And so it is with consumer electronics, even in the world of MP3 players there are the big guys like the all mighty Apple and then the smaller guys like the Koreans who tried to get Lordpercy to buy 300 USB flash based players at a recent trade show.

But the interesting clashes are when two goliaths tread on each others toes and this is exactly the situation with manufacturers like Philips dabbling in MP3 where Apple are the undisputed heavyweights.

So when we got a chance to play with the latest MP3 player from Philips the HDD070 there was a certain sense of anticipation as the literature we had read suggested that this device was squarely pitched at the Ipod Mini.

Sliding the Philips HD070 out of its box the first thing that grabs you is the size of this little chap, at just 85 x 54mm its about the size of a credit card, but of course its a little thicker(18mm) just so hat they could fit the electronics inside!  Now that's not really all that small the Archos Gmini is about the same and the Ipod Mini is 90mm x 50mm, but the HDD070 gives the impression of being a small device, in part thanks to its magnesium case which is very reflective and has a superb look and feel.

But anyone can make a sexy case for example LP built a shuttle PC and its look great but you wouldn't want to look inside he's not exactly what we would call a competent PC builder and Philips have made a great looking HDD070 but then only slipped a 2gb drive inside, of course this is enough for 500 MP3 tracks but its rival the Ipod Mini has a 4gb disk.

In terms of usability we had prepared ourselves for the worst but things were pretty good with an improved user interface including "Super scroll" which allows you to search through your MP3 collection by alphabetical letters rather than just track numbers, this is a bit more like the navigation systems used by PC media players like Winamp and musicmatch. The main controls are very easy to operate with the up and down keys used to scroll through lists of artists or albums, plus you can hold them down and scroll through every track if you need to, which does beat the endless scrolling around and Ipods click wheel!

The 95g HD070 fits nicely into a pocket or bag perhaps more so than the Apple Ipod Mini and we even tried hanging it round our necks as the Philips brochure shows, but the novelty of having an MP3 player thumping into your chest every time you move soon wears off.

The HDD070 does have an FM tuner which will be handy when you exhaust your 2Gb of music, its driven through the LCD display and uses the headphones as an antenna, there are 10 FM presets to store your favourite stations.

Our tests gave a battery life of about 10 hours on a single charge this was with a liberal use of the 2-bit grey, 128 x 96 pixel LCD screen and a fair bit of uploading of new MP3 files via the USB connection. Mind you getting anything on the Philips HDD070 using the bundled Digital Music Manager software is quite a task and those of us hoping that it had been updated since the HDD060 will be sorely disappointed.

On the upside audio replay is first class even with the rather cheap supplied headphones, no background hiss of digital noise just the MP3 as encoded, there's enough bass and a clear top end with pin sharp vocals too, for those of you who like it loud, perhaps to counteract the London tube there is a nice output level too!

So has this David beaten the Ipod Mini Goliath? up till now no, its not as intuitive to drive as the mini nor does it have the same storage capacity and sheer street cred but at £140 it's £40 cheaper than the Ipod Mini and that might just make it right for you.

More MP3 Players -

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