The world of MP3 players is fast-moving and exciting, with plenty of styles, sizes and features on offer. Here Dave Oliver guides you through the variations and below selects some of the more tempting options.
File formats
There are several points to remember when choosing an MP3 jukebox. First, they should play more than just MP3 files. MP3 is the most famous form of compressed music file, which reduces music files to a small enough size to be conveniently stored on computer hard drives, but it's not the only one. Other formats such as AAC or WMA can offer higher audio quality while using less data, but most importantly, more options offer greater versatility in the sources you can use to derive your music, especially if you plan to swap files over the internet.
Storage
Most of the major players can now offer 20GB of memory on their hard drives. As a rough guide, that equates to around 5,000 four-minute songs in MP3 format. More space will generally cost more money, but though high numbers can be attractive, it's worth thinking about how much space you really need - if you have room for hundreds of albums, how many are you actually likely to play? For this reason, smaller lighter players with just a few GB of memory are beginning to emerge - players such as Apple's iPod Mini (4GB) and Philips' HDD60 (1.5GB) don't cost much less than their more generously endowed cousins, but they take up a lot less pocket space while still offering room for hundreds of songs.
Battery life
If you plan to carry a device which can hold your entire record collection, chances are you'll want to be able to play a decent amount of it in a single sitting. Apple's iPod, still pretty much the benchmark for MP3 jukeboxes, offers notoriously poor battery life at around eight hours, but many players can now offer double that.
Style
An increasingly important factor as MP3 jukeboxes come of age is how they look and how they feel. For it's sleek snow-white looks and easy-to-use interface, the iPod wins hands down, and it's 4GB baby brother, the iPod Mini, which comes in a range of colours, is even slicker. So far only Philips has come close with its black-clad HDD120 but others are catching up fast.
Features
As well as playing music, MP3 jukeboxes are adding extra functions, such as FM radios, calendars, games, contacts books and more. Handy though some of these may be, it's worth considering whether they really add more value to what is, after all, meant to be a music player. Some also offer different methods of organising your music so it's easy to find and play depending on genre, playlists, random selection etc - run through the options to see which best suits your attitude to your record collection. Also, check what exactly comes in the box with your device - connecting cables, carry cases and adapters may cost extra.
Good examples
Apple iPod 20GB £300: www.apple.com/uk
Popularly supposed to be the daddy, both in terms of age and popularity, in the MP3 jukebox market is Apple's iPod, continuously being revised and improved and running away with magazine column inches and plaudits. However, some newcomers to the game are ever so slightly disappointed when they first get their hands on one.
Despite the sleek, stylish body, it has a black and white screen, and you'll be lucky to get more than eight hours continuous use out of a single battery charge. It can also take a while to fully charge it. On the plus side though, it is startlingly simple to use, with an intuitive storage system that allows you to find and play the tracks you want very easily.
Apple's proprietary iPod software is also extremely user friendly for the non-techie. Once installed, you merely plug the iPod into your PC, and iTunes automatically updates it with what you've put on your computer. At present, iTunes cannot play WMA (Windows Media Audio) files, so if you have a PC, chances are you'll already have music saved in this format. Fixes are available on the internet, but the simplest way to convert the files is to burn them onto a CD-R and then re-import them to iTunes, which will save them as AAC files.
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