Creative Zen Nano Plus

They're a smart bunch at Creative, not just rebranding their existing 'Muvo' range but doing so with this year's hottest buzzword - the 'Nano' label - allegedly a few weeks ahead of Apple.

So while the lawyers argue over compensation, what's so new about this stylish and feature packed player?

Not a lot, actually. Although fractionally lighter and available in a choice of 10 pastel shades, the Nano Plus looks and costs exactly the same as Creative's last player - the Muvo N200 - and is available in four sizes from 128Mb to 1Gb.

It supports WMA and MP3files and, because it's recognised as removable media, you can drag and drop files straight onto the player without the need for software.

What isn't so good is the supplied headphones which managed to render even the loudest MP3s virtually inaudible because of unwanted background hiss. Even changing the graphic equaliser proved ineffective.

Given that music is what these devices are bought for, we'd have hoped that audio quality was a reasonably predominant concern to the manufacturers. Not so, it seems.

We also found that, while the sales blurb promised nearly 18 hours of music from a single AAA battery, ours petered out after 15 hours. But this was still longer than the Muvo and most of its competitors.

The Nano Plus has a few more tricks up its sleeve, though. There's an FM radio that works better than most gizmos of this size and can memorise up to 32 stations. All functions are controlled from a single scroll wheel, which can be locked when not in use.

There's also a discreet microphone that lets you record hours of crystal clear voice or radio. And, if you want to record from external audio sources, there's a line-in socket and lead too.

Compared to the iPod nano, the Zen Nano Plus is a more functional and versatile player.

It may not be blessed with the good looks or larger memory capacity that Apple has bestowed on its mini player but, if you're looking for radio as well as MP3 playback, at almost half the price this is a tempting option.