WHAT'S HOT: The TDK Mojo 860 is a head turner, thanks to its sleek look and its blue metallic color. The sound generated by the bundled earpiece headphones is great, too. The lightweight unit includes a remote control with a clearly readable, neatly organized four-line display that shows the track title in boldface letters. The player is designed to be used with the remote control, but six tiny buttons on the player's side let you control basic playback operations, a workable backup method in camse you misplace the remote. Though it doesn't recognize .M3U playlist files, you can configure playlists on the fly by selecting what artists, tracks, genres, or directories to include in your playback session. (Admittedly, however, this is a less-than-ideal solution if you have 200 songs to scan through in the CD's root directory.)

WHAT'S NOT: The unit lacks an FM tuner, which competing models such as the IRiver IMP-400 SlimX have.

WHAT ELSE: You get the usual complement of playback options (repeat, shuffle, play intro only), as well as several more-than-the-usual display options (such as four time displays for the discs). In our hands-on tests, the 8-minute buffer was up to the task of keeping songs from skipping. Two long, slim, removable nickel metal hydride batteries power the player, and can charge while in the unit. An AC power pack is included, as is an attachable external pack that lets you use the player with two AA batteries in a pinch (if the two built-in nickel metal hydride batteries run out of steam). The attachment is a bit awkward, however, as it hangs suspended from the back of the player--a design that's fine if the player is sitting on a desktop, but clumsy if you're planning to hold the device in your hands as you walk.

TDK includes its own Navitrack software for organizing your music collection's ID3 tags (which contain such information as the track, album, and artist name), as well as preparing and uploading lyrics that can scroll on the remote as a song plays. Also bundled is MoodLogic's software, which, if you participate in the service, allows you to sort songs by genre and then play them back on the Mojo by picking the genre you want to hear. The Mojo 860's documentation is well illustrated and well written, taking a user step-by-step through all the features of the player.

One minor note: The otherwise well designed remote control has both the headphones wire and the wire leading to the player coming out of the top, which means that (in the vast majority of usage scenarios) the player wire will have to loop back downward in the direction of the player.

UPSHOT: Highly portable and good-looking, the Mojo 860 is an inexpensive and nicely designed player great for listening to audio CDs or discs packed with MP3 or WMA song files.