MobiBlu DAH-1500i

With such a crowded MP3 player field, anything not named iPod or Zen has an uphill battle trying to lure followers. The MobiBlu DAH-1500i stands out from the crowd by being the smallest flash player yet. This tiny blue cube boasts features the iPod Shuffle lacks, including a bright OLED display, FM radio, and voice recorder. Some may find this device a little too cute, but MobiBlu backs up its design with good sound quality.

The DAH-1500i (known as the Cube) measures about one inch in each direction, bearing an unmistakable resemblance to billiard chalk. The dwarfish footprint gives the device a futuristic, surreal quality, like it's a prop out of The Matrix trilogy. In fact, the DAH-1500i is small enough to wear around your neck using the included earbuds/neck lanyard. Unfortunately, the cord isn't long enough to put this player in your pocket, so you'll either have to wear it or use another pair of earbuds. A single jack doubles as a port for the stereo headphones and the USB connection used for charging your player and transferring tunes.

Playback control is handled through concentric circular buttons on the right side that are reasonably straightforward and big enough for even stubby fingers. A Menu button switches between music playback and the FM radio, and adjusts the equalizer settings. There's a tiny Hold button next to that, but we would have preferred a switch.

The other marquee attraction of the Cube is the bright blue-on-black OLED display. It's a key advantage over the 800-pound gorilla in the flash MP3 player space, the iPod Shuffle, which has no screen to show songs, artists, or volume information. The DAH-1500i's screen is easy to read, but because it's so small you can't see an entire artist or album name at once. MobiBlu wisely includes a setting to control how quickly text scrolls across the screen.

One might expect sound quality to suffer from the diminutive physical shape of the Cube, but it doesn't; this tiny player produced a surprising amount of volume, and when we enabled the SRS WOW setting the bass was quite good. Having 1GB capacity means that about 250 songs encoded in MP3 (at 128 Kbps) or up to 500 songs encoded in WMA (at 64 Kbps) will fit. The device supports protected WMAs, meaning it works with pay-per track download sites like MSN Music and Wal-Mart. What you don't get is support for are subscription services like Yahoo Music Unlimited and Napster To Go.

Installation was effortless. Any Windows 2000 or XP system will automatically recognize the hardware once it's connected, and adding files is as easy as clicking and dragging. The minimalist approach may not appeal to neophytes, but it will probably be a welcome relief to anyone familiar with managing a digital music collection. No software is included, but you could always use Windows Media Player.

Playing music isn't the only thing the Cube can do. It doubles as a voice recorder and an FM radio. FM reception in New York was strong when tuning into the bigger stations and you can record broadcasts on the fly. The microphone was more than sensitive enough for voice recordings, and we like that they're stored in the MP3 format (as opposed to the uncompressed WAV format cheaper standalone voice recorders use) to cut down on transfer time to your PC.

It's unlikely to unseat the almighty Shuffle, but the MobiBlu DAH-1500i is a stylish alternative with plenty of substance.