Photos: Venzero Slickr

If you've got some disposable income, it's almost worth buying the Slickr just to turn some heads. Maybe you can convince your date that Steve Jobs secretly sends you iPhone prototypes for testing.

The clean face of the Slickr would make you believe it uses touch-screen technology for navigation. You would be wrong. Instead, you have to navigate through the player using a series of tiny black buttons found on the top edge of the player.

As a video player, the Slickr isn't half bad. It's also the only player with a 2.8-inch screen we've seen at this price. Unfortunately, video quality is weighed down by poor viewing angles that cause the image to darken if the screen isn't held perfectly perpendicular.

Unless a MP3 player advertises itself as sporty or fitness-friendly, we actually prefer it when a player like the Slickr keeps its USB port accessible and not covered by some awkward rubber flap.

Here's everything you get with the Slickr (minus the paperwork): mini-CD, pouch, USB cable, line-input cable, and earbuds. As a side note, the earbuds include an in-line volume adjustment (which comes in handy when you can't remember which of the Slickr's mysterious black buttons will turn down the volume).

Yes, the Slickr only has 2GB of built-in memory, but you can use miniSD cards to add up to 4GB of additional storage. So if you're going to use the Slickr as a dedicated video player, expect to invest in a miniSD card as well.

Here you can see the Slickr's black-button navigation lining the top edge of the player. From left to right, they are: the hold switch, a menu button, backward, forward, volume down, volume up, and play/power. Symbols for these functions are embossed on the buttons, but they're still not intuitive, even after using the Slickr for several days.

Here's a bird's-eye view, showing the Slickr's navigation control. Keep in mind that while viewing the Slickr, these controls (and their embossed function icons) are out of sight.