Measuring  81 x 33 x 7.5 mm it is waif like in dimensions looking more like an after dinner mint than an MP3 player, it tips the scales at a meagre 31 grams. The Mcody M20 on test is a 2gb device which places it firmly in the micro MP3 player category and one that takes on the new iPod shuffle but boasts some of the features you'd expect on larger more expensive devices.

The M20 comes in a little silver box more akin with a new watch or some jewellery than a n MP3 player, however open up and the after dinner mint sized player is suspended in plastic ready for you to play with. One side is entirely black and if you can keep your fingers off it is is super shinny too, hold the play button and the screen comes to life in a fast east style animation that does feel a little cheap. The top half of the screen is a text based display (most of the time) and shows the key data while the lower half contains the controls which are spread out as a pad with a red backlight.

This clearly isn't a PMP and it is not packed with extras but what it is, is a 2gb portable, small MP3 player, so we set about testing it's key features and usability as an everyday device. To start with we needed to get some MP3 tracks onto the player and this is achieved by means of a mini USB jack that has a little rubber bung over it. The connection seemed painfully slow and that isn't surprising as it uses USB 1.1 which meant a very long wait to get over 1gb of media onto the Mcody M20. The actual process is easy as Windows just sees the player as a disk in explorer so you can drag and drop files or folders of files over.

Having finally got enough files over to play with we could start to explore the menu system and navigation. The Mcody is a fairly simple device in terms on buttons and switches, it has 2 a play / pause button on one side edge and a hold switch on the other, all other controls are performed via the touch sensitive screen which lights up as a 4 way direction pad with a central confirm / menu button, these make a small beep when pushed to help you as there is no tactile feedback during operation.

That lack of tactile feedback combined with an over eager touch pad can be quite frustrating and selection of tracks can be quite a hit and miss affair as your finger bounces off the slippery surface and manages to tag one of the scroll icons instead of the select button. This means you have to operate the unit very very carefully which is fine when you have time but we imagine down the gym it would be a nightmare (not that we every go to a gym).

We started some listening tests with a variety of the supported media types ranging from MP3 through WMA, WAV and even OGG. Where the Mcody M20 shines is the quality of audio replay, it really does a great job, sure you had to fight to select the correct track but once you play the Mcody shows its quality. For our tests we tried the supplied earphones which are a bit cheap and nasty plus a set of Soundwise G3's which for the price when paired with the M20 really did a great job, plenty of volume, no noticeable distortion or electronic noise (whines or clicks) just good quality bass rich sound.

Using the hold button is essential as the slippery sensitive interface is easily nudged in a pocket, so make sure you engage hold before you dare slide the player into anything. The 128 x 64 screen is good and bright for a small MP3 player although it is a bluey grey and not colour, menus are good and readable and text scrolls if it cannot fit on the screen.

The lithium Ion battery charges via the USB and gave us just over 10 hours replay which isn't bad but is hardly class leading for a micro MP3 player. Mcody have also shoehorned an FM radio and voice recorder into the package, the FM radio works quite well and help a good signal in our tests, the voice recorder is standard fare and not really a replacement for a Dictaphone.

Overall a nice small and stylish player that will have everyone staring and asking what it is, however you'll have to be prepared to live with the sensitive interface and the oh so slow transfer times in loading up the 2gb memory. For a flash based player with Ogg support and bubble gum packet dimensions the Mcody M20 is a good buy at just £89, it is certainly more stylish and rare than an iPod Shuffle.

Published - 30/09/2006

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