Apple has stamped its mark so decisively on the portable digital music player market that any new launch draws inevitable comparisons to the iPod range.

With 1Gb of memory the latest addition to JVC’s portable audio line-up, the Alneo XA-F107, is likely to find itself up against the iPod Nano  in the Christmas wish-list wars this year.

The XA-F107 is a stylish-looking device that’s considerably smaller than a credit card but the trade-off is its screen that’s only really large enough to display three tracks at a time.

It’s compatible with PCs only and shows up as a removable drive when connected via a USB socket, which also charges the player.

Transferring music is simple – there’s no software to install and individual tracks or entire music folders can be dragged and dropped into the device folder with room for around 250 MP3s.

Each folder stored on the player acts as a playlist – in other words the player will stop playback at the end of the last track in a folder. As the player uses ID3 tag information to arrange tracks into folders automatically, some fiddling around is needed to get tracks set up in a way that suits you.

The three buttons on the front of the unit control playback with a play/pause button and buttons to skip forward and back through tracks and menu options.

The menu system itself is well laid-out but it’s certainly not as intuitive to navigate as the iPod menu system, even after several days of use.

At the top of the unit are buttons to stop playback and call up the menu but just next to these is something you wouldn’t expect to see on a portable music player: a record button.

This can be used to record tracks directly from another audio source and an audio cable is supplied for this purpose. Each recording is stored as a new MP3 file.

Within the main menu is a handy option to delete recordings or any other unwanted tracks from the device without having to connect to a computer.

MP3, WMA and WMA-DRM file formats are supported and the XA-F107 is comparable to the iPod Nano in terms of audio clarity. It can be a little flat at times and vocals occasionally sound muffled but investing in a better pair of headphones than those included in the box is a must.

With some handy features that give the user greater control over the tracks stored on the player, the XA-F107 is certainly worth considering. The menu system just doesn’t feel as slick as the Nano’s, though, and this, coupled with that small screen, is likely to put many buyers off.

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iPod Nano 
Verdict: A work of undeniable beauty but expensive compared with other portable players
Rating: 4/5
Price: £139