I admit, I am a little late to the whole MP3, portable music Era. I did try an iPod a few years back with mixed success before the device imploded. Since then I’ve relied on that horrible Sony ATRAC SonicStage CD system for my music listening, and if you too use that same system then you know the frustration.

Anyway, clearly time to upgrade, and upgrade I have done! My latest purchase is the Creative MuVo V100 MP3 player.

The sleek MuVo V100 is the size of a cigarette lighter or a pack of gum and acts basically as a 2GB flash drive that can play music and record audio. What’s great about the MuVo V100 is its ease of use. Unlike the iPod, there are no cables to connect, no software to install and no need to convert your MP3 music files into some other format. Also the battery is just a simple AAA so there’s no docking or recharging necessary.

With the MuVo you just plug the device into a USB port on your machine then drag/drop the files you want onto your player. That’s it. Your done. Real easy.

The 2GB hard drive you can hold about 500 songs or so, depending on the quality. I haven’t filled my player up even close to that, but the music sounds good through the ear buds and the controls are pretty easy. And since it’s a flash drive you don’t have to worry as much about the drive breaking down over time or skipping like you do with physical hard drives.

There is also a microphone, which I haven’t used yet, and a lyrics function which I guess would display the lyrics of the song currently playing on the LCD screen.

Of course there are issues. Namely, it does take a fair bit of time transferring the files from your computer to the device, and for some reason there are only four available folders on player in which to store your files plus the root. Not sure why or how they came up with that number, but that’s what it is. There is also no “line in”, nor any real way to connect a clip or hook on the player that will allow you to fasten it to another object like a belt or an armband.

But for a price of around $60 it’s a great, easy to use player and if you can live with just a 2GB hard drive then definitely give it a look.