To Pod or not to Pod...

To change things a bit I decided to make this post a comparison of mp3 players and which one is the best on the market. Now, I have had several years of experience in this field and have used almost every unit on the market so my opinions are quite valid and should give you a lot of weight in your mp3 player purchases.

First off you have to determine what type of mp3 player you want. By this I mean weather you want a flash type of mp3 player or a hard drive type of mp3 player. The differences between the 2 are: (note, there are cd mp3 players as well but they're a dying breed so they won't be discussed)

Flash mp3 players - are smaller units with a lot smaller amount of space for music. They are cheaper and their battery life is a lot better then the hard drive types but they do not have the extra options that the hard drive types. Some flash drives do have expansion capabilities but this feature has been phased out of most models. They are more resilient to abuse but with its small size it does make it more likely to be abused.

Hard Drive mp3 players - are a lot larger units which can store a lot more music and most of them can store other items as well like videos, pictures, or computer files. The battery life is poor but has been improving over the last couple of years. As flash drives can store hours worth of music, hard drive players can store day’s worth of music. Video playback is the newest thing which most companies now have a video version of mp3 players. They are more likely to be damaged as companies have sacrificed durability for size.

Now the first thing you should think about when you are in the market for an mp3 player is how many hours of music you want to have access to. Companies always show how many songs that you can store but that is a relatively moot statement as songs will vary between times by a very large margin. Always ask how many hours of music it will play back at 128 bit quality. This is the standard cd quality of music in the mp3 format which is what the majority of mp3's are recorded in. The easiest way to figure this out is with my handy little chart:

64MB -1 hour 1GB -16 hours 20GB -320 hours
128MB -2 hours 2GB -32 hours 30GB -480 hours
256MB -4 hours 4GB -64 hours 40GB -640 hours
512MB -8 hours 5GB -80 hours 60GB -960 hours

Now that you have picked the size of your mp3 player you now have to decide what brand of mp3 player you want to get. There is a huge difference between manufacturers of mp3 players in terms of quality, options, and battery life. Here is a list of the companies and their pro's and cons:

Apple:
iPod Shuffle-good little unit, durable and quite inexpensive for the amount that it holds (512MB & 1GB) and has the basic functionality of a larger iPod but without any of the bell and whistles. The major problems with the shuffle is it's low battery life compared to the other flash drive mp3 players and the unit doesn't have an LCD screen so you cannot see what is playing.
iPod Nano-This is the true entry level iPod on the market as it does almost everything that it's bigger brother does but in a smaller size (1GB, 2GB, & 4GB) The Nano is actually a flash type player but has the functionality of a hard drive type. The only problems with the Nano is it only has a 14 hour battery life, doesn't play videos, and is prone to scratches but it could be remedied by using a protective screen film to stop it.
iPod (Video) - The actual name for the unit is just iPod but the new iPod's have video playback which is the reason why it's been nicknamed iPod Video. These come in 30GB and 60GB sizes and are the creme-de-la-creme of mp3 players. Access to the largest online music store, stunning screen resolution, click-wheel control, built in mini games, video playback and the prestige of owning one are reasons enough to get an iPod but the biggest reason to own an iPod of any type is....Podcasting!!! Podcasting is the greatest thing to hit technology since the web itself was created. What is podcasting you ask? Podcasting is a distribution of audio and video files over iTunes for virtually any topic for free. That’s right, FREE!!! Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon from the obvious tech shows, to musicians, to even movie producers who are creating journals of their lives or latest projects. If you are looking for a hard drive type of player, this is the one you should get. The smaller ones will play the audio podcasts but with it's limited size it makes it harder to store all the files on your iPod. Now for the downsides. There aren't many but they are there. They are not cheap, in fact they are the most expensive on the market, but you are paying for the quality. The iPod's battery life is rather low, 14 hours for the 30GB (2 hour video playback), 20 hours for the 60GB (3 hour video playback) due to the high resolution LCD screen and its backlight. The iPod is like all the other models as it is so shiny that scratches show up quickly on them but if you take good care of them, they don't show up. The video formats that it shows is also very limited but could be fixed with firmware updates if Apple actually does it but most likely won't until the next generation.

Creative:
MuVo-This is their entry level players which are flash based mp3 players. The players come in several shapes and sizes and have various options. Some have colour screens, some only monochrome, some have none. Some have built in batteries, some don't. some have fm radio, some don't. They also vary in size from 128MB up to 5GB in storage. The units generally have a good battery life, however if you get the colour screen ones or the video ones, the life drops dramatically. The biggest problem with the MuVo's and any Creative product is quality. Every model of Creative mp3 players that I have seen has had issues. If it's not battery door, it's audio problems, or LCD problems. This shouldn't be happening to a company with the prestige that Creative has but they can't make a stable model of mp3 players if their lives depended on it.
Zen-Is their drive type mp3 player. As with the MuVo, there are several versions of the Zen. There are lots of standards but they do have a couple of models of video mp3 players. Both of the units do play a variety of video formats including DivX which is very cool, but battery life still is not that great (13 hours music-4 hour video) These are newer players so the reliability issue is still up in the air but if it still uses the same architecture that the previous models used, stay away from them as well.

iRiver:
Flash Drives-These are the top of the line flash drive units. They have superb quality with them and the battery life on the units is the best in the industry (some models have upwards of 45 hours of battery life) If you are getting a flash type player, this is the one to get. The only drawback is the lack of accessories for the units in both first and third party. Once they get some recognition they will have this problem solved.
Hard Drives-Also among the top of the line in this department. They do play more formats than the iPod but there are three problems with these units is little accessories, smaller size than the iPod (20GB max), and no podcasting. The first two problems are minor but the no podcasting is the only reason to avoid the unit and go with the iPod.

RCA:
Lyra-Without a shadow of doubt the crappiest mp3 players on the market today. There are so many issues for quality, it is impossible to fathom why these are still on the market. RCA is the reason why jokes about American electronics are so funny and true. If you guys get anything from this it is that you should not buy RCA for any reason except as a joke or a gift to someone you hate.

Others:
There are several other companies that make mp3 players including Sony, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Centrios & NexxTech, Sandisk, mobiBLU, and several others. Now each of them has their quirks, both positive and negative, but they aren't considered big shots in the mp3 market. Sony is too proprietary, Panasonic and Toshiba don't have the quantity in North America, Samsung and Sandisk are very plain units...nothing wrong with them...just plain, NexxTech & Centrios have quality issues but not as bad as RCA, mobiBLU is too small a company and do not have a real line up. Until these companies get serious with the mp3 market, they won't be players in it.

So when it comes down to it, if you are going to buy an mp3 player, use my guide to help you out. You may agree with my opinion or be wrong with yours but in the end it will always be your decision and hopefully this post will help you get some more information before spending your money.