Portable MP3 players

Remove all ads!

I have always been a fan of minidisc, but it is time for a new portable music device. I nowadays have longer travel times, and before I reach my destination, the 74 minutes which go on a minidisk are over, and I need to restart it; a bit more variation in music would be nice. Besides that, my minidisk player is a very old model and the batteries don’t last that long.

I decided that I want to buy a portable MP3 player, and looked around a bit. I browsed sites of well-known brands, which make electronic products, but to my surprise, they don’t offer much (at least not I could find). So, if you have some good advice on brands and models, feel free to post.

When you know a good model, please keep in mind that the device must meet a few requirements, or anything close to this:
I want a portable MP3 which is small enough to fit in the inner pocket of a jacket. Besides that it should have a rechargeable battery, which preferably could be recharged in the device itself. Storage space of about 512 mb to one giga byte would be fine. I wouldn’t mind if it had a giga byte more, but I don’t need the storage capacity of the Creative Zen, or iPod. I will only use it for travelling a total of three hours every day, so something like 30 giga bytes would just be too much, and I would be basically paying for something which I never intend to use. Ideally it would have no movable parts for the best performance, which means I would never buy a portable cd player, which can also read MP3 files.

Any advice on a good product (or links, or something else useful) will be appreciated.

 

Well, the iPod comes with different storage sizes.
The smallest has a 5Gb hard drive. They are really great. Easy to handle, small enough to fit in your pocket, rechargeable and so on. I dont know the prices on them here in europe, but my brother bought his in the states and he gave like $375 for his with a 15gb hdd.
Which I think is very good. Look up the price for the 5gb and I think you´ll get one.

 

Not very likely. It's a Mac, and you'll never see me with a Mac.

I did actually look up the price of an iPod. In my search, I came across other MP3 players, with memory chips, which have more of a storage capacity I was looking for. So, I will compare those, and see if there is something I like.

 

iPod works with windows aswell... plus the storage part of the iPod is great you can save any type of data in it. Really cool for files from your work etc..

 

But it's still a Mac...

This is another reason why I don't want an iPod. I don't need something where I can put all kinds of data in, I just need something which can hold a few hours of music. Even if I were interested in something with the storage capacities of an iPod, I would probably prefer a device like the Creative Nomad Zen, for it is cheaper, smaller, and has a better sound quality (at least, that's what I read in reviews). And it looks better IMHO.

 

Here

The prices are in Australian dollars, so it should be cheaper.

Divide by 1.4 if in America
Divide by 2.5 if In England

 

I have the Zen, and I like it very much. It has just come out in a new version with 60gb. Yup, that is a lot of space, and as you say, you only need it for 3 hours a day. However, having this much space means that you can put a lot of music inside, and then let it stay there. No need to remove any number just because you are not in the mood for it that day.