Portable video players are proving to be an attractive alternative to audio-oriented MP3 players as an all-in-one solution, with Archos driving the market with its successful jukebox series. Reddmango attempts to challenge this success with the new Angora VX435, which offers a similar array of features along with the ability to directly output content to external devices.

One advantage the Angora player holds straight from the off is that everything you need to do this is supplied in the box, which includes a remote control plus composite and component adaptor cables. The VX435 is quite a bit larger than most rival media players though. The rather chunky black and silver design may not appeal to all, and a relatively small 3.5-inch display doesn't seem big enough to make best use of the space available. It seems to be built for right-handed use due to a protruding cylindrical battery compartment that houses a rather chunky rechargeable cell offering just two and a half hours of playback for video and eight for audio.

Getting started with the player is simply a case of plugging in the mini-USB cable and dragging content across into the relevant folder. You'll find video, audio and photo playback here, along with an eBook reader and voice recorder. Performance is adequate but we've seen better: video suffers somewhat from the low resolution 320 x 240 display. Audio fares a bit better but, despite testing the device with some pretty swanky in-ear bud ‘phones from Sennheiser, we weren't overly impressed.

In the case of video we found it pretty awkward to browse back and forth through clips using the advance and rewind buttons. In doing so the player seemed to take on a mind of its own and actually crashed a few times during this process which required a battery removal to fix.

You're also very limited in terms of adjusting playback, since there's no equalizer for audio and no aspect control for video. In fact photo playback is about the only feature that offers the desired degree of control. You will find a built-in speaker at the back which kicks in when you unplug the headphones, but it's particularly poor.

Of course you can also use the Angora player as a media jukebox and port content to a television or external speakers, which is easy enough to do with the supplied cables and remote control. Audio playback worked well enough but we were a little disappointed by the video quality.

Despite a supposed output resolution of 720 x 576 and using the component connector to do so, we saw noticeable pixel blur and ghosting on-screen. While playback is fine for showing off shorter clips it's more difficult to enjoy an entire movie, particularly when you take the control issues into account.

So far we've been pretty negative about the Angora VX435, but there's a handful of redeeming features that go some way to making up for its faults. Content support is extremely good: you'll find you can play .AVI, .MPG, .VOB and .DAT files (allowing you to rip an entire DVD to the player's hard drive), and despite testing a range of video using some weird and wonderful codec combinations we didn't find a file that wouldn't play.

The player is available in capacities up to 120GB so you should have no trouble fitting all your media on-board, but in the event that you do you'll find you can play back content from a USB memory stick or other external USB storage by plugging it into the player directly using the mini-USB-to-USB adaptor provided. You'll also find a few fairly enjoyable albeit basic games to keep you amused on the move. Finally the Angora VX534 is quite reasonably priced; you'll pay around £160 for the 40GB version and up to £250 for the maximum size.

Despite these advantages the Angora jukebox doesn't get enough of the basic things right to be a genuine rival in this market. Those serious about getting the most from their media won't find enough in terms of control, and performance is some way behind the more established media players currently available.

The Angora VX435 offers impressive video support and handy ‘straight from the box' media output to a TV or stereo, but most other aspects of the player are lacking in terms of control and performance. Despite the reasonable price tag you'd be better off spending a bit more on something like the Archos 605.