Unfortunately, your music preference will not always jive with the driver’s. If you are tired of hearing “Kailangan pa bang i-memorize yan?” from the FX’s radio, make sure that you bring your own portable music player on your next commute.

With too many products already available in the market, choosing the right portable music player can get very confusing. For many, brand, features, and budget are the main factors to consider in making a purchase.

For those looking for more value for their money, KingCom (the mobile phone accessories retailer) has recently joined the portable music player bandwagon. Among their new products, the Joypal 423 MP3 Player is a flash memory-based device with all the basic functions of an MP3 player and more! It has an FM radio and is also a voice/FM radio recorder.

About as small and as light as a matchbox, the Joypal will hardly make a bulge in your purse. With its sleek and sexy dimensions, it is easy to forget that you have in your pocket because you will hardly feel that it is there. Sophisticated-looking with its mirror face and flashy silver casing, it is clearly a device for ladies who love all things that sparkle. Combining fashion with functionality, the included earphones also serve as a neck strap should you wish to wear the Joypal like a necklace.

The package comes with everything that is needed to run it including a charger, a USB cable, and the driver installation CD (for Windows 98 users). A headset jack adapter is also included should you wish to use your own headphones.

Loading songs into the Joypal is a breeze! When you connect it to a Windows XP pc via the supplied USB cable, it will be recognized as a new hard drive. Simply copy and paste into the Joypal drive the MP3 and WMA files you want to transfer and you’re done.

Upon turning it on, the Joypal automatically goes to the Music Player program. In spite of its compact size, the Joypal gives a fairly impressive performance in the sound department. With the included earbuds, tunes were loud and clear with no noticeable background hiss. Highs and lows were balanced and defined. For the more discriminating, there are 8 preset equalizer settings and an option to set your own sound preference.

Also impressive is the Joypal’s ability to display on its 2-color OLED display the lyrics of the MP3 file being played via corresponding .LRC files. These files can be downloaded from the Internet or created by a lyric editing software.

The Joypal’s has built-in 256MB memory and can store around 60 songs. If you get tired of listening to your own music playlist, it also has powerful FM radio which can save up to 30 radio frequencies.

To round-up its value-for-money features, the Joypal also has the ability to record voice at close distance and FM programs while you are listening to them. These files are saved in WAV and MP3 formats and can be played back as part of the music playlist.

Now, this wouldn’t be a balanced review if the gadget’s drawbacks were not mentioned. Would it? No need to worry, though. The Joypal has only a few.

In spite of a fairly simple menu, navigating through the Joypal is not as intuitive as with other more popular MP3 players. But with only 4 buttons to manipulate, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out which button does what.

Also, although displaying the lyrics of the MP3 files being played is a cool feature, the Joypal’s small screen makes this feature virtually ineffective.

Finally, 256MB worth of storage may be enough songs for a day or two. But the lack of expandable memory means that you will have to add and remove files frequently to keep your playlist always fresh.

To sum it all up, the KingCom Joypal 423 MP3 Player is an impressive music player in an eye-catching design. If you do not mind adding and removing files frequently, the Joypal 423 is a great option for people who always want value for their money.