Freecom Beatman Mini CD/MP3 Player

An attempt to implement mini-CD technology.

Seeing a new portable music player is about as exciting as seeing a new kind of toilet bleach, but mercifully Freecom's Beatman has some interesting and innovative features.

Its use of mini-CD-Rs is the first funky feature. At about 3in in diameter, these are considerably dinkier than their standard-sized CD cousins.

Secondly, it has MP3 decoding technology, which means it can play MP3 files stored on the mini-CD-Rs. This is significant because MP3 files are smaller than audio files and so more music can be stored. Each mini-CD-R can store 185Mb of data - an impressive three-and-a-half hours of music.

Low cost

A major advantage of these mini-CD-Rs is that they are inexpensive, costing only £1 each. That makes them more expensive than conventional CD-Rs but compares very favourably with storage media for portable MP3 players such as SmartMedia and CompactFlash cards.

The Beatman comes with MusicMatch 6 software, which rips songs from audio CDs for storage on a PC, and also allows you to store songs on a mini-CD-R. If your CD-RW drive is incompatible with MusicMatch 6, then the burning software bundled with the drive will do the job just as well.

In short supply?

Unfortunately it's not all good news for the Beatman. We are concerned about how widely available the players and discs will be, although Freecom insists that Virgin Megastore and Argos will stock both.

Of greater concern is the lack of commercial music in mini-CD format. Almost all CD players can use them but you can't just buy a CD by your favourite artist, put it into the player and boogie.

Bulk item

The Beatman's most serious flaw, though is that it is puzzlingly bulky, despite the tiny disks.

Freecom's Beatman is good value for money and has greater song capacity than most MP3 players. However, it looks like it will struggle to prise the public away from the petite and sexy MP3 players it is used to.

ContactFreecom 01423 704727 www.freecom.com

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Sony Music Clip

Fabulous looks and great performance.
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Computeractive, Issue 89