I have to buy a portable MP3 player for a gift and have no idea where to start. Can you help Can you recommend some and let me know how much they are

Asks jabbajay

A. There are loads of models on the market - for a good one you should expect to pay in the region of �200. Some of the best include the following and all are available on the High Street.

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Intel Pocket Concert

Price: �279

Website: www.intel.com/home/audio/

This is a really tiny MP3 player with in-built storage (so you don't have to use memory cards) system that allows you to store 128Mb of music - this translates into over two hours of play-time. It is very easy to use with a scroll wheel to navigate the onscreen menu. It comes complete with headphones, an FM radio and two rechargeable batteries.

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Panasonic SV-SD75

Price: �299

Website: www.panasonic.co.uk

This MP3 player is so small that it can be worn on your wrist like a watch - very James Bond! It uses memory cards for storage, has great sound quality, easy to follow function buttons and although it is one of the most expensive on the market it is one of the coolest and would be a very welcome present in many Christmas stockings. It has four hours playing time.

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Iomega Hip Zip

Price: �199

Website: www.iomega.com/europe

This is another MP3 player that does not use memory disks - but this time round it uses its own 40Mb PocketZip disks which can store 40 minutes of music. It has great sound quality, is easy to use and has a long battery life (about 11 hours) - the only annoying feature it has is its power saving facility - designed to save your battery life it switches the machine off if it has been idle for more than 30 seconds which is just a bit too quick for me. Comes complete with headphones and two PocketZip disks.

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Freecom Beatman

Price: �100

Website: www.beatman.co.uk

This MP3 player has fantastic sound quality - and as it is one of the cheapest on the market it offers brilliant value for money. It uses 8cm CD-R's for storage (instead of memory cards) which can store up to 210 minutes of MP3 data onto one disk. Comes complete with headphones.

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Toshiba MEA210

Price: �230

Website: www.toshiba.co.uk

This MP3 player looks great as it is housed in a thin silver shell and supports both MP3 and AAC (advanced audio format) formats. It enables 30 minutes of playback and has 32MB of internal memory, It has USB connectivity and is very small (about half a cigarette packet) so very portable indeed.

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Sonicblue Rio Volt

Price: �149

Website: www.riohome.com

This is not just an MP3 player, it also plays CDs too which makes it very versatile. It has an easy to read LCD screen, comes in a very snazzy silver and blue casing, has 15 hours of battery life and fantastic sound quality. It comes complete with a remote control, leather case and headphones.

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Samsung Mini Yepp

Price: �69

Website: www.sansungusa.com

Samsung's new baby is one of the smallest MP3 players in the world; it fits into the palm of your hand (matchbox size) and only weighs 28g. It has 32MB of memory, a bass booster and a USB for connection to PCs and Macs and a very tiny LCD that displays the date and time, plus details on the music playing. It also comes with some full-length audio tracks embedded. This MP3 player has been very popular in the US and has just arrived in the UK.

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Sony Network Walkman NW-E5

Price: �300

Website: www.sony.com

This is another contender in the smallest MP3 player in the world category, it is also matchbox size but can pack a lot into its small package. It has 96Mb of memory built in that can contain 180 minutes of music. It is unique in that it contains Sony's new Open MG Jukebox 2.0 software - this can convert MP3 files (and CDs, WMA and WAV files) into ATRAC3 format used on the NW-E5.

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Diamond Rio 800

Price: �299

Website: www.riohome.com

The Diamond Rio comes with built-in Soundjam software; 64MB of memory (which can be upgraded to 128Mb of memory with an optional back-pack, which would provide an extra four hours of playing time), USB connection, oval-shaped LCD is very light and easy to use.

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By Karen Anderson