The Apacer looks and feels the part, with modern styling, tough plastic exterior and a front-loading CD tray. Lettering on the tray gives away the fact it can read DVDs, even if it can't write them (useful as the drive can be used like any other when connected to a PC, and as a card reader).

There's no LCD image playback, but considering the hash the Nixvue makes of this, it might be just as well. The small blue screen is there to let you know when copying starts and finishes, and to give you the option of either secure or fast-copy modes, as well as instructions for viewing images on a TV screen.

A remote control is supplied for this purpose, and allows you to access the usual playback features. A rechargeable battery is also supplied, along with a mains adaptor/battery charger, which sets this unit above the Nixvue and its mains-power reliance. In fast mode the test card was all done and dusted in 5 minutes 29 seconds, which is decent for 512Mb.

Lovely looking, decent enough features and a good transfer rate for CD-Rs. Matt Henry

But, as is often the case with low-cost kit you get very much what you pay for and Mustek appears to have taken a few shortcuts in order to keep the cost down

The screen isn't capable of producing anything approaching its rivals' video quality. It shimmers slightly, and the line structure of the TFT panel is clearly visible.

Then there are the format woes. Unlike most PMPs, the PVR-H140 forces you to convert videos to its own special .ASF format. The software for this is bundled with the player. Most video types will convert successfully, but it's a slow and annoying process, especially with larger files. With most of its rivals allowing you to simply drag and drop files into them via Windows Explorer, the Mustek's system seems unnecessarily archaic and clunky in comparison.

All that glitters is not gold

While we can't deny that this seems like a bargain, there are simply too many things going against the PVR-H140 for us to recommend it. Even the design is poor - this is a chunky, ugly piece of kit that won't attract many admiring looks on the morning commute. Our advice is to save your pennies a bit longer for one of the far superior options around.

The PhotoBank joins the growing digital photo storage market, and instantly wins points for keeping things simple. Transcend has taken the functional approach: it has a simple LCD; slots for CompactFlash, SecureDigital, MultiMediaCard, SmartMedia and MemoryStick cards; three large, easy to understand buttons and exceptional navigation.

This is matched with solid and stylish design. Functionally, read/write times from a CF to the drive are a little slow but reliable, although without a screen there is no way to check the images. Back home, the device-to-computer transfer times are pleasingly fast.

It's nice to see such a simple photo storage device, easy to use, solidly built, and only let down by a relatively low battery life of three hours. It's available in either 20GB or 40GB capacities.

If you want more, such as a colour screen, then Transcend also makes the snazzier multimedia Digital Album, which you can use to view your photos as well as listen to your MP3 music collection.

While the AV400 is great, it's quite chunky, and the buttons can be fiddly to use. The 400, however, has Gallic charm by the bucketful: it's slick, silver, and feels just as compact as a conventional iPod. Add a 20GB hard disk and video support and you've got quite a package, Oh, and did we mention the slot for your camera's CompactFlash card?

While we wouldn't go as far as saying the Gmini is an iPod killer, it's an excellent alternative. And if bragging rights are important, the Gmini will certainly attract more attention than the iPod.

The interface design is still not quite there on Archos players, and the Gmini takes a bit of getting used to: it feels more like Windows 98 than Mac OS X. Once you're up to speed though, the Gmini rocks. Music playback is great: clear, detailed, with a bass boost that kicks up the lower frequencies without distortion.

Wear some decent Sennheiser headphones and you'll be dancing in the street. Copying over tracks from Windows Media Player is easy too, so musically the 400 matches the iPod blow for blow. The smooth lines make it very pocketable, though the headphone jack would be better placed at one end.

Music is only one part of the package though. The screen is very clear and colourful, and it doesn't seem to unduly drain the batteries, so the Gmini is great for simple video playback. MPEG-4 and DivX are supported, but unlike its bigger brother, you can't record from the TV (though the player does enable TV playback via the supplied AV cable).

Obviously 20GB is not a great deal for video storage, so while this option is nice to have, we suspect it won't be used as much as the music and photo functions. The inclusion of a CompactFlash slot, however, is a stroke of genius, and puts Apple to shame.

The Gmini's clear screen - again, the same size as the iPod's - makes it an absolutely brilliant photo album, and 20GB stores a lot of shots. You can even make slideshows. Battery life is comparable to the standard iPod, though video playback takes its toll.

The Gmini 400 works out better value than the £180 iPod, though it still doesn't look as nice, gives the 20GB iPod a run for its money and shows up the iPod Photo for the expensive stop-gap it is. For most shoppers, we reckon the decision to go for Archos or Apple will hinge on the relative appeal of the brands. It's a hard one, though, and Archos is now a serious rival to the bigger names.

This is the only portable image back-up device that doesn't use a hard disk. Instead, it writes your images straight to CD, which it can do thanks to built-in card readers for CompactFlash, SD cards and Memory Sticks. The CP-200 is a good deal bulkier than a portable hard drive, and has lower capacity. There's no image playback function, but it's the only unit enabling you to leave copies of images with friends, clients or family.

You might expect a CD-writer to be impossibly slow, but while it does take longer than writing image backups to a hard disk, the difference isn't that great. It took 177 seconds to back up our 128MB card to a blank CD, and only 121 seconds with one that had already been formatted.

A Secure mode verifies your data, taking the back-up time to 213 seconds. The process is simple - just put in a CD, put in your memory card and choose Fast or Secure mode from the menu. Rod Lawton