Since the launch of the very first portable media player, there has been cut-throat competition in this industry. Now, media players arenât just about listening to the music but also about style, oomph and better software. The new generation takes these gadgets very seriously, giving entertainment a whole different meaning altogether. They want it small, compact yet stuffed with applications. Money is not much a factor for the right mix. Here are some portable media players that have attracted our attention:
1. Apple iPod Touch
The apple iPod is sleek, handy and a real beauty. You can play music or videos but canât make calls. It also gives you a Wi-Fi internet access to enable song download while touch screens move beyond the horizon of phones and enter the new Apple iPod. It has both an external speaker and a Bluetooth facility for wireless headphones, along with attuning to the Nike +iPod software for joggers. Rumoring a squeezed battery life and low memory, Apple iPod still outruns those in the market due to its affordable price. Shuffling your touch by shaking it and a cut, copy, paste facility are added bonuses.
2. Cowon S9 (16GB)
It is incredibly light, has a big OLED touch-screen, Bluetooth audio facility, FM radio, a photo and text viewer, Flash media support, voice recorder and a long battery life in addition to an outstanding audio and video playback. What more could one want! It is thin and rendered fragile, but the huge memory, the MP3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and APE support makes for an attractive buy. Itsâ cool â there is a tilt sensor inside it that transforms the music playback screen to a photo viewer when turned on its side. It can be connected to the laptop or PC without difficulty.
3. Philips GoGear Muse 8GB
The sound system is great, plays HD video and has a HDMI-out to connect to your HDTV. It has an internal memory of 8GB and is extendable up to 32GB. But this media player lacks prompt response from its touch screen. You would think it is overpriced because neither does it enable Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection to install applications, nor does it have a built-in speaker. It invites various formats like AAC, WAV, Ogg Vorbis, MP3, FLAC, WMA and APE and has FM radio with 20 preset slots, but lacks Xvid and DivX video playing besides playing MPEG4 SP/ASP, MPEG4 AVC/H.264 HP, RMVB, and WMV9.
4. Creative ZEN X-fi2
Creative ZEN X-fi2 has a simple exterior, is light weight and has a lot of features to back it. It has a 3-inch TFT touch screen beside which you will find a menu button with a mono speaker under. You will miss any external volume controlling switch, generally helpful when in hurry. Also, the speaker is not loud enough for noisy environments. It plays almost all kinds of audio and video formats along with the FM radio having 32 slots that does not allow recording. Voice recording is possible through the microphone. It displays BMP and JPEG images which are synchronize able with the computer along with contacts, calendars, tasks and RSS feeds.
5. Sony NWZ-A726
This one can surely give you confusion. With no touch screen to start with, we have a long list of no FM radio, Voice Recorder or expandable memory card slot. It has a 2.4-inch TFT which is good for audio but not good enough for video playback. The fascia is great, it looks trendy and is light, has a flat navigation pad and a very prompt interface in addition to the volume rocker. What matters most-the sound quality, is fascinating. Thankfully, it supports ATRAC apart from MP3, WMA and AAC formats. It is rendered slow in data transfer which is a major disadvantage.
