The Dell DJ 20 is a refreshed, smaller version of the original DJ, one of the first players to offer serious opposition to the Apple iPod. The new DJ 20 follows the lead of the iPod mini, with everything wrapped in a seamless, flattened aluminum tube. The soft angles and the anodized finish feel good in your hand, and it's equally convenient for both righties and lefties.

The central control feature (as with the prior DJ) is the thumb-operated roller switch, which scrolls on-screen selections up and down and selects them as you press down on it. Apart from the roller, which juts out from the player's faceplate, the dimensions are essentially identical to the full-size iPod's. A Back button takes you one step up in the menu hierarchy, and the Home button takes you to the top menu. Like the Creative Zen Touch , you can drill down alphabetically to narrow your searches to artists, albums, or songs. Also like the Zen players, a pop-up submenu gives you choices when you click on a song. You can play the song, view details, add it to a playlist, or clear it.

The large play/pause button beneath the roller bypasses the menu and plays your selection immediately. It's flanked by fast-forward and rewind buttons that are programmed with a nice ballistic curve: The longer you hold them, the faster the player moves through the song. The DJ 20's dedicated volume up/down buttons are on the top, next to the power switch, and have 25 steps of volume control.

The DJ 20 has optional FM and voice recording, but they're implemented through a wired remote with its own backlit display. The remote has a clip for your pocket, belt, or lapel. FM reception is good in strong signal areas, but somewhat spotty in fringe areas. Voice recording is clear. One advantage of the remote is that the microphone doesn't pick up hard drive whine as it records. It also records from the radio.

Start-up time for recording is about 5 seconds, so you'll miss the first few seconds of a song you want to record (which is typical for hard drive players with recording capabilities). We found the FM radio fussy to set up, but easy to use once we'd programmed our favorite stations into the presets. Overall, we'd prefer that these features be integrated into the main unit.

You can also purchase a second, smaller remote with just the play and volume controls. You can lock the controls on the main unit, throw it in a backpack, and use the remote to control it. Navigation with either remote is limited to forward and back, which is really all you need.

The DJ 20 is noticeably better than its predecessor in audio quality, and except for one flaw, we would rate it highly. The "Rock" EQ preset introduces significant amounts of harmonic distortion. While most of the distortion we measured is low and primarily of interest to music purists, it is audible. Since it's on just one preset, we can only assume that it's a DSP programming error—unless the programmer thought that "Rock" should make every song sound like grunge.

The DJ 20 can play loud—almost painfully so. We were able to deliver 100 to 101 dB through the stock headphones, using a classic rock track notable for its broad, evenly distributed balance of frequencies (Boston's "More than a Feeling"—hey, it's more fun than pink noise!).

Our only other complaint about the DJ 20 is its blue backlight: The combination of low brightness and low contrast doesn't do much for readability. But outdoors, or in bright indoor lighting, readability is good. All told, the DJ 20 is competitively priced for a 20GB player and continues the Dell tradition of providing value and choice.