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Reviews: Portable Media Players
Today's MP3 players can do much more than just play music, as most models now come with multimedia capabilities. This makes the differences between the various models more complicated and can easily confuse buyers. Our reviews will help you choose the best portable music and video player for your needs.
Tristan François
Updated: July 21, 2010
Updated: July 21, 2010
Our Tests
We evaluate the quality of these portable players using several criteria. Naturally, audio quality is one of the most important criteria, as sound should be clear and meet the same standards as the rest of the product. Headphones are also important, but because this is something that can be easily changed, bad headphones won't necessarily prevent a product from getting a five-star review. Ease of navigation in menus, design and user-friendliness are essential points as well.
Multimedia in your pocket!
Contrary to some other kinds of products, MP3 players are rapidly evolving, gaining all kinds of functions and capabilities.
They're no longer just simple digital music players designed to replace the portable CD player, which in turn replaced the cassette Walkman. In fact, the average MP3 player is now more of a portable multimedia device, capable of reading many protected and unprotected audio (or even video) formats. These pocket devices can also offer a means of buying new music, thanks to software or partnerships with music distributors. Plus, a built-in screen is often on hand for watching music videos, podcasts and more. That means you can work, play, study and stay informed wherever you go.
The average built-in storage capacity has been considerably increased so you can take even more files with you wherever you go. Video files still take up much more memory than audio tracks, however, and so 4 GB is becoming pretty much standard.
All these extra functions and factors to consider don't make choosing the right model any easier! Sometimes it can be difficult to tell what type of device is best suited to a given type of use. Some models, for example, are more geared up for for video and aren't all that practical for listening to music, while other miniaturised models don't play video very well at all.
In our portable music player reviews, we'll do our best to outline what kind of use each given product is intended for. As you'll see, some models can be quite disappointing in one area while excelling in another!
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Reviews: Portable Media Players
