Sleek, Black and Storing More: 8GB Players From LG and Sony

Both sleek, both black, but the 8GB Sony NW-1000 and LG MFJM53 take very different approaches to everything.

8GB players are the new sweet spot for real portability combined with enough music, enough battery life and enough features to be interesting. It's even a size of player where Apple doesn't currently have an iPod. But when you're looking at 8GB players, do you want one that gives you more features or lets you do more with your music? Sony and LG have two very different answers.

Both players are sleek black devices that you can hold comfortably in your hand, but after that everything else is different. The LG MFJM53 is an all-singing, all-dancing, all-playing device with a colour screen. It can play videos, display ebooks, record conversations and show off your holiday photos as well as playing your music. The Sony NW-1000 sticks to music, with a mono screen that shows you track information rather than the colourful visualisations you get on the LG player. Instead it has a range of different ways of choosing what tracks you want to listen to, and the option of plugging straight into your hi-fi. Which of them would you want in your pocket on a long journey?