It's almost with a sense of nostalgia that we unpack the iAudio E2, a device that suggests that the ‘faceless' MP3 player market is still ticking away in the background amidst a swathe of equally portable, display-oriented rivals.

The E2 is among the more unassuming audio players of recent times, being around the size of a typical key-fob and, due to its plain black casing and stainless steel loop-ring design, could be forgiven for being dismissed as such on first glance.

Of course we've seen this kind of thing before with devices like the Creative Zen Stone and more predominantly the iPod Shuffle, and there's clearly a market here for joggers, commuters and those who for whatever reason feel more comfortable knowing that their favourite collection of tunes is only a pocket away.

Either side of the E2's reassuringly solid enclosure are volume, track skip/search, power and shuffle/effect controls. The only other blight on the sleek surface is a 3.5mm headphones port at the bottom, which innovatively doubles as a charger and data transfer point using the supplied USB cable. It takes around an hour and a half to fully charge the E2, and from this you can expect around 10 hours of playback, which is certainly nothing to shout about considering the lack of a display. In addition to this we can see the majority of users storing the E2 in a pocket, and the lack of a rubberised guard for the 3.5mm port means that it would undoubtedly collect dirt and fluff with ease.

Files are copied across via drag and drop and there's nothing particularly fancy about the way the E2 handles your music. Unfortunately this is to its detriment due to one fairly major omission: the ability to skip through tracks by folder. This was one innovation that made screenless players such as the Stone and Shuffle so nice to use, and even though capacities are relatively limited to 2GB and 4GB here, that's still more than enough tunes to trawl through without a more expansive degree of control.

Nine EQ presets are available in the guise of iAudio's BBE+ sound. These comprise of Normal, BBE, BBE VIVA, BBE VIVA 2, BBE Mach3Bass, BBE Mp, BBE Headphone, BBE Headphone 2 and BBE Headphone 3. If this sounds convoluted, we agree, and to make up for the lack of a display to remind you which you've chosen, the device ‘speaks' the current setting to you while music is playing. Most of the time this is quite unintelligible and since the settings themselves are quizzical enough in the first place, you're often left switching between them at random until you find a mode that best suits the current choice of music.

That's not to say that the E2 isn't capable of some impressive sound, and while the supplied headphones are poor, to say the least, we were able to isolate some thumping bass and clean high tones with a decent set of ‘buds. It would be fair to say that performance here is slightly above average considering the style of player, but certainly nothing that would significantly rival previous forays into this market.

There's really not a lot more to be said about iAudio's ‘casual' entry aside from the fact that it's quite reasonably priced. At £29.99 for a 2GB model and £39.99 for 4GB it's wallet-friendly, but in all honesty we're struggling to think of a reason - aside from the aesthetics - that would elevate it above the now rather antiquated Zen Stone at this price point, if only for the lack of a folder-skip option.

Verdict
The iAudio E2's most redeeming feature may well be its appealing design, and while it's also quite cheap and would undoubtedly prove popular for casual users who enjoy peace of mind from keeping a dozen of their favourite albums on a keychain, it lacks a couple of important features that make this style of player usable without the benefit of a dedicated display.

Company: Cowon

Tags: ipod shuffle creative zen universal serial bus digital audio player headphone iphone creative zen stone ipod