brian.mobile said:
Hi all,
Looking to go the Portable MP3 route.
What's the best one out there, taking into account:
Cost / GB Space
Ease of use
Battery life
Travel Speakers
FM Transmitter for in car use?
Home use - I've heard you can get a small transmitter enabling music to be heard around the home
Thanks,
BM
I suggest that you should add the following items to your list, near the top of the criteria:
- Sound Quality
- Quality of Supplied Headphones
- PC/Mac Support (delete as appropriate)
- Quality of Software for PC/Mac
The travel speakers and FM transmitter are after-market accessories and should not unduly influence your choice of MP3 player per se. Same with the wireless or wired links to your home Hi Fi.
(Having said that, the Apple iPod has the highest number of accessories.)
You also need to decide between Flash memory based or hard disk based. The flash memory ones will be smaller, lighter, won't suffer from skipping (or really poor battery life trying to cope with it) when jogging or in the gym.
On the Flash side, I would recommend the Apple iPod range - a bit expensive but very well made and well designed. There is rumoured to be a 10GB iPod nano due out soon - if 10GB is enough, the form factor is very small and battery life quite good. The Samsung range is also very good in terms of value for money. Sony do some flash drives but the PC software is unreliable so I would not recommend them.
In terms of hard disk models, again, the Apple iPod with Video is very good. Sony's products in this area are stylish but not as slick as the iPod (IMHO). The PC software is still flakey so, again, I would not recommend them.