Top 10 Factors to Help Buy a MP3 Player

chinavasion

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Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity:

1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes.
2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.
3. Good battery life.
4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it.
5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume.
6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics.
7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech.
8. A good shuffle / random mode.
9. Built in FM radio.
10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO)
 
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Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

So basically, you just hate iPods? :p
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

I love my iPod, best money ever spent :laugh:
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

Here's my list of top 10 factors to look for in an mp3 player, regardless of brand or capacity:

1. Ease of connection to computer and simple transfer of music. By far the best option is an MP3 that will plug and play and display as an additional drive letter in Windows. Then there's no need for software like iTunes.
2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.
3. Good battery life.
4. Sturdy construction but not heavy - you want it in your pocket. And you might sit on it.
5. Easy, quick control for increasing and decreasing volume.
6. Video. An MP3 player that has video isn't an MP3 Player any more, it's an MP4 player. But even if you never watch videos, a 1 - 3 inch color screen means a better readout for song titles and lyrics.
7. Support for displaying ID3 tags in a variety of alphabets/ characters if you want to see song titles in Chinese or lyrics in Czech.
8. A good shuffle / random mode.
9. Built in FM radio.
10. And make sure it's not an apple ipod. (IMHO)

All of those options are available to you in an IPOD (except # 10 ;) )

#1 is taken care of by a program called Anapod Explorer.

I'm not a fan boy, but just like others, feel it's the best money I've ever spent. (IPOD purchase)
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

My SE W800i works fine for me :)

Drag and drop MP3's from windows on to the flash card with my cardreader and I'm done. Can't ask for any easier :)
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance

I wouldn't say better.... as I've owned only a discman / walkman until this IPOD nano (2nd gen)

it's solid state memory, no moving parts.

battery is rediculous..... 24 hour playback.... I've charged it about 10 times
since I got it last Sept. (usage low, walk to work / back)

Popular among Windows users? - Itunes works alright I guess, it charges via
USB and is recognized easily - and 3rd party apps have modified the way we
can use an IPOD - I use Anapod Explorer (share tunes with friends, drag drop ... copy from IPOD back to PC HDD... )

It's terribly small, I sometimes pat my inside breast pocket to make sure it's there when not wearing / listening to it.

Many of the above benefits I'm sure are realized on the 'others' - that Zen looks great, has decent reviews ... etc ... millions of tiny mp3 players are out there... that I'm sure are great value.

Bottom line for me - 4 gigs is ample to put one hell of a shuffle on - some 740 tunes I've shoved on mine.... the patented wheel once I figured it out feels natural ... it's loud to combat urban noise - screen is big enough for what I need it to do... pretty much just tell me who's on....

Negative - the headphones suck. I've replaced mine already with my old buds from my discman. They start to buzz in no time if you like your tunes slightly on the loud side.
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

My iaudio displays foreign characters just fine.
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

Zoom, zoom, Zune!
 
Love my 30GB Creative Zen. Its really old to and I still get ~15 hours of playback out of it. Parts of it are metal, and dented and slightly scratched but the thing is a battleship.

I'm thinking about getting one of those 60GB Creative Vision's, but they use a propitiatory USB plug which makes me angry, and they don't come with a AC wall charger either!
 
2. Standard 3.5mm earphone jack, not a smaller or proprietary format.

Not to mention a standard USB cable, thats what has kept me from buying a Zen vision:m

...but the thing is a battleship.
You should buy another one and stage a battle!!!! *BOOM* "You sunk my battleship!"
 
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An iPod would have been my choice except for two things:
1. Unnecessarily high price
2. iTunes

Why do they have to make it impossible to load an iPod without a first- or third-party program? As much as Apple works to make their products user-friendly, it seems counterintuitive not to at least include this simple functionality.
 
There are many other programs out there that you can use to manage your iPod
 
Are there Ipods out there with a built in fm tuner, I know you can buy the addon, but I was not aware of any with built in tuners.
 
ipods are ok... but there are much better choices out there and not as overexpensive as the ipod
 
Re: Top 10 Factores to Help Buy a MP3 Player

I don't have a personal player but I want one, everyone I know has an ipod and loves the thing, everyone use to have the mp3 player and most of these people are windows only types so they made a switch for a reason

could someone tell me what the reasons are an ipod is better then an mp3 or mp4 player?

does it hold more on the same hardrive or is it faster or is it better quality or does the battery last longer?

tell me what the ipod does that makes it so popular even among windows users

thanks in advance
The fact that it's "cool" to have one seems to be a major selling factor for many people (mainly the younger audience).

I remember having my first iPod before anyone knew what one was, those were the days :D

I think all 4 of my iPods are fantastic, but I'll never deny that they're not perfect and also not for everyone, there are better and cheaper solutions out there.

If you're just after a player, I'd seriously recommend buying a nice cheap plug-n-play $30 player with a 2-line display, about 1GB of memory, rechargable battery, and maybe even an FM radio... you may find that it suits your needs perfectly, if not, then venture into the more expensive world of iPods and 'branded' players :)
 

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