A guide to choosing an MP3 player

These days, music is everywhere. Walk down the high street, or take a journey on a train, and practically everybody is wearing earphones, nodding along to their favourite songs, or listening to their latest podcast download.

The advent of the MP3 has made music much more portable and people are taking advantage. MP3 players are as common these days as mobile phones, and mobile phones are even playing them these days. If you haven't jumped on the bandwagon, it really is about time you did!

Buying an MP3 player is a lot more complicated than it used to be. Previously there were only one or two brands that were any good, and portable video wasn't even thought of. In the last few years MP3 players have come a long way, and can be pretty confusing to someone just looking for something to play their favourite album on.

Here's what you need to know to find the perfect MP3 player for you.

The Basics

We'll assume that you've already got a PC/laptop or a Mac, and you're familiar enough with how to use it. You will also need know the basics of what an MP3 actually is...

A quick guide to MP3s

An MP3 is a music file stored on your PC or Mac (ie electronically). It can be read by a huge number of programs on your PC, and also by portable MP3 players.

There are also other types of music files that exist on a computer and some MP3 players (and therefore perhaps one you might buy) may not play these files.

WMA (Windows Media Audio)

A WMA file is a music file, essentially the same as an MP3, which will only play on Windows Media Player. This is important to know because, although a lot of MP3 players have made adjustments and will play WMA files, some won't (the iPod doesn't, for example).

If you've used Windows Media Player to transfer your music CD's to your computer, then they'll certainly be in a WMA format, so make sure you get an MP3 player to deal with that.

If you do come across a file that doesn't work on your new MP3 player, have a look online for a program to change it to an MP3; they're not hard to find and usually free.

Connecting your MP3 player to your PC

Your MP3 player will plug into your computer using USB and in some cases will charge itself this way too. This is the same connection as your digital camera, printer, and a lot of other devices, and any computer bought after 1998 will have it. You'll get the cable to use it in the box.

If your computer doesn't have USB, then you should give very serious consideration to buying a new one, as you're already over 10 years out of date!

So, having covered the basics lets move on.

What do you actually want?

This is a deeper question than it sounds. MP3 players these days do more than just play music. You can watch videos on them, play games, store addresses, and pretty much run your life if you want.

So do you want an MP3 player that will just play music, or do you want to watch video too? Are looks important to you? Thankfully most MP3 players these days look great, but some prefer functionality to looks. How many songs do you actually want to store? A few, or your entire CD collection?

Also, think about where you'll want to use your MP3 player. Some people want to use them in the gym, which is fine, but some MP3 players use hard drives. A hard drive is what stores the information in your computer, and at its most basic level is like a record player – a disc with a needle reading and writing information to it. These can be damaged by a lot of movement (for example, running) so they should be avoided if you want to use an MP3 player that will be moving a lot (walking around is fine). If that's what you need look for, MP3 players with Flash memory instead (ie no moving parts).

Decide what you need before setting out on your quest.

What do all those numbers mean then?

A crash course in computer memory

An MP3, or any file, takes up a certain amount of space. On average (based on a 3-4 minute song) an MP3 file will be approximately 4 Megabytes (or 4MB) in size. Why do you need to know this? Well, MP3 players have different storage sizes. The storage used to be measured in Megabytes, but we've now moved onto Gigabytes (GB) which store much more, thanks to video and people wanting to store their entire CD collection. Cheaper and flash memory based MP3 players still use 256MB and 512MB of storage, which is fine if you want something basic and just want to hold an album or two.

Working on an average of 4MB per song then, you would get approx:

• 60 songs on 256 MB
• 120 songs on 512MB
• 250 songs on 1 GB of memory

You can work out the rest yourself, as memory starts going up in increments of 1 GB each time. These rules are not hard and fast, as some songs last longer than others, and the higher the quality of the song, the more memory it'll take up.

Video is a whole different ball game, and takes up a lot more memory per video file, but luckily those MP3 players have higher storage to make up for it. So work out how many songs you'd roughly like to have on your player, and go from there. If you really need an average, go for 30GB players. However, be aware that this might be overkill or not enough, especially if you want video.

Where should you buy an MP3 player?

Don't discount the power of the internet when buying electronics. There will be some of you who simply don't like buying online because of possible problems with returns if the goods are faulty, but you can save a lot of cash by doing so.

