Hard disk-based MP3 players make good sense if you like to listen to a lot of music. Even basic versions have a capacity of a few thousand tracks, and that's enough for most people's entire CD collection.

Until the Apple iPod appeared, though, hard disk players were big, heavy and had very short battery life.

The snag is that the iPod is Mac only, and no PC peripheral manufacturer has anything like Apple's talent for style, although unofficial Windows software will be available soon for Apple's cigarette packet-sized player (visit www.mediafour.com for more information).

Creative was the first to launch a hard disk MP3 player with the big and bulky Jukebox and, two years on, it's back with the markedly more svelte Nomad Jukebox 3. Actually, scratch that; the Jukebox 3 isn't that svelte.

It is around a third smaller and lighter than the original Jukebox, but that still makes it the same size as a cheap CD Walkman and all but impossible to carry comfortably in a pocket. It also makes it considerably larger than an iPod, so the Jukebox 3's chances of success may appear slim.

Where the Jukebox 3 scores, however, is with capacity. Its 20Gb hard disk can store 333 hours of music encoded at a near CD-quality sampling rate of 128Kbit/s.

That means you could have it play non-stop for two weeks and not hear the same track twice. Getting all that music on there in the first place is also made much easier by the inclusion of both FireWire and USB ports.

With FireWire, 100Mb of MP3s can be transferred in about a minute, but you'll need the patience of Job to transfer 20Gb of tracks over USB. The bad news is that, unlike the iPod, the Jukebox 3 doesn't recharge when it's connected to a PC's FireWire port so, if you're on the move, you'll need to carry the mains adaptor around to recharge the battery.

The good news, however, is that the Jukebox 3's battery is a lithium-ion cell that will last for 11 hours. There's also a spare slot for a second battery.

With 20Gb of music in your pocket (or, more probably, your bag), operating it could be a nightmare, but Creative has reworked the Jukebox 3's menu system to make it easier to use.

There's now a wheel at the side of the unit for scrolling through tracks, but its stepped action does not allow you to spin it to quickly scroll through a long list.

Tracks can be browsed by artist, album or genre, and play lists can be composed and even saved on the fly. There's still an awful lot of buttons to press, but one of them isn't 'hold'. This essential feature has been stupidly buried in a menu.

The Jukebox is unusual in that it can also make recordings, either as WAV files or MP3s. There's a line-in socket that supports an optical connection, but there's no way to set or monitor the recording level.

This limits the usefulness of the feature but, since the Jukebox 3 is flash-upgradable, it's an issue that may be addressed.

Creative hasn't done much that's new to the bundled PlayCenter application, beyond adding a flexible track synchronise function. The application is easy to use, whether it's for managing your MP3 collection, ripping new tracks or sending them to the Jukebox 3, but it isn't well-executed.

It also locked and crashed a number of Windows XP PCs in our tests, which didn't endear us to it, but a Jukebox 3-compatible version of the infinitely better Notmad Explorer (www.redchairsoftware.com) should be available soon.

Specifications:

Price: £350 (inc VAT)

Contact: Creative 0118 934 4322
www.nomadworld.com