While Creative, Sony and Apple are struggling to come up with the best portable music device, it seems that certain small producers manage to offer users some impressive features.

What can be more interesting than an MP3 player towards which you can channel all of your anger when things go utterly wrong and still function afterwards?

Monolith Premium comes from Estar Laboratories and the best word to describe it is, as the UK distributor Advanced MP3 Players says, revolutionary.

Although the audio features are advanced, this player's basic most important feature is the indestructible casing. We didn't have the chance to test the player, but the Advanced MP3 Players team said that they ran it over with a car, shot it with a BB gun, thrown it against a brick wall without damaging it in any way.

The unusual resistance is given by a fused aluminium casing, not stuck together with glue or screws, with a thickness of 1.5 millimeters.

Still, resistance would be nothing if the MP3 player weren't able to reproduce a quality sound. Fortunately, Monolith Premium has no problem at this, the device being fitted with a 24bit Wolfson sigma delta DAC processor, driving an impressive 56mW with an outstanding clarity. The player supports the MP3, WMA, OGG and WMA DRM formats and it also has a FM tuner. Additionally, the device offers users the possibility to define two equalizing modes or to use the 11 preset ones.

The operating time is not too shabby either, the rechargeable Li-Ion battery being able to ensure 19 hours of continuous listening experience. Monolith Premium can be recharged via the USB port, a full recharge requiring 3 hours.

There are three models, with capacities of 512MB, 1GB and 2GB priced at £89, £119 and £149, respectively.

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