MP3 players are absolutely everywhere, and that's despite the fact that it is illegal to rip a CD to MP3 in this country, even if you paid full retail price for the thing. Naturally, people tend to ignore that quirk of the law and many have got huge music libraries stashed away on 100GB+ hard drives.

It may help to bring MP3 out of the shadows if the iTunes and MusicMatch music stores were available in the UK, but as yet only Napster has arrived, and that only recently. In the meantime, MP3s are a bit dodgy, whether they come from CD, your mates or that there Internet.

Apple has just announced its latest quarterly sales figures and it turns out that it has sold more iPods than computers. Mind you, practically everyone has an iPod while iMacs and iBooks are relatively rare, but even so it's a surprise. We reviewed the new iPod ages ago (in June 2003) and we're still waiting to see the mini iPod here in the UK. Unfortunately shipments have been delayed until the summer as the US market is buying all the mini iPods that Apple can produce, so you won't find any Apple products in this group.

What you will find is a mix of players that use different ways to store your music files, ranging in price from £59 to over £200 and from 128MB to 4GB. We could have included players up to 60GB in size and £349, but we reviewed the 30GB version of the Creative Zen Jukebox Xtra in March, and the gorgeous 20GB Philips HDD120 is damned expensive at £299, so instead let's have a look at the coolest kit to make your journey to work that bit more pleasurable.

Prices quoted here are the manufacturers' suggested retail prices - if you shop around or use our price comparison links you should find the players available at considerably cheaper prices. Click on the 'NEXT' link below to find out more.