Which mp3 Player is Right For Me?

A Comprehensive Guide

In the world of MP3 players, there are many choices to choose from: The Ipod, The Creatives, The Rios, the list goes on an on, what i hope to do is help choose which is right for you.

Your space choice

There are many different space requirements people have for the players. Do you want, music, movies, or even files? For a simple audiophile, I would recommend less expensive players, like the Rio carbon, or the Creative zen micro, or if you absolutely need an IPOD, I would get an older version or a smaller capacity version, such as the mini. For the movie lovers, you obviously need a color screen, and a good one at that. As my first choice i would recommend the Creative Zen Vision M, this player has the space you need with the quality you want, and the price that fits. My second choice would be the Zen Vision, this player has a bigger screen more memory and a high price, but since its bigger, its less portable in your pocket. My third choice would have to be the ipod video, this has a moderate price, lots of space, and a crystal clear screen. For those of you like me, who listen to music and like to store files, I would recommend The Creative Zen Extra, this player has no color screen but it holds up to 40gb of music and files for a price that is amazing, it is a good deal cheaper than the IPOD. For those mobile moguls who listen to music, whatch movies, and store files off there portable i would recommend the Creative Zen M, this is the cheapest in its class and i can say from experience it is definately amongst the best.

Brand Names

Although there are many who disagree with me, i would tell any person the brand makes no difference. All of these players are made the same way, in the same country by the same people, the difference in price is simply how much the company wants to make in profit. I would just as easily go buy the walmart brand 1gb player versus the Ipod Nano for instance. I would the Rio 5 GB versus the Creative 5gb, if money was an issue. The big thing with brands is everyone has to have one of them, start your own trend!

Quality

As I mention in the previous paragraph the quality is mostly the same across the spectrum. An IPOD will break just as easily as a Creative under the same stress, the reason they might is because the IPOD costs more, thus the people take better care of it. The thing i stress most is, these players are made in the same place, by the same people, with the same quality parts, if one breaks they all will break just as easily.

Battery Life

Of course in a higher end player the battery will be better, you might get Lithium Ion Polymer versus just Lithium Ion. I would be willing to bet, of all the mp3 players, the Creatives and the IPOD have the highest quality batteries, allowing the most music listening on one charge. The benefit of a lower end player is of course it costs less to begin with and the batteries are often simple AA or AAA batteries, where you don't need a charger or anything, and you won't be spending hundreds of dollars to replace them.

Expandability

Obviously a Hard Drive player does not have expandable memory, but at that point you already have more than and memory card can hold. With the flash memory players, I strongly recommend an expandable memory version; this is a very useful thing to have if you want to upgrade later. The Rio Forge is one of the best players for upgradeable memory, its easy to access and the player has up to 1gb of onboard memory making the availability of up to 3gb of memory for only 100 dollars.

Where to purchase

I would most definately recommend checking Ebay as your first source for mp3 players, i have found several high end models for hundreds less than a retailer like Best Buy. Another great place to shop for players and memory cards is ZipZoomFly.Com, and NewEgg.Com, these places are cheap and reliable. Although many people are hesitant about buying factory refurbished players, my words of advice to you is that, they are factory refurbished, if you can get over a scratch on the casing, then buy refurbished, it will function like new and get you lots of savings off the price.

Accessories

Obviously for the brand name players, more accessories are available and by many different companies. The IPOD and the Creatives, to a lesser extent, are compatible with many accessories. For smaller companies like Rio, and SanDisk there are not too many accessories available, and they are usually made by the companies themselves, meaning there is one price for each accessory, no choice otherwise. Even with the IPOD and the Creatives having so many different accessory manufacturers, I still recommend getting the accessories right from the makers of the players, they will always fit, and look like they belong.

Cost

As I have mentioned the cost varies amongst players, usually its dependant on how popular the player is. The IPOD can be expensive because has one, and if you don't, you want one.

                                        

    The creatives are less expensive because they are not as popular. Even cheaper are the Rios because the company is much smaller they have to make the price affordable by all. Last but certainly not least are the no-name brands, these are the brands you see at Walmart, CVS, and at the register of your local tech store, since these get no appreciation they have to be the cheapest, but in no way are they the worst.

Conclusion

For the people who need to fit in, get an IPOD. For the tech savvy get the Vision M. 

                                                                                           

For the average Joe the Rio is the way to go. For the penny pinchers, definately the no-name brands are for you. Taking into account: price, features, and quality my overall best pick of an mp3 player is the Creative Zen Vision M. You can purchase the Vision M in stores for 300 dollars or here on ebay for just 200; it is well worth the expense!

EDIT: There's a new kid on the block. Perhaps you have heard of it, the Microsoft Zune. I just purchased one of these bad boys, and let me tell you, it is nothing short of amazing. I won't say it's perfect, because nothing ever is, but i will say, it has potential as the Ipod Killer. The new 30gb Zune comes in Black, White, and Brown, i bought black, but now i wish i had bought brown, simply because its new :). The features of the Zune are pretty standard to the Ipod, except the screen is .6 inches bigger, giving it the widescreen capabilities. The Zune has a very fast transfer rate, I uploaded my entire library of music (only 170 songs) in a whopping 2 minutes or less! I was amazed. I have added a few videos to my Zune as well, the screen clarity is exceptional, and the sound as well, perfect.
As I mentioned before, the Zune is not perfect in my eyes, first there is the Zune transfer program, its the same deal as the Ipod with the auto-update feature, for me, i hate the auto synce feature, you never know what you have on the players, its a jumbled mess. As I said, this jumbled mess applies to the Ipod too, so that basically gets cancelled out, however, the Vision M has a very easy transfer program.
The second factor keeping this player away from perfect, for me, is the controls, you use the Ipod, and get the cool touch sensitiv controls, the Zune has buttons, which in my mind are inferior to the ipods controls.

Other than the buttons, and the transfer software, I give the Zune a perfect 10, even with the 2 "flaws" I would still give it a 9.3. Great Job by Microsoft, and at 250 dollars, how can you go wrong.

***For all you FYE BackStage pass members, you can get 10% off on the Zune! and 20% off if its your birthday, this is an instant savings, if you don't have a backstage pass, apply for one, then buy the zune at fye, its worth it.***

 

Hope it helps!

-Jack

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