long it has lasted was a bargain. I had a quick look on amazon and you can pick one of these up for under £50 now which is a very good deal.