Creative Zen Vision:M

The advances in digital technology are getting silly now, aren't they? Just when you were getting used to the idea of mountains of music on the move, boffins go and shoehorn video capability into the next generation of portable media players. So now, as well as listening to your favourite tunes, you can watch your favourite movies and videos, anytime, anyplace.

But who says you have to go picking Apples to find the best machine? Our good friends at Creative don't because the jaw-droppingly impressive Zen Vision:M does everything the iGods of this world can and more.

Indeed without wishing to upset the Apple cart, we believe the supremely chic Creative Zen Vision:M is up there with the cream of the competition. For starters, this 30GB pocket-sized powerhouse stores up to 120 hours of video or 15,000 songs, plus tens of thousands of photos. And like all things Creative it boasts an FM radio and voice recorder.

Featuring a highly intuitive vertical touch pad with a customisable shortcut button, the Vision:M is a doddle to use and its ultra sleek styling is a pleasure to behold. Talking of looking good, the Vision:M's gorgeous 2.5" screen is one of the best we've seen for its size. Indeed in recent comparison tests, Shaggy looked sharper, Britney looked brighter and Clooney looked clearer.

If you're worried that the Vision:M won't support your fave format, worry not. Video-wise this versatile viewer supports WMV9, MPEG1/2/4-SP, Motion-JPEG, DivX® 4/5 and XviD. Music lovers won't be disappointed either, as the Vision:M will play MP3, WMA and WAV. Album art aficionados and fans of digital photography can view things via JPEG (BMP/GIF/PNG/TIFF). Phew!

Of course there's no point having such a capacious, feature-packed player if the power packs up after a few vids. Thankfully the Creative is equipped with a battery that delivers video playtimes of up to 4 hours (doubling the performance of its whiter than white rival) and up to 14 hours with audio. So unless your daily commute lasts longer than the average Lord of the Rings movie (in which case you should be looking for a new job, not a new gizmo) you'll have plenty of juice to spare.

Apart from a set of Ferrari keys wrapped in a wad of million pound notes, we can think of no better object to put in your pocket than the Zen Vision:M. This beautifully-engineered piece of kit does the lot - and it does it for longer. In fact, to buy or not to buy is a complete no brainer. What do you think of them Apples?