Philips Nike ACT215 256MB

The fitness-friendly design isn’t dissimilar to a ice-hockey puck, with a red rubber surround making it sit comfortably in your fist. The outer edge is grey and homes ports including USB and headphones. On the inside, the design is similar to the shiny iPod white, with controls such as stop, play, power, shuffle forward and back. If you imagine it like a donut (it does look good enough to eat), the small ring in the middle is a contemporary circular LED display which is nice and clear. It only weighs 71 grams making it a perfect running companion, equally as well designed are the monkey tail headphones, consisting of the normal ear-bud style earphones supported by monkey-tails that hook over the top of your ear. It also comes with a very practical adjustable armband that sits comfortably without slipping down. The MP3Run's sweat resistant design is ready in waiting for those hot sticky days to test it out.

MP3 players don’t have the longest spec lists in the world, but the MP3Run’s is rather impressive thanks to the super-cool pedometer. We’ll start off by telling you all about it as it is just too good to keep secret for much longer. The MP3Run comes with a discrete Bluetooth device that clips onto your running shoe, this records how many steps you have taken, how far you have travelled and at what pace. What’s more, is that you can hit a button and the music cuts out ready for a voice to tell you how long, far and fast you have been moving! We love it. It really is like using a treadmill with the added pleasure of music and fresh air. Once you get home you can attach the MP3Run to your computer, and download the details of your run onto the Nike fitness website to keep a track of your progress. The MP3Run is a Windows-only player and comes with Philips media manager software and the music match jukebox. It supports WMA and MP3, we managed to fit 9 CD albums on in total which isn’t bad. If you want a bit more music than that you can use the FM radio with its 10 presets. The battery is lithium-ion and non-replaceable unfortunately, however it is a quick charger which is a bonus.

Who wants to talk audio levels when you have got an outdoor treadmill in the palm of your hand? The pedometer works accurately from start to finish, we used a top-of-the-range pedometer to compare the results and the MP3Run music player was spot on. We did notice that the sound cut out a few times for a second here and there when we were hooked up to the Bluetooth device which was annoying. The Bluetooth device itself takes a AAA battery and gave us a good 42 hours running time. The MP3 player only gave us 12 hours which is a shame, but to be honest, you are not going to be out running for more than 12 hours and it is a quick charger so it isn’t a major set-back. Ok, suppose we should mention the audio at this point.  Admittingly, we weren’t very impressed by the volume levels at all. The maximum volume level just wasn’t loud enough, especially when running by a main road. When the environment was less noisy, the sound was impressive though, with good bass and clarity. The jukebox software has always got on our nerves and unfortunately this experience hasn’t changed our minds. Its slow and unresponsive behaviour is really backwards in our opinion.

For a little under £200, the MP3Run is maybe a bit on the expensive side based on performance alone. However, taking into account the whole Bluetooth device performance and running diary download option, the MP3Run music player is a superb piece of kit if you can afford it.