This unusual circular dock from Sony offers more than just a quirky design. It features Circle Sound technology, enabling it to deliver balanced audio to every corner of the room. Featuring a 5.6cm woofer and a 2cm tweeter, the Sony also has a bass-boost function to ensure beats aren’t drowned out by the crowd at your Christmas party.

Available in black, white or red, the Sony can be plugged into the mains where it will act as a charging dock. It also has an internal rechargeable battery for use on the go. Up to 5 hours of playback can be enjoyed from a single charge, but the 13W audio output drops to 4W when running off its battery.

You can skip backwards or forwards through tracks, pause songs and adjust the volume via the bundled remote control. A second volume control is found on the speaker itself, along with an audio-in port that enables other devices to be connected to the speaker.

The most popular iPod model, the touch looks a lot like an iPhone. With the launch of Apple iOS 5, the touch now supports iCIoud -a neat way of accessing your music from anywhere via the web.

This means the 16GB or 32GB of internal storage that the player boasts is now only a theoretical limit.

Often referred to as “the iPhone without the phone”, the touch supports FaceTime video chat, can capture HD video and photos, has a games center and works with the same apps as the iPhone: a choice of more than 100,000 awaits. Wi-Fi lets you make VoIP calls; while iMessage lets you send encrypted texts to other iOS 5 users.

The 960×640-pixel widescreen is ideal for gaming. Log in with your Apple ID, create a gaming alias and do battle with friends. It’s not a bad music player either.

The Muse is a portable media player with a 3.2in (320×480-pixel) touchscreen. Broad music format support includes several lossless audio options, while SafeSound provides noise-level warnings.

The Muse lets you select a preset EQ style based on the type of music you’re listening to. It’s also possible to save custom audio settings, with control over bass, treble and more.

The 8GB player offers FM radio recording and is able to play BBC iPlayer content as well as podcasts and video in several formats. Audiobooks are offered via Audible.

A MicroSD slot lets you can sideload music, photos and video, supplementing the 8GB or 16GB of onboard memory. Expect up to 24 hours of playback per charge on this 106g player; dropping to 5 hrs when playing video.

The iPod Nano has been updated yet again, shrinking by more than 40 percent and dropping in weight to a mere 21g. Apple has given the Nano a new spin as a fitness-focused player that’s designed to be worn on your wrist. An onboard pedometer records your steps, helping you keep track of your training goals. Nike+ support has also been added.

The 2011 Nano also gains multitouch support, letting you easily flick through menu items, zoom into photos and rearrange icons on the 1.5in (240×240-pixel) display. Tapping the cover of an album that’s playing brings up playback controls.

Playlists can be built using iTunes or automatically generated by Genius Mix. The latter finds similar music and presents it in a playable suggestion list. Shaking the Nano shuffles the playlist.

The only iPod with an FM radio, the Nano has an onscreen tuner that you flick to change stations. Tap the screen to add the current station to your Favorites list. Apple cites a 24-hour battery life.

If it’s pocket ability you want, look no further: this Is the only really tiny camera here. Pentax proudly and correctly advertises this point-and-shoot-sized snapper as the smallest Interchangeable lens camera you can buy.

So what’s the catch? Well, it’s a big – or perhaps we should say small – one. The Q’s sensor is also tiny, around an eighth the size of a Micro Four Thirds sensor and almost one twelfth that of an APS-C sensor. This means bye to the photo quality benefits you generally get from a CSC; the Q is basically a point-and-shoot with swappable lenses.

That said, images are actually far from disappointing, and noise control is impressive even at higher ISOs. Factor in the ‘Leica Lite’ retro styling and proper set of controls, and there’s much to admire here until you get to the price, that Is. Six hundred notes is a heck of a lot to pay for something that doesn’t offer any advantages over its rivals, aside from its diminutive size. So yes, the Q is very small and it doesn’t embarrass when it comes to photo and video performance, but for this sort of price we expect a DSLR-rivaling snapper, not just a decent, handbag-friendly compact.

