Types of MP3 Players

There are a variety of types of MP3 players from which to choose.  Here’s a short guide to the main types:

Hard-Drive Based MP3 Players
This is the typical and familiar iPod-type player, with storage capacities 20 GB and larger, big enough surely to handle most people's entire music and video collection.

Advantages:

• high storage capacity
• large screens
• feature dense
• easy to use

Disadvantages:

• has moving parts that limit the types of physical activity that can be performed while in use (i.e. running, working out, and rough-road driving)
• the batteries have a short life span and are hard to replace yourself, requiring you either purchase a new player at that point or send it to the factory/take it to a professional and pay to have it replaced
• most expensive of all the types

Flash-Based MP3 Players
Flash-based MP3 players are revered for their compact and shockproof design. They have no moving parts inside to worry about and their capacity typically ranges from 32 MB to 8 GB, although it is rare to see one that offers less than 512 MB of storage.

Advantages:

• tiny and featherweight (read: eminently portable)
• long battery life
• often include bonus features like voice recording

Disadvantages:

• limited capacity
• can be harder than the other types of players to use

Micro Hard-Drive Based MP3 Players
A middle-ground between hard drive MP3 players and Flash-based MP3 players, these offer a nice compromise. They can achieve storage capacities of up to 12 GB.  They are, however, being mostly phased out by manufacturers nowadays in favor of Flash-based MP3 players.

Advantages:

• smaller and lighter than hard-drive based players at no extra cost
• greater capacity than flash-based players

Disadvantages:

• less cost-effective (fewer megabytes per dollar)
• still more expensive than most Flash-based and CD-style types
• smaller capacity than hard-drive based players
• prone to the same hardware troubles of their hard-drive based peers

CD-Style MP3 Players or MP4 Players
Like the mini hard drive based MP3 players, these MP3 CD players (which look just like regular CD players) are also being mostly phased out of existence. However, in-dash car stereos are still being made this way. These allow you to play regular store-bought CDs and MP3 CDs that you burn yourself, either on your computer or, in many cases, through the player directly, with approximately 150 songs fitting on the standard 650 MB CD.

Advantages:

• least expensive of all of them
• can play regular CDs too
• CD-R/RW discs are cheap

Disadvantages:

• large/bulky
• no internal storage of its own
• prone to skipping