A quick check online revealed as much as a £40 difference in buying an iPod online compared to the high street, and even the same again between some internet retailers. Provided you don't mind a couple of days wait for delivery, you'll save cash.

If you must have it today, then again, shop around. Even supermarkets these days are selling MP3 players so do a bit of groundwork and you'll save hard earned cash.

Seeing as MP3 players can range from £5 to £190, setting out with a budget in mind is also a good idea.

The MP3 players themselves

OK, so you know what you want, and what size of storage you're going need, what now? Now it's time to choose your player. There's a huge number of different brands out there, and the most famous of course is the iPod, and all its variants. They are not however all-powerful, and you shouldn't just go straight for an iPod without considering the other players on the market.

The iPod

The popularity of the iPod is down to great marketing, ease of use, and also they look great. You can take them out of the box, install the software, add all your music to iTunes (the free music software that comes with all iPods), plug it in, and job done. They look nice, and the now famous "scroll wheel" makes it easy to use.

The sound quality is usually excellent (though investing in a decent set of earphones might be an idea) and the Video iPod's picture is crisp and sharp.

There are a large number of variants in different colours with different storage sizes, so even if you just want a low amount of storage space you'll find an iPod to match your needs.

iPods come with iTunes, Apple's version of Windows Media Player, and your iPod can ONLY be used with iTunes. This is a problem for some, as some people don't like being forced to use a specific piece of software. Another problem is that, for example, your PC/Mac has a problem, and needs to be wiped clean and everything reinstalled. Your iPod is fine, and has all your music on it. You wipe your machine, and then install iTunes again. If you plug your iPod into your machine, it will wipe your iPod, so you've lost all your music. - Why? iTunes is set up so whatever is currently added to it (or not) is copied instantly to the iPod. Including nothing. So unless you've got a back up of all your music from your PC, and have already added it all to iTunes again, you'll wipe your iPod. Annoying.

Aside from that, iPods are the dominant MP3 player for a good reason. Just be aware that other MP3 players are just as good, if not better.

Let's look at some alternatives...

Creative Zen (and its variants)

Creative Zen is an excellent, cheaper, and in some cases better, alternative to the iPod. The sound quality easily matches that of the iPod, and the earphones that come with it are slightly better too. The Zen Vision M has a better screen than the Video iPod, and won the Best of Show CES 2006 Award, and best Video MP3 Player 2006 Award, but this is maybe not something to worry about unless video is important to you. Some versions even have FM radio built in as standard (most players don't).

Creative Zen's come with music software to use with it, but they will also happily sync with Windows Media Player, Music Match Jukebox, and a host of other music players you might already use on your home computer. Also, it doesn't have the problem mentioned above that the iPod has of wiping when you need to reinstall your computer.

There are so many Zen variants that can't all be covered, but the storage size goes from 256MB to 60 GB, so there is something for everyone. Their only real issue is the "touch pad" they use instead of the iPod "scroll wheel", which some people simply don't like using.

Sony Walkman MP3 Players

At the end of 2005, Sony launched their MP3 version of the Walkman, and it caused quite splash when it landed, mainly because of its looks. It looks great, nicer than a lot of players out there, its menu is pretty nifty and just feels nice to use. However, it's not really caught on as much as Sony wanted it to, largely because of two reasons: it was only available in two sizes, 6GB and 20GB, and it doesn't have any video versions.

If you don't want video though it is a real consideration when choosing an MP3 player. Sony has released smaller versions in both storage and size, so now you have a lot more choice.

Also, handily it uses its own CONNECT software, into which you can just drag and drop music files using Windows/OSX. It'll appear just as a folder and you can drag files into it, saving messing around with new software if you don't want too.

The "Generics"

There are a few "generic" brand MP3 players out there now, some costing as little as £5! These are normally small, have a smaller storage and, like the Sony Walkman MP3 players, appear as folders on your machine when you plug them in.

in conclusion

The best advice is know what you want to use an MP3 player for, where you want to use it, and what size you're going to need. It's worth spending time looking at a number of players just to get a feel for things, and doing research online too.

There are numerous sites out there that will give you reviews of different players and help you narrow things down. After that, choose the player that's going to fulfill all those needs, shop around, and enjoy your new toy!