Most video players are bigger than they need be. As well as the area devoted to the screen, they have to have controls to start and stop media, switch tracks and work through menus. Cowon has produced a more compact design by the simple expedient of incorporating a touch-screen. Its D2 media player has a 2.5-inch LCD, which can be operated with a fingertip or with the supplied triangular stylus.

The D2 is about the size of a pack of cards and comes with 2GB or 4GB of internal memory. This can be supplemented by plugging an SD or MultiMedia card into the slot in its bottom edge. Going round the edges of the player, on the left are sockets for mains charger and a USB connection, along with a headphone jack.

On top is a slide power and hold switch, a miniature microphone and three buttons marked -, M and +, for Down, Menu and Up, respectively. The right-hand end of the player has a slot in it so that the triangular stylus can also be used as a stand, supporting the player at either of two angles when viewing a video. The stand would benefit from fitting a bit tighter in the slot and with easy attachment to the player itself, as it's too easy to lose.

The player measures 76mm by 55mm. This size is a good compromise between pocketability and screen size. The 320 x 240 pixel screen is surprisingly good at playing back all kinds of video. The D2 is a well featured player and supports FLAC, OGG and APE lossless formats, as well as the more well-known MP3, WMA and WAV formats.

Navigating your way around the D2's menus is straightforward, as they're logically laid out while still offering many options. As well as video and audio playback, the player can display photos and text, can make recordings direct to WMA and has a built-in FM radio.

The player is compatible with Windows, Linux and Mac OS X, though the supplied JetAudio and JetShell software is Windows-only. JetAudio is a Media Player workalike, but also offers a lot of audio and video conversions, so you can get media onto your D2. JetShell handles uploads and downloads with the player, through its supplied USB cable.

Cowon provides a Lithium-Ion battery, which is claimed to provide up to 10 hours of video playback or 52 hours of music. It charges in just 3.5 hours.

This is a great little media player, which can provide hours of entertainment from both audio and video and is particularly easy to use, thanks to its touch-screen. Given its feature set, it's also very reasonably priced. All we could wish for now is a D2 with a 60GB hard drive built in.