MP3 players have been reducing in size faster than the Labour governments credibility in recent times and now Mobiblu have brought us a player that measures just 24 x24 24mm, the Cube DAH-1500 may be minuscule but it packs enough features to keep even the most demanding geek happy.

It seems that an MP3 player’s style is as important as its function in this crowded market and the Mobiblu Cube has buckets of style in its tiny form factor, not least the OLED (organic light emitting diode) screen which really trumps the competition like Apples iPod shuffle.

The 18 gram Mobiblu cube is about the size of a novelty dice, in fact comparing the DAH-1500 to the Cowon iAudio U2 (supposedly one of the worlds smallest MP3 players) you can stack 3 cubes end on end before its the same height as the Cowon. Mobiblu seem to have taken to suggesting that users will wear the dice like MP3 players but we have to admit attractive as they are we’d stick to wearing jewellery not consumer electronics as a fashion statement. The pink version we have is quite striking but also very well built, in aluminium with a scratch proof anodised finish which gave a certain amount of confidence that it would be around for a few years, that is if we don’t lose it down the back of the sofa.

The model we got a few hours with was the daddy 1gb version, it’s available in a range of colours with blue, black and pink being available in every size, the screen is quite a marvel given the small area it has to work with. Bright and very readable it makes reading track names and artist names much easier than we had feared from such a small device. The navigation menu is simple which is essential given the small button like joystick with which you need to drive the cube, plus the Mobiblu system allows you to lay music from multiple folders on the device not just one cluttered music folder.

The headphone socket is quite unique and doubles up as the USB plug for topping up your DAH-1500 with new audio files, sadly its only USB 1.1 making the 1gb take around 30 minutes to fill from empty. There cube is also available in 256 and 512mb size but at £129.99 we found the 1gb version the best value for money and only £20 more than the iPod shuffle. It supports both MP3 and WMA at bit rates from 16 – 320kbps, there are some suggestions that other formats may be supported if user feedback is strong enough but for now the main two are covered.

Battery life is impressive for such a small unit with a headline 16 hour figure banded about, however this is for 64kbps WMA files and the chap that loaned us the 1gb unit said he only got around 9 hours when playing 128kbit MP3 files. This isn’t bad performance for the tiny lithium ion battery but not exactly class leading.

Listening to the Cube was a pleasant experience, while once again it wasn’t the most accomplished acoustic device it more than a passable job on the Mariah Carey and Black Eyed Peas tracks the chap had loaded. The bass is a little weak but this is more the fault of the very cheap earphones shipped with the Mobiblu unit. For general pop and rock the audio level was fine and did not seem to distort, it doesn’t challenge the big boys in audio quality. One annoyance is that the cube adds a quick fade to the start and end of tracks meaning they are often clipped, try as we might there was no way to disable this and it made us wonder if it was concealing some problem with audio switches.

There isn’t any software beyond the drivers supplied with the Mobiblu package, so you’ll need your own ripping software and filling up the Cube relies on good old drag and drop, of course this means that the whole unit can also act a s a 1gb flash USB disk. There are a few extras to help justify that price, there is an FM radio that uses the necklace style earphones as an antenna and also an internal clock so you’ll always know the time.

Overall the Mobil blue Cube is a stylish and functional little MP3 player, there have been many claims to be “the worlds smallest” and this is without doubt very small and its difficult to see how you could get much smaller without being unusable. There are compromises on sound quality and battery life but it is a very neat and attractive gadget, as an alternate to the now common iPod shuffle its worth a try but please do not take to wearing one as an earring.

Published - 17/07/2005

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