Review: Reddmango Angora VX435 portable video player

Behind this product's fairly silly name lurks a capable media player.

The Angora VX435 can play music (MP3 and WMA) and video (AVI, Divx, Mpeg and others) files, and includes a 120GB hard disk on which to store them.

The 3.5in widescreen display is clear and quite sharp, and the built-in speaker is loud enough to listen in our office, although there is of course a headphone socket (the speaker is rather tinny, making it unsuitable for music). Files can be copied to it using the supplied USB cable.

The menu system is well laid out and easy to follow - it's navigated with the small joystick to the right of the screen. Sound quality is excellent through a decent pair of headphones, although the ones supplied are not particularly good.

The box also includes a soft cloth case, manual and software CD, various audio and video cables, including one for component output to a high-definition television, and a mains charger.

While navigating through a list of files isn't as smooth as with the iPod's scroll wheel (which we mention in most of these reviews because, despite the iPod's faults, it's the best handheld navigation anyone's come up with). It can also record using the built-in microphone or a line input.

Most video players seem to have some problems with stability - something that's partly to do with the huge amount of formats around. That affected the VX435 too - while it happily played most things we tried, some files caused it to seize up, meaning we had to reset it. That, and the gloss plastic case's propensity to attract fingerprint marks, made it less of an attractive device, but it's capable and offers fair value for money.

Vista compatible: Yes