Product Reviews

You can barely walk anywhere in PC Pro's offices these days without tripping over an MP3 player. As the larger sibling of the Joybee 120, the Joybee 150 comes with 128MB of memory, an FM radio and WMA format support, as well as a varispeed control.

In theory, the larger four-line LCD and profusion of buttons should make the player easier to use, but we can't help feeling it could all be more straightforward. The side-mounted controls leave the front attractively uncluttered, but it means a lot of fiddling about in order to see what's going on. Anything beyond basic transport functions requires a menu trawl - six button presses to change the play mode to random, for example. Common to many MP3 players, there's no actual shuffle mode, and we found the same track often played twice - a small but annoying niggle.

There are no complaints

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with file transfer, though, which is as simple as installing a driver and treating the Joybee as a removable disk, including the ability to store other files. The Joybee recognises folders, but won't skip between them, so unless you put everything in the same directory you'll have to intervene manually when an album comes to an end.

The supplied remote offers skip, stop and volume functions, as well as access to the EQ preset menu. We found we generally used the main unit's controls, however, as there's no display on the remote and its buttons are awkwardly placed.

The supplied headphones perform respectably enough, coping happily with a range of volumes and music styles, and only beginning to distort at ear-crunching levels. There's a good punchy bass from the unit itself too at the default flat EQ setting, with the seven presets offering different but not necessarily better sound.

The non-removable lithium ion internal battery is rechargeable through a power adaptor connected to the USB port, but unfortunately it won't charge while connected to your PC. Connection is only via USB 1.1 too, which can make file transfer a trifle tedious. Battery life is quoted at around ten hours and this claim was borne out in use.

While the good looks, great sound quality and convenient size may sway you, as may the 256MB version for £151, the Joybee 150's inelegant control system leaves it some way from standing out.