It seems all audio players are aimed in some way at a member of the iPod product line. TrekStor's Vibez has its eye on the iPod Nano, the music player in Apple's product line which has a neat, bright LCD display and up to 8GB of flash memory storage. The Vibez has a bright LCD display, too and 12GB of memory - around 250 albums' worth - as standard. It doesn't stop there, though.

TrekStor's player is beautifully styled, with its running-track shape coated matt black on the front surface and mirror-finish chrome on the reverse. The top part of the player has a 176 x 132 pixel TFT display set into it, while the bottom half sports a large control pad. A three-way push panel controls power and provides an alternative selection tool.

The rotating pad, which is contactless and works via magnetic switches, is used to scroll through menu options and to raise and lower the volume. While the magnetic mounting makes the wheel very smooth, we'd swap the smoothness for a click-wheel effect, which would make selection easier.

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The Vibez plays audio files in MP3, WMA and WAV formats, as you might expect, but also supports OGG and FLAC, for those who don't like high levels of compression. It'll record directly from its own built-in microphone, or via its line-in socket, using the supplied double-headed, stereo jack lead. It records in WAV format, so there's no built-in compression there either.

The earbud headphones come from Sennheiser, a company which has one of the best names in the business. They're excellent in both sound and comfort terms: they deliver a crisp, bright sound with plenty of bass and their foam pads are well cushioned and fit snugly in the ears.

TrekStor provides a copy of Magix MP3 Maker SE to handle track downloads. The software, which is surprisingly full-featured for a Special Edition, needs a bit of practice to get the most out of. It includes support for Web radio and podcasts, so you can download these to the Vibez and take them with you. Whenever it's docked with a PC, the player recharges its replaceable Lithium-Ion battery via the USB 2 port.

TrekStor makes no claims for the Vibez as a full media player and it can't replay video or play games. However, it can handle images in JPEG format and takes EXIF data straight from the photos, to help sort them.

There aren't many 12GB memory-based audio players under £150. The Trekstor Vibez is a no-nonsense device, designed to play music and live recordings well. It doesn't do video, it doesn't play games, but it does do microphone and line-in recordings, which is more than the iPod Nano. A great music player at a good price.