Despite a number of hard disk MP3 players hitting the market recently, none of them have come close to toppling the Ipod from its throne. But with the HDD100, Philips looks like it could have a serious contender.

Similar in size and with a sleek black and silver finish, it's on a par with Apple's device in the looks department, and its 15GB capacity puts it in the same league.

The HDD100, however, is lot more PC friendly and even has a USB2 port on the top so it can be connected directly to a PC without a cradle. Windows automatically recognises it as a removable hard disk and MP3s can be dumped straight to the HDD100 without any software.

But if you fancy going the software route, Philips' Digital Music Manager is a good choice. It compares the contents of the HDD100 with the PC, and synchronises the two at the touch of a button. Alternatively, the optical input can be used to record music directly.

The player is just as simple to use. The intuitive interface reads ID3 tags so tracks can be found by title, artist, album or genre. To make scrolling through large numbers of tracks easier, Philips has its Superscroll function: hold down the up or down cursor key and the list starts skipping by letter not individual tracks. Our only problem is that the screen can be slow to update, which soon gets annoying.

With a full charge the HDD100 has enough juice for five hours of playback, which is good enough most journeys, although a little short for a long-haul flight. Sound quality, depending on the bit rate of the track, is pretty good, although the supplied headphones should be replaced for best results. Despite a few minor interface niggles Philips has created the first worthy competitor to the Ipod.

Contact: Philips 0870 900 9070
www.philips.co.uk

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