Getting files onto the Cowon IAudio 4 is nice and easy via USB 1.1 it is a shame that Cowon didn't equip this device with USB 2.0 and so its limited to 6mb per second transfer rate which can be a little painful if you are completely filling the device from empty.

Audio reproduction is good and on a par with the bigger IAudio M3 and being a solid state player there is no skipping of audio even with extreme movement related to sports like jogging. But you are far more likely to see the Cowon I Audio 4 in a social environment on show as a piece of gadget jewellery, for a start the aluminium body feels like something quite expensive with clean sharp lines and a quite striking yet understated design, well that is until you power it up.

The full style and colourful personality of the IAudio 4 hits you with one of the 124 colours on the small 4 line display, these colours can be set to coincide with actions on the device, for example you can set the display to be backlit red when you drop into the MP3 direct record mode (another cool feature) or perhaps deep blue when listening to the in built FM Radio.

The display while tight is fairly easy to navigate, although the system is not that easy to pick up and run with out of the box, after referring to the manual for a few functions we were soon up and running and pleasantly surprised that the 4 line display was enough for some quite complex functions.

On the other hand the small size meant that LP's big fingers kept pushing the wrong button, in his defence they are very close together and this does lead to bouncing back up a level of the navigation instead of drilling down or selecting a function.

Being USB based its easy to use some of that 512mb as data storage and the IAudio 4 also comes with an inbuilt microphone enabling you to make voice notes which can then be played back or extracted to your PC. Software supplied to sit on your PC consists of the Jet Audio suite from Cowon, now we are not fans of this software but it does function to meet basic needs but it will infuriate any serial MP3 user so best stick to iTunes or Winamp and just use explorer to load up your Cowon.

On test without leaving the coloured backlight on too long it was possible to get about 14 hours of replay from a single AAA battery which is good going and should last most people a week of daily commutes.

Again Cowon have produced a very nice MP3 player with many feature and well priced at £190 for the 512mb version and £140 for the 256mb device, if you can see past the name then you'll be very pleased with your purchase and those who haven't got a real hang up on brand names will love the styling and colourful display too.

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