Geek 10 Aug 2005 03:42 pm
Looking for MP3 player
So, I decided that I need want (and can afford) a portable MP3 player. Therefore, I’m looking for one. What I want is:
- very small and light
- long battery life
- at least 512MB
The first two requisites point to a Flash-based player, and the third one removes from the running all of the really cheap ones. After some (admittedly not very extensive) research, my two choices at the moment are the iPod Shuffle and the Sony Network Walkman NW-E405 (and its brothers 407/505/507).
The Sony models have in their favour that they are beautiful, the battery lasts for up to 50 hours (and a three-minute recharge gives you three hours of use), they have a display and there’s the option of an integrated FM tuner. Against them, I’m told that their music management software is terrible (but you can bypass it, apparently), they won’t talk to iTunes and they’re more expensive. The iPod has in its favour that, well, it’s an iPod. And it’s cheaper and slightly lighter, besides having those cool white earphones. But Apple is apparently not very nice if you want to use your iPod with two computers, and that’s a problem for me; the relatively short battery life (12 hours) is also a problem.
The iPod costs $149, and the cheapest Sony model costs $239. What I have to decide is whether the advantages of the Walkmans are worth 90 dollars (those are Australian dollars).
Would anyone have any comments on any of them? Advocacy is cool, and pointers to other candidates would be welcome as well.