This instant plug-and-play media player with an HDMI cable enables watching 1080P HD content on a big screen without so much as a hiccup. Capable of playing just about any and every format, the Amkette Flash TV HD uses advanced video decoding technology, resulting in impressive movie clarity and DTS/Dolby format sound. Its video preview mode, automatic scanning through attached hard disk drive and automatic selection of the best display type supported by TV and upscaling media are some of its capabilities. Compact, circular shaped, this media hub goes well with most of TV setups.

The Samsung HMX-U20 may look similar to Rip’s latest UltraHD pocket video camera, but the two devices are diametric opposites – where the UltraHD plumps for simplicity, eschewing menus and fancy extras, the HMX-U20 packs in all sorts.
The headline feature is a 3x optical zoom, the first we’ve seen in this type of video camera. Maximum resolution is double that of the Flip UltraHD at 1080p/ 25fps, or you can choose to shoot at 720p and a smoother 50fps. There’s no image stabilization, but you do get 7.8-megapixel stills, a nifty time-lapse mode and stereo audio recording.
Quality is very good, at least outdoors in good light. That resolution helps it capture more detail than the Flip UltraHD can and, in 50fps mode, panning shots and action look super-smooth. Colors look more natural than on the Flip, too.
Move indoors, however, and things very quickly take a nosedive. In low light, footage looks murky and dim, and in shadowy comers we spotted a lot of colour noise, although it doesn’t suffer from the same over-aggressive compression as the UltraHD. Overall, though, the Flip is the better camera and its wider angle lens makes it a more flexible device, too.
Another area in which the HMX-U20 lags behind the UltraHD is usability. To accommodate that zoom lens, there’s a whacking great ring protruding from the front of the body, which means it isn’t as comfortable to hold. The button panel on the rear is fiddly, and the screen is unforgivably poor. The same usability problems hit the HMX-LI20′s onboard sharing and editing software, Intelli-studio. There are some nifty features, including basic timeline-based, multiclip editing, complete with text and transition tools, but it’s a fiddle to use compared with FlipShare. Plus, the HMX-U20 comes with no integrated memory of its own; you have to add your own via a 5D card before you can even start shooting.
The Samsung HMX-U20 just isn’t in the same league as the Rip UltraHD, but it’s saved by an amazingly low price, £77 exc VAT means this camera makes a very tempting budget alternative.

Cowon’s J3, with its brilliant AMOLED touchscreen, literally shines out from this month’s crop of players. The superb 64-hour battery life is another plus point, and as you look down the rest of the feature list it’s hard to find a box that isn’t ticked: audio support includes FLAC, Ogg and APE, and there’s an internal speaker and a microphone. The microSD card slot lets you expand storage, with external items integrated seamlessly into your main library.
There are some esoteric features too: the J3 can display lyrics along with your music, and you can adjust the speed and pitch of songs and videos. The recorder tool can record not only from the radio, but also from a line-in cable that attaches to the data port. Bluetooth support lets you use wireless headphones or hook up to remote speakers, and a built-in Flash player lets you upload simple games, although there’s nothing as advanced as Apple’s App Store.
It’s all accessed via an attractive touch-driven interface ֊ not perfectly intuitive, perhaps, but clear, responsive and easy to learn. All the same, we’re happy to see it’s supplemented not only by physical volume controls, but also by play/pause and skip buttons, making it easy to control the player without taking it out of your pocket.
It sounds great. Out of the box, you might find it a little flat compared to the sparkle of the Creative and Sony players, but that’s the sound of transparency, and there’s no denying the J3′s ability to reproduce detail and separation. If you prefer a more effervescent sound there are plenty of post-processing options to tweak EQ settings, adjust the stereo soundstage and enhance the harmonics.
To be sure, it isn’t exactly a thing of beauty. The case is dull and functional, and the big bezel around the screen looks boxy next to Apple’s sophisticated designs. Cowon’s proprietary USB cable is an irritation, too. And all these features push up the price, so if you just want a simple device for music and video, it’s a poor deal.
But if you’re seeking a premium player, and don’t want to buy into the complexities of the iPod touch, the Cowon J3 makes the most of your media and throws in a bunch of extras besides.

