Compaq iPAQ PM-1 Personal CD Player

When I first read about recordable 3" mini CD's I thought 'here's a revolution waiting to happen'. Well, I'm still waiting, whilst enjoying the benefits of a highly versatile and functional portable audio format. After a fair bit of research into the various pros and cons of different music formats I decided that in terms of value for money, amount of storage and ease of recording, within a reasonable budget, a mini CD player was my best bet.

Mini CD's are exactly the same as ordinary rewritable CD's, only they're 3" in diameter, fitting into the smaller second hole in most CD draws. The beauty of this format is that they cost as little as normal rewritable CD's, and can store up to 210MB on a single disc. So that's 210MB for less than $1, compared to about 2MB per $1 for removable memory formats used by other MP3 players. The large amount of storage space on each disk means that you can record about 40 to 50 MP3 tracks at a good quality bit rate, which is a whole evenings worth of playback! This also means that you can get several albums by the same, or different artists on one CD, and I often only take a few away with me as I never have enough time to listen to all my CD's. This is a great advantage over MiniDiscs, even with new compression software, Mini CD's still outstrip MiniDiscs for amount of storage and value for money. They're also easy to record (providing you have a CD writer on your computer). Using software such as MusicMatch (which can be downloaded for free from the internet) you can record CD's directly into MP3 format. If you're connected to the internet you can also download the ID3 tags for the songs, if not you may have to enter the track and artists details yourself, which can be a little laborious if you've got 40 to do for each CD. Once you've written the CD, you're ready to go.

The player itself is somewhere between a MiniDisc player and a normal portable CD player in terms of size, and I've found it a little too bulky for just slipping in my pocket, which is a slight drawback if I'm out and about. It's quite light, which is partly due to the build quality, which in my opinion is dubious. It's nearly entirely plastic, and although mine's lasted over a year without serious problems, I wouldn't fancy it's chances if I dropped it. The remote control is very useful and has a clear LCD display which shows the track time, artist, album and track number of each song, as well as the equalizer setting. It also has all the usual play functions and a useful 'Hold' mode which prevents you from accidentally pressing a button when you're moving about. The clip is great for attaching to clothes or a bag strap when you're out, but is pretty flimsy, and mine broke within a month. The headphones which come supplied are fairly decent, but a bit too conspicuous for my liking. Fortunately the remote has a headphone input, allowing you to swap your favorite headphones and still use the remote.

The sound quality is generally excellent (depending on the quality of your MP3 files) and is as loud and as clear as you could expect from such a player. Occasionally the player is prone to skipping if it's jogged, so don't go running with it, but under normal conditions playback is smooth and continuous.

But here's the main downside of the player, the appalling battery life. I'd made the mistake of assuming that I'd get something near MiniDisc playback times, but I was severely disappointed. Two AA batteries will last 4 to 5 hours, and slightly less if you use rechargeable batteries (which you should, unless you're very rich!). I quickly purchased two pairs of rechargeable batteries and try to have one on charge whilst I'm using the others, so that I've always got some to hand, but it's frustrating if you forget to put them on charge. The batteries are also a chore to change as they're housed inside the unit, so you have to remove the CD before you can change them, which is a real pain if you're trying to do it on the move.

Overall though this is a smart little device for playing Mini CD's, which are highly underrated as a Audio playback format. It's a shame that the larger Electronic companies like Sony haven't backed the Mini CD's as very few people have heard of them. But those who have can expect to enjoy a lot of music at a very small cost.

I'm pleased with mine, and won't consider upgrading until I can afford an MP3 player with a very large hard drive, such as the IPod.