Interesting. We're kind of in need of fresh PMP materials, so any addition to the currently-established elite (Archos AV5x0, Cowon A2 et cetera) is much-welcomed over here. Our buddies over at AdvancedMP3Players.co.uk managed to get their hands on a batch of Elentec iUbi PMP2500Bs. This player, also known as the iUbi Blue, has lots of interesting features & specs to offer. We'll list some highlights below.

First of all, there's the 4.3-inch (widescreen), 16.7m color TFT LCD. Although we thought the GUI looked a bit "blue" during the unit's first stages of development, a resolution of 480 x 272 never hurt anyone either. Best of all is probably the huge bucket of supported file formats: MPEG 1, 2, 4 DivX 3.X, DivX 4.X, DivX 5.X, Svid, WMV9, H.264, AVI, OGM, WMV 7, 8, MOV and Real video. Need more? Sure, MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, AC-3, ASF, AAC-LC, G.726 for video is also included in the package deal. Output resolutions upto 720 x 480 pixels (@30fps) and output volumes of 32mW per channel (via a Wolfson 3D sound chip) bolster the 2500B's impressive set of specs.

What's more, the 2500B can record video through TV-in (MPEG4, 640x480 @ 30fps) and it has a USB-OTG port built-in (so one can transfer data from one USB device to the Blue and vice versa). And its name wasn't picked randomly either - the device comes with bluetooth support for wireless headphones, allowing us to get rid of the ordinary cable bunch whilst listening to the player's audio/video contents.

Surely, this thing won't last for more than a few hours per charge? Wrong, it'll play video files for 8 hours continuously and audio tracks fro about 15 hours in a row. At 131 x 80 x 19mm and weighing 260 grams, the iUbi Blue can hardly be regarded as a "fat bastard" either (Cowon A2: 133 x 78 x 22mm, 298 grams). Surprisingly so, the PMP2500B is pretty affordable too, at 249UKP (30GB). Compared to AMP3's 309UKP & 319UKP retail prices for the Archos AV530 and the 30GB Cowon A2 respectively... we can safely say that the iUbi Blue looks like a very interesting deal... on paper.

Only being available on a pre-order basis right now, we'll keep our eyes peeled for the Blue's final release (end of the month). And we're sure some of you will do exactly the same.

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