There’s a surfeit of portable media players around, some so cheap they’re offered as free gifts by office stationery firms.

Which means those that sell have to offer something different.

Maxfield's latest audio, photo and video player, somewhat strangely called the Max-Ivy, has several intriguing differences from run-of-the-mill players.

Imagine a black iPod Nano with its top and bottom curved off to look like a lozenge. Slide a switch on the back of the player to power it up and a 46mm colour screen lights up to display options.

Cycle through the menu and options for video playback, photo slideshows and voice recording illustrate the versatility of the player. Of course, music can also be played back in mp3, WMA (including DRM) and Ogg Vorbis formats. Sound quality is good.

The control panel is touch-sensitive and each button has a blue backlight. As well as play/pause, fast forward and rewind icons, there’s also a 'back up' button. Most interesting, though, is a thin blue ‘slider’, which is pressed to navigate menus or change volume.

However, the controls are the weakest part of the Max-Ivy; they just aren't consistent enough. Sometimes an icon works well, other times you can press it repeatedly and get no response. There’s a delay in getting the slider control to flick between menu options, too.

The Max-Ivy will play back video clips in Mpeg4 format and the version we tested had 4GB of memory, enough for up to 64 hours of music. The player is also available in 1GB or 2GB versions, but all include a reasonable set of earphones and a USB cable for transferring music from a computer. Despite its slim dimensions, the Max-Ivy uses a Lithium ion battery to give it up to 14 hours audio playback per charge.

Maxfield bundles a cut-down version of Magix’s MP3 Maker software, which is all you need to get music onto the player. It also comes with a rubber protective case that can clip onto a belt loop.

In all, a nice-looking portable media player but with controls to infuriate the most hardened mp3-maestro.

Vista compatible: No