DigiMate V 80GB with screen review

The DigiMate V is supposed to be a one-stop-shop for photographers who need a portable card reader, picture viewer and hard disk on the road. It's a great idea, but there are some flaws that need to be addressed. First off, it looks like crap.

The DigiMate does support a wide variety of photo and video formats: several versions of MPEG, plus MP4, as well as JPEG, GIF and BMP images. Cameras from a wide range of manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and Samsung, all work with the DigiMate, and there's also support for all the common types of memory card, from CF and SD to MMC and Memory Stick and all its derivative forms.

While there's no denying its functionality, the DigiMate's form leaves a lot to be desired. Beside the latest video MP3 players, for instance, it's a brick - bigger than even the first generation iPod. This is partly because of all the card slots, and if you need them you may feel you can put up with it, but with so many cameras able to connect directly via USB, it's debatable whether this is necessary.

The DigiMate is ugly as well as big. The plastic body feels cheap, and while the front panel is at least minimalist, the nine large buttons don't feel at all responsive.We also had trouble figuring out how to use them to operate the functions. The makers have fronted the player with what looks like a copy of the old Windows XP 'Bliss' wallpaper - the one with the lush green field - almost as if they were trying to botch together a simulacrum of Windows Mobile. But there's nothing like that kind of versatility here; all you actually get in the way of user interface (and 'in the way' seems an apt phrase) is a selection of icons that indicate what sort of storage you've got plugged in.

These deficiencies leave us unenthusiastic about the DigiMate V. It does support plenty of picture and video formats, but the large size, poor build quality and terrible interface combine to make this a less than satisfactory addition to your camera bag.