Holiday gadgets - MP3 players
Make sure you take the best-sounding device to the beach
Summer is technically here, even though we haven't seen much of the sun yet. Summer means holidays and holidays mean lugging suitcases full of essential items around with you. Make sure you choose the right gadgets to take with you with our pick-of-the-best must-have holiday gadgets - starting today with MP3 players...
The ubiquitous Apple iPod is of course a top pick among digital audio players. It takes about two seconds to figure out how to work the Apple iPod thanks to its easy-to-use click wheel and simple menu system. Its iconic design and generous memory capacity (up to 80GB) makes it the perfect travel partner. The largest-sized version costs £259.
Great sound quality, as you'd expect from audiophile firm Creative, but excellent video playback features too. The Creative Zen Vision: M looks great, supports loads of media formats and is the Apple iPod's main rival. Priced at £250, it also features an FM radio tuner.
The feature-rich iRiver Clix 2 supports a wide range of formats, and features an FM radio, MPEG-4 video playback and a host of games if you get tired of your tunes. It has an innovative navigation system, offers great sound quality, and is packed with useful functions. It's priced at £139, which means it won't break too much into the holiday fund either.
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The beautiful-looking Sony NW-A808 has one of the longest-lasting batteries around, which is good news if you're catching a long-haul flight this summer. Thirty hours of audio playback is promised on a single three-hour charge, or seven hours of continuous full-screen video. Priced at around £180, the Sony NW-A808 is an excellent, easy-to-use player with plenty of useful features and excellent video playback.
Its awesome looks, operating system and performance make us highly recommend the Sansa e270. It is well-built, offers great control over your tunes using the blue illuminated control dial. And it's scratch-resistant should you happen to drop it into the sand on the beach. Its colour screen is slightly small at just 1.8 inches wide, but the sound quality is excellent. It supports a wide range of codecs, and the battery will last for up to 20 hours on a single charge. There's also an FM tuner thrown in, all for a price tag of £190.
Tomorrow, we move on to digital cameras. After all, a holiday isn't complete without hundreds of snaps of you and your friends...