Compaq iPaq Mini CD Player PM-1 review

Mini-CD players, which allow you to play back MP3s burned onto 8cm CD-Rs and CD-RWs, are gradually growing in number. These devices are smaller than standard portable CD players, yet each mini-CD still holds as much music (compressed) as three traditional CDs. Compaq's PM-1 steps up to this plate with an appealing design and good extras for a relatively low price. Mini-CD players, which allow you to play back MP3s burned onto 8cm CD-Rs and CD-RWs, are gradually growing in number. These devices are smaller than standard portable CD players, yet each mini-CD still holds as much music (compressed) as three traditional CDs. Compaq's PM-1 steps up to this plate with an appealing design and good extras for a relatively low price.

Sorta slick
With its silver-colored, iPaq-themed top, the device looks pretty slick from a distance. But hold it in your hand, and it feels just like any low-priced portable CD player, albeit a shrunken one. Of course, its small size (3.9 by 3.9 by 1.2 inches and 7.1 ounces) is one of the PM-1's and other mini-CD players' big selling points.

Mini-CDs can be burned using any CD-RW drive and have a storage capacity of 185MB, which Compaq says will allow you to record up to 80 songs--or six hours' worth of music--to them. However, if you rip your MP3s with less compression (say, at 160Kbps), expect to get closer to 25 songs on a disc, which is equivalent to almost two CDs' worth of music. Encoding tunes at 128Kbps gets you about three CDs' worth of music per mini-CD. That's still pretty good, and the discs themselves will run you only about 50 cents each when you buy them in bulk.

As far as features go, the PM-1 has what you'd expect to find in a portable CD player, including Random and Repeat modes as well as four preset EQs. More advanced functions are controlled via the nicely designed in-line remote, which also displays ID3 tag information on its ample LCD. We appreciated that you can detach the headphones from the remote and swap in another pair if you want. We also like the fact that Compaq has included a line-out jack in case you want to connect the device to your stereo without passing through the PM-1's volume circuitry.

Easy ripping and burning
The PM-1 comes with MusicMatch Jukebox, which you can use to rip MP3s and burn them to mini-CDs. You can also use other programs, such as Roxio Easy CD Creator, to burn the files, and Compaq even throws in three mini-CDs to get you started. We had no trouble creating a test disc of 20 songs, but we should note that if you pick up some of your MP3s from file-swapping services, the player might not be able to read all of them; the PM-1 rejected 2 such songs.