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• The Good: Incredibly slim design; plays standard CDs and discs with WMA and MP3 files; excellent menu system; FM tuner built in; long battery life; car kit included.
• The Bad: FM tuning controls non-intuitive; external battery pack unwieldy.
• The Verdict: So long as you have a CD burner at home, the SlimX is a great way to play back all of your audio, both CD and MP3.
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REVIEW:

With the proliferation of hard drive-based MP3 players like the iPod and the Nomad Zen, it may be a bit surprising that there's still a demand for portable CD players. For a good chunk of music fans, though, the CD-based MP3 players are essential ... just because you've decided that MP3 files are a good thing, why should that mean that you have to abandon the CD?

If you still regularly head down to the store to buy new CDs, you may find yourself on the way home with an MP3 player and a new CD. Why not have a player that will handle both?

MP3 CDs fit more than 100 songs per disc and support playlists, and it takes just a few seconds to remove one CD and insert another. (Of course, to create MP3 CDs, you'll need access to a CD burner.)

The SlimX 550 is the latest ultra-compact CD-based MP3 player from iRiver; it also plays WMA and ASF files, and good ol' audio CDs. As with the previous SlimX models, the player is barely larger than a standard compact disc around the sides, and is only 13 mm thick.

It barely seems like it would be big enough for the CD mechanism itself, but when you flip open the lid there are also trap doors for two flattened NiMH rechargeable batteries, designed to keep the player going for up to 55 hours. And there's also a built-in FM tuner, too. Wow.

To get the size of the down, all of the controls you'd normally find on the player itself (play, pause, forward, back, etc) have been moved to the clip-on remote control, found at the end of a meter-long wire. The remote also comes with a small four-line LCD display that not only shows you what's playing, but also allows you to scroll through your playlist.

One nice touch is that the player also can pull song titles directly from many new audio CDs, in addition to retrieving all of the information encoded into MP3 files. The display is also home to a fairly thorough menu system; there's even a window which displays all the sliders of a built-in graphic equalizer. Instead of individual buttons, the remote features three jog wheels that double as menu controls when you hold them in.

The bundle that comes with the player is also pretty impressive. If the two NiMH cells happen to run out of power, there's also an external battery holder that takes two standard AA cells; just plug it into the power port on the rear and away you go.

In addition to the regular AC adapter, there's a cigarette lighter adapter so you can use the player in your car; a cassette player adapter is also included. The package includes a softcover carrying case with a belt loop on the back; it's a bit awkward to strap it onto your belt, but the option is there.

It's an impressive little package, but there are a few things that could use work.

First, while the ability to switch between CD and FM is a nice feature, the FM tuning control is less intuitive than it could have been. Once it's set you're good to go, but getting it there is nowhere near as obvious as it could have been.

Secondly, while the external battery pack is a really nice save if your internal batteries run out of juice, it just sort of …dangles there from a short wire, which can be awkward.

Those are pretty small concerns, though. Almost everything else about the SlimX 550 makes it another winner for iRiver.