mp3 players Korea´s Mobiblu, for instance, has the DHH-100, a hard disk-based player and the DAH-1200, a flash memory player. Slightly smaller than a credit card and about three-quarters of an inch thick, the DHH-100 fits into the palm very snugly. Finished in metallic chrome and black, it has a rather industrial look.

The DAH-1200 is sexy in white with a silver trim and soft curves. It comes with a matching white data transfer cradle that lights up with a cool blue glow when plugged into the computer´s USB port. Other than storage capacity, both players have very similar features and functions. The DAH-1200 supports MP3, WMA and OGG formats. Besides digital audio playback, both players have FM radio functions. The DAH-1200 uses two rocker buttons that perform most of the functions. Both players have similar menu interfaces that are intuitive - I didn´t really have to refer to the manual to get started. The sound quality from both devices on the supplied earphones was good. A few predefined equalizer modes are provided if you want to customise the sound. Data transfer Windows XP automatically recognised them as external storage devices, and transferring files was just a matter of drag-and-drop.

DAH-1200 only supports USB1.1 and has a MultiMediaCard / Secure Digital card slot that can be used for quick data transfers. However, the transfer is a one-way data dump from the card to the player. No file selection can be made - all files on the card will be transferred once you initiate the copy process.