Anyone on the lookout for a cheap, but capable, MP3 player could do a lot worse than the latest from Hitachi Japan . The oddly named I'm Muse HMP-X5 goes on sale this week in Japan and should give some of Apple's DAPs a run for their money.
For ¥16,000 (£65) the X5 offers 2GB of storage, a 16-hour battery life and can handle MP3, WMA and WAV audio formats. Given that it weighs a sizeable chunk less than an iPod nano at just 31g, the inclusion of a voice recorder is most welcome.
Design is obviously attractive, although the monochrome screen is slightly disappointing, as is the lack of colour choice - only black or white are available. Sadly for Mac fans, the I'm Muse players in the line-up are all Windows only.