Myvu Universal Edition review

Listening to music on the move has been popular for decades.

Video on the go hasn't proved so big, mainly because it's tricky to walk across town while trying to follow an episode of Lost. The Myvu initially seems to make the problem even worse by covering up your eyes, but you can see out reasonably well beneath it, although attempting anything like driving would still be suicidal.

The black headband houses two small displays, one in front of each eye. Each has 320x240 pixels, matching the display of the fifth generation iPod, so content encoded for iPod looks best. But you can plug the headset into all sorts of video devices, including portable DVD players and camcorders.

We found image quality fairly poor, with drab colours, poor contrast, and low brightness. More disappointing is that the image fills such a small percentage of your field of view. Rather than an immersive, cinema-like experience, it's more akin to holding your iPod a foot away from your face.

Audio is provided by integral in-ear headphones. These have noise cancelling to reduce background sounds, and we were quite happy with them. They come with a variety of earbuds to ensure a good fit, and the headset also has a selection of nose pieces. It's surprisingly lightweight, and more comfortable than staring at your laptop.

The Myvu is powered by a built-in battery, which is charged via USB; no charger is provided, so you'll have to buy one or charge from your PC. The battery lasted around four hours.

The main problem with the Myvu is that even friends are likely to shun you in public when you're using it. There's just something hopelessly naff about wearing technology on your face, and the video quality doesn't make up for acquiring social pariah status. We can't see it catching on.

Then again, on a bus or tube you might be quite happy to be left alone, and if you have a lot of time to pass watching video, it may appeal - especially if you don't like fellow passengers peering at your movie. But we'd recommend a Sony PSP instead: the screen is great, and it costs slightly less.