I bought the Packard Bell AudioDream 1GB when I was looking for a lightweight MP3 player to listen to whilst out riding my bike and it has been great. Really easy to upload songs, just plug it in and drag and drop. There have been complaints about the navigation of menus, but I found after a couple of times it became instinctive and I use it without even taking it out of my pocket now. The sound quality is excellent, the only reason I gave it an 8 rather than 9 is that there are even better sounding players out there now.

There are downsides though. When I first got it, it would freeze occasionally, but this was fixed very easily with the firmware upgrade that is easily available on the Packard Bell website. This website brings me to the next problem. One day I left it plugged into my computer and accidentally pulled the cable out. This caused it to crash and generally go crazy. I went through the fixes on the support page with no effect so sent Packard Bell an email. There was no response despite my many attempts at contacting them. In the end I fixed it by completely formatting the device and re-installing the firmware update. The other problem occurred when I lost my USB cable. You cannot get replacement cables!!! I found a website that claimed to sell them but they never had them in stock. Packard Bell won't sell you a replacement so if you lose it, you might as well throw the player away as it becomes useless. Luckily mine appeared in a house mates collection of cables! The other problem (if you can call it that) is the limited capacity. This didn't bother me when i bought it, but after a few holidays, i have decided it's time to buy something bigger.

Overall, I'm impressed with this player and if you are looking for a small lightweight good quality device, this should be high on your list. Just make sure you are happy with the capacity and keep that USB cable somewhere safe!!

MP3 files did disappear from the Packard Bell AudioDream but I reformated and downloaded new firmware from the Packard Bell site and so far no problems. Looks like they have new firmware weekly.