Despite the name, the Zen X-Fi Style isn’t much to look at: it comes in three colors, with a tasteful checked pattern, but the physical design errs on the side of functional.
There’s support for a whole raft of audio formats, including FLAC, and it had no problem playing video in a wide range of formats and frame sizes up to 640×480, although HD content had to be reduced in size before playing.
Other features include an FM radio and a voice-recorder function with a built-in microphone and even a speaker. It’s too small and tinny for regular music listening, but its fine for reviewing a voice memo. We also like the standard mini-USB socket.
The Zen X-Fi Style doesn’t use a touchscreen interface, but with plenty of buttons and a clear hierarchical menu system, it’s still easily navigable. The four-way rocker is a little fiddly, though, and the interface looks distinctly low-res. It can also be a little slow, with a tiny lag between pressing a button and the player responding. Next to the fluidity of the iPod Nano, it looks clunky. But these are niggles rather than real problems.
Sound quality is excellent, once you upgrade the leaky bundled headphones. The extra fizz and stereo separation provided by the X-Fi enhancements are a matter of taste, but even without them the sound is powerful and punchy. For a screen that measures only 2.4in across the diagonal, video looks pretty well, too. It isn’t a cinematic experience, but it’s bright and crisp enough. It’s just a shame there’s no way to zoom in, as the 4:3 screen means widescreen content has to be letterboxed, reducing the size further.
Without an expansion slot, you’re limited to the built-in storage; but happily, whichever model you opt for, they’re all excellent value, with only the 16GB Sandisk Sansa Fuze+ undercutting the Zen X-Fi Style at any capacity.
Next to its shiniest rivals this player looks and feels dated. But if you’re interested in function rather than fashion, the Zen X-Fi Style offers a versatile and practical feature set, with superb sound quality, for a great price.

The old GoGear Muse was a black plastic affair with lots of buttons, but the new model switches to a chunky metal case, upgrading the display to a 3.2in touchscreen and stripping out almost all the physical controls. It’s a resistive touchscreen that responds to pressure, rather than the more common capacitive type. This means you have to give icons a real prod, and swiping up and down through long lists is, quite literally, a drag. And within Philips’ quirky graphical interface, that’s the main way you select music and videos.
The resistive coating also makes videos look flat. That’s a shame because the 480 x 320 resolution is detailed, and the device supports drag-and-drop transcoding in Windows 7 and the ability to play downloaded BBC iPlayer files.
It’s a similar story with music: the included sound-isolation headphones are a simple in-ear design, delivering little In the way of bass or presence. But switch to a more accommodating pair and the GoGear Muse doesn’t sound bad, especially with Philips’ Full Sound processing. It perhaps isn’t as arresting as Creative’s players, but it’s rich and enjoyable, and there’s support for a good range of formats, including Ogg and APE as well as subscription content from Audible.
The mini-HDMI port can output direct to an external display at resolutions of up to 720p, and its FM radio is the only one this month to support RD5 metadata. There’s no speaker, but you do get a built-in mic for the voice recorder, or you can record directly from the radio. A microSD card slot lets you expand the device’s capacity.
The bundled software is the open-source Songbird player, here masquerading as Philips Songbird. It’s a perfectly good package, but this Philips-branded fork won’t benefit from the regular updates the generic edition enjoys, making it a bit of an odd choice.
In all the Philips GoGear Muse is characterized by missed opportunities. It has some good features and the price isn’t bad, but the screen disappoints in terms of both quality and as an input device, resulting in a player that’s desirable only if you need HDMI out.