Acer MP3 Flash Stick

Many removable USB storage devices now double up as portable music players, allowing you to listen to digital audio files stored on the device. The USB Flash Stick is such a gadget and can hold 128Mb of data and allows any MP3 or WMA file on the device to be played back through the supplied headphones. However, while this is a good idea, the technology inside the device isn't.

First, there's no ID3 support, meaning every track is identified by a number rather than the song title. It's also very slow at transferring files - it took 44 seconds to shift a 10Mb MP3 file - poor in comparison with the USB storage devices reviewed in issue 148. The jog wheel is also unresponsive at times, meaning lots of finger fiddling and while the combined headphone/neck strap seems a novel thought, it's flawed because it often it gets tangled up. Battery life is good but the device isn't rechargeable.

The MP3 Flash Stick does have its good points, though. Windows automatically recognises it as a removable disk, which allows the simple dragging and dropping of files. It's also very loud in playback mode, sound quality is good and it can also be used as a voice recorder.

Contact: Acer 0870 900 2237
www.acer.co.uk