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Which type of MP3 player makes sense for you?
If you've been wanting to listen to all that music stored on your PC even while you're on the go, you need a portable MP3 player. There are two main kinds of players — hard-drive players and flash memory players — and each type has its own unique advantages. Take a second to scan the info below: the descriptions and chart make it easy to get the scoop, and narrow down your MP3 options.
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Hard-drive players
These players have a hard drive inside them (just like a computer!) and can store a lot of digital music files, making them ideal for serious music lovers. Although they're generally very compact and slim, all that storage means hard-drive players are larger than flash players. They also have moving parts, which means they could skip under extremely high-impact conditions.
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Players with embedded flash memory
These tiny MP3 players usually rely on built-in ("embedded") flash memory to store digital music. Because flash memory has no moving parts, these players can handle bumping and jostling without any risk of skipping. Their light weight makes them a good choice for use during jogging or aerobics. However, they are limited in capacity, and store far fewer tunes than hard-drive players.
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Player
Type |
Size |
Storage
Capacity |
Resistance
to Skipping |
Price
Range |
Advantages |
Hard-drive
Players |
Compact |
Large to
very large
(4GB - 60GB) |
Very Good |
$240 - $600 |
- let you carry your entire music collection
- large LCDs and easy-to-use controls
- great for long drives in the car and air travel
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Players with
Embedded Memory |
Ultra-compact |
Limited
(128MB - 512MB) |
Excellent |
$80-$270 |
- remarkably tiny for easy portability
- great for high-impact exercise and subway/bus commutes
- usually have long battery life
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"What about MP3-friendly CD and MD portables?"
Although they're not "MP3 players," strictly speaking, many CD and MD portables can handle MP3s. They're an affordable and versatile option for folks who don't mind transferring their music files to a collection of discs. CD portables are noticeably larger than today's hard-drive and flash players; the MD portables are closer in size to a hard-drive player.
Real-world comparisons of size and capacity
Size and weight
By now you know that players with embedded flash memory weigh far less and are much smaller than hard-drive players. How light are they? Well, they can be as light as a half an ounce, and are rarely heavier than 2.5 ounces.
By comparison, a hard-drive player rarely weighs less than 3 ounces, and a few larger capacity players weigh almost half a pound! The average is around 5.6 ounces, and that's really pretty light, but it's definitely not as light as a flash memory player.
That size difference is why folks recommend flash players for any time when you want to carry the lightest weight possible, and don't need to have your whole music collection available.
Capacity
If you've been wondering how all those MBs and GBs stack up when it comes to storing music, you're not alone — it's a common question. "MB" is the abbreviation for megabyte: it's a unit for measuring data. "GB" is the abbreviation for gigabyte, which is a larger measurement of data. There are 1024 megabytes in a single gigabyte.
To help you compare specs when you start shopping, here's a quick peek at how music and megabytes match up:
| Storage Capacity |
Hours of MP3 Music
at near-CD sound quality
(bitrate of 128 Kbps) |
| 128MB |
2 hours
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| 256MB |
4 hours |
| 4GB |
66 hours |
| 20GB |
333 hours |
| 40GB |
666 hours |
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As you can see, when it comes to holding large quantities of music, hard-drive players are the champions. They also tend to give you more music storage per dollar spent. Here's an example:
It would take thirty-two 128MB flash players to hold as much music as the smallest hard-drive player — the 4-gigabyte iPod mini. Buying those 32 players would cost you $2560, compared to the iPod mini's $250 price tag!
All that amazing capacity is what's got serious music fans so excited about hard-drive players. They love being able to choose from thousands and thousands of songs while on the road.
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