My MP3 Player
At present I don’t have an MP3 player. I have been using my DS as an MP3 player and, while it performs admirably, it is not the best device for this function. Two days ago I was paid and so now I’m looking for ways to spend my newfound wealth. High on the list of things I want to buy is an MP3 player, however while I have been looking around online at what my options are, it’s very easy to get distracted. I’m not too fussed about how much this MP3 player costs as, so long as the device meets all my criteria, it will just be a one-off purchase (although I certainly hope it will be covered by a warranty).
While looking at MP3 players, my biggest problem has been… well… the numerous distractions that seem to be bundled with them. There has been a big push in recent years for ‘integration’, that is, having all the functions you want bundled into one device; however I have found that this movement tends to ignore two big problems. The first has to do with battery-life, that is, if your device can perform a lot of functions – and you use it for all these functions – when the battery of the device runs out you will lose all of those functions. The second has to do with irreconcilable differences between what you want from each function. For example, if you want a portable MP3 player, you probably want it to be small so you can hang it around your neck or clip it onto something. If you want a portable video player, you probably want it to have a big screen and to have a fairly large capacity so you can store a fair number of movies on it. No matter which way you look at it, if these are the things you are looking for in each of the functions you want to take advantage of, they just can’t be combined into one device.
Turning to my present MP3 player escapade, I have looked at a few sites and almost all of them advertise a wide range of MP3 players, but they all do the same things. All of them can play music and video and display text and photos. Some of them support playlists, have external card support (usually SD, miniSD or microSD), support video input/output or can run a wide range of video and codecs. After looking at all these MP3 players for a few hours, it dawned on me that I really ought to compose a list of the things that are most important to me in choosing an MP3 player. Here is what I arrived at.
Essential:
- Can play MP3 and OGG
- Small (can hang around neck or can be worn conveniently)
- At least 4GB
- Playlist support
- Shuffle support
- Can be locked/unlocked
- Drag-and-drop support
- Single-hand operation
- Blind operation
Other attractive features:
- SD card expansion
- Microphone
- Text-display
If the MP3 player I buy has all of the above features, I would be happy, but I am increasingly concerned that this might be harder to find than it seems. A few of these features are not even mentioned in many of the reviews I have looked at. I imagine playlist support and drag-and-drop support are difficult features to reconcile, but in all the reviews I have looked at, these issues are not looked at in any great detail. Similarly blind/single-hand operation is very important to me as, living in China, I frequently find myself on very crowded trains or buses; one hand is usually holding onto the handrail and I’m lucky if I can even bring my other hand to my face much less while it is holding my MP3 player.
For the remainder of today I will likely continue my search for a suitable MP3 player and maybe tomorrow I will go out to one of the electronics shops to see what they have on offer. I’m particularly interested in finding out what MP3 players other people have and whether or not they meet my criteria.
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