The Chaps at MPIO have just released the FY300 which to all intents and purposes is a USB key with MP3 replay capabilities but does the added MPIO style and function justify the jump in price from a bargain basement memory stick with a play button?

The MPIO FY300 certainly looks like a class act, the metallic case fells as good as it looks and the blue surround of the LCD screen adds a splash of colour to the all silver front panel, to the right of the blue backlit screen is a 4 way joystick used for the majority of operations on the FY300.

It is still a small form factor weighing just 40 grams and at 16.8 x 26 x 89 mm in size its a little chubbier than a USB key but not by much, power is provided by an inbuilt Lithium polymer battery which is similar to those used in mobile phones (so no memory effect) it takes about 2 hours to fully charge via the USB connection and this is good for approx 10 hours of audio playback.

The version we had on test was the larger 256mb FY300 which is let down a bit by only having USB 1.1 not the newer USB 2.0 standard but filling the 256mb capacity didn't take long, of course you can use the MPIO FY300 as a USB memory key and fill it with all sorts of files. Perhaps the best news is that MPIO support both Linux kernel 2.4.1.8 and Mac OS 9.2 or higher so unlike its competitors you don't have to be in bed with Mr gates to use this device, which is handy as we don't think he'd like our taste in music.

The Audio performance of the FY300 was pretty good considering its sub £90 price, of course the sound was a little less weighted and the bass a little weak compared to our £200+ Ipod but then what did we expect. Extras are a plenty including direct record capabilities and both MP3 and WMA playback, there is an FM tuner which is improved over the older FY200 and now allows you to record from FM while listening.

Perhaps the best feature of the MPIO FY300 is that blue display, the 3 line LCD manages to convey enough information by the clever use of icons and also scrolling text, we did keep forgetting to use the lock feature when stuffing the FY300 in a pocket which leads to you knocking the joystick and jumping tracks, but you soon learn.

A word of advice, leave the 7 band equalizer well alone, at this price we didn't expect much and unless you want to make something sound really bad and tinny or muffled just leave it all in preset!

There is a smaller version (128mb) for around £60 but that is just too small to make any sense (about 3 albums) so we'd stick with the MPIO FY300 256mb at £89 which is good value for money, well built and easy to use. Perhaps this release from MPIO and the forthcoming one from scientific Atlanta will show that small needn't necessarily mean cheap!

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