• The basics
• Pros and cons of MP3 players
• Solid state players
• Mini hard drive-based players
• Regular hard drive-based players
• The big issues
• Other considerations
• Weighing up the options

Regular hard drive-based players

Then there are the full blown portable jukeboxes. There is some cross over here between basic digital music players and portable multimedia players (our portable multimedia guide can be found here). Devices such as the new Apple iPod classic have the ability to play video so technically they are portable media players; however, the relatively small screen means its primary use is still going to be for music playback.

These days these devices offer a massive amount of storage, anywhere from 30GB to 160GB, more than enough to carry an entire lifetime worth of music around with you.

Hard disk players offer the best bang for buck when it comes to the amount you pay per-megabyte. They can also act as portable/external hard disks for general files.

However, there are some drawbacks. As they're physically larger and heavier (roughly between 150 and 250 grams), they may not be suited to some forms of exercise.

There are battery considerations, too. Generally, hard drive-based players have less battery life than solid state players as hard drives consume a lot of power. This poses the potential drawback of battery degradation after a couple of years, with shorter total playback time the possible result. This may be a minor concern, but ask yourself, how long do you want your investment to last?

If you're a digital camera buff, you may want to look out for hard drive-based players that support USB2Go. This new standard allows a USB mass storage device (like a digital camera or USB thumb drive) to copy data to and from your player directly. Cool, eh?