Earlier, I discovered the X-mini portable speakers that can give great sound to a music player or laptop, while taking up little room in the suitcase.

Now, X-mini has come up with another clever device for travelers—the HAPPY, a small capsule speaker that includes its own MP3 player.

That’s right. Just put some of your favorite tunes on an SD/SDHC memory card and the HAPPY will happily play them from its built-in speaker.

The HAPPY sounds every bit as good as the X-Mini Capsule Speaker. And it’s very easy to use.

My Windows computer recognized it as a mass-storage device when connected through a USB port. So I just copied some of my favorite tunes to an SDHC card. The HAPPY can also be used as a card reader.

One control turns the device on and off, controls play and pause, skips tracks forward or back and adjusts the volume.

There’s also a mute button, headphone jack and mini-USB plug for charging. A two-hour charge provides about 10 hours of playback time. And a cable with a standard stereo miniature plug is included to connect it to a laptop or external music player, or chain together a series of the X-Mini II Capsule Speakers for even bigger sound. The capsule expands with a twist for improved bass response.

The only drawback is there’s no way to see a menu of the songs on the card when the player is not connected to a computer. But it’s easy enough to just load the songs you want on the card, and the track control still lets you skip forward or repeat a song. It’s possible to store hundreds or even thousands of songs on a card, depending on the size and recorded bitrate.

The X-mini HAPPY retails for $79, with discounts available at Amazon.

It’s hard to find a device that does so much, sounds so good and still fits in the palm of your hand. When you’re packing light and still want to carry your favorite tunes, the X-mini HAPPY will make you just that.