There are two styles of MP3 player; those based around memory cards and those, usually called jukeboxes, which use a notebook-style hard drive for storage. Archos's new Jukebox Multimedia fits in the second group, but goes much further than most MP3 players.

About the size of a large mouse, the Jukebox Multimedia only starts by playing MP3 tracks. A 42mm, full colour LCD display on its front face shows you exactly what tracks you have recorded on it and the proprietary operating system is easily navigated using a ring of controls below the display, plus a couple of extra buttons. With 20GB of fast hard drive to play with, you can store thousands of tracks and the built-in Lithium-ion batteries will power the device for up to seven hours. That's music for most of a working day.

You don't have to stick to music, though. The little Archos device is just as good at storing and playing back video. Using the new MPEG-4 compression standard, it can play back any video that you can convert into this format. Later this year the company will release a specialised add-on for the Jukebox Multimedia. The video recorder module will handle MPEG-4 conversion from most video sources, such as video cassette and DVD.

Before then, though, there's digital photography. The unit is supplied with two clip-on adapters for CompactFlash and SmartMedia memory cards. The idea is that it can act as a portable store for all the still photos you take with your digital camera. Although, as yet, there's no adapter for Multimedia/Secure Digital cards, this extra facility is a great extension for the device. You can store thousands of images, even at high resolution.

Proving just how laterally Archos can think, the company will be launching a £60 add-on for the Jukebox Multimedia, which again clips to its back and underside, turning it into a base level digital camera. Using the display screen as a viewfinder, you'll be able to snap away 640 x 480 pictures, straight to the hard drive. While the resolution may be nothing special, it's good enough for holiday snaps.

When you think that the Jukebox Multimedia's main rivals, Creative's Jukebox 3 and the Rio Riot, cost as much as the Jukebox Multimedia, you realise how much more expandable the Archos solution is. It's a really good piece of free thinking and is close to being the ideal portable companion.

If you want an MP3 Jukebox with a lot more potential than its rivals, this device should be top of your list. It's an MP3 player, video player and digital picture store, all in one, with plenty of future upgrade options to keep it useful and interesting.