£250/$TBA www.sony.co.uk
Despite the high price, a beautifully warm, rich sound and wealth of features make the Sony RDP-X80iP value for money. It boasts a retractable dock tray, rechargeable battery that lasts around seven hours and built-in equaliser with five presets - Rock, Pop, Jazz, Vocal and Flat - although this can't be custom-tuned.
The RDP-X80iP is agreeably powerful. You can crank the volume right up without suffering distortion. The sound is well defined with excellent clarity, and delivers a good, solid bass, especially using the Rock preset.
02 Revo iBLIK RadioStation
£100/$120 www.revo.co.uk
The iBLIK RadioStation combines an FM tuner, DAB digital radio, internet radio over Ethernet or Wi-Fi, iPhone dock and a port for connecting it to any audio device with a headphone socket. It also has an alarm, and you can stream music from your computer.
The sound quality is good too, with excellent volume and bass. Ifs not shielded, though, so you may have to put your iPhone into Airplane Mode to prevent interference.
03 Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere 2
£73/$125 www.logitech.com
Arguably the best speaker dock in its price range, Logitech's Pure-Fi Anywhere 2 is fully iPhone-compatible and ideal for both home and travel use. It can either be powered from the mains or by its internal 10-hour rechargeable battery, and even comes with a useful travel bag for taking it on the go.
Twin 7.6cm and two 5.1cm drivers combine to give a surprisingly wide and well-shaped sound for a dock of this size and price. Clarity and definition aren't neglected either; you could hear a pin drop. Bargain!
04 Altec Lansing inMotion CLASSIC
£92/$101 www.alteclansing.com
Built for portability, Altec Lansing's inMotion CLASSIC features a built-in rechargeable battery, which lasted around five hours in our tests. It has a built-in FM radio too.
Its audio quality is pleasingly warm and complete for a mobile speaker set, and ifs loud enough to fill a reasonably sized room without distortion. Altec Lansing's own Expanded Sound Stage technology makes the speakers seem further apart than they are in reality too, so the inMotion CLASSIC defines the shape of the sound better than you'd expect it to.
05 Klipsch iGroove SXT
£121/$149 www.klipsch.com
The iGroove SXT packs a mean punch for such a small device. It's just 30cm long and light enough to sit comfortably on most shelves, but its audio quality is surprisingly detailed, if a little light on bass.
However, there's no battery-power option, which is a real pity. Given the iGroove's small size, it would make a great portable system. It doesn't - and couldn't - define the shape of the sound as accurately as a unit with discrete speakers, but it performs well for a mid-priced compact dock. There are more versatile options out there that cost less, though.
06 Creative ZiiSound D5
£280/$300 www.creative.com
Creative's ZiiSound D5 takes a fresh approach to iPhone speaker set design. Instead of plugging your iPhone 4 directly into the dock, you transmit your sounds using Bluetooth. There's a dock-connector transmitter dongle for Apple devices that don't have integrated Bluetooth, and with the dongle connected, you can dock your iPhone 4 in the speaker set for charging as well.
Sound quality is magnificent, with a rear-facing bass port boosting the lower end and twin 2.75-inch full frequency drivers giving rich, detailed audio that's full of character.
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