You want music on the go? We've rounded up 12 MP3 players and put them head-to-head in our Australian review of the latest and greatest portable music devices.MP3 as a format is certainly no spring chicken, but it's an area that more and more consumers are moving towards, whether that be for the portability advantages of the format or simply because they're amassing large quantities of MP3 material via less than legal methods. Once you've got your music, though, you're essentially tethered to your PC, unless you invest in a portable MP3 player of some sort. There are plenty of PDAs that will handle MP3 music, and of course every notebook on the market can handle something as simple as an MP3 file. Lugging around either a PDA or notebook simply to listen to some tunes is somewhat overkill, not to mention a potential weight problem. Notebooks and PDAs are often not particularly well equipped when it comes to audio playback, either. It's generally an afterthought that designers latch on at the last minute, meaning your audio experience may be fundamentally affected by a notebook or PDA with cruddy speakers.
One thing that can mark a mature format is a certain amount of stagnation in design, and that's certainly something that's true in the portable MP3 space. The vast majority of players we've reviewed here aren't spring chickens by any stretch of the imagination, and arguably only Apple is continuing to innovate in the MP3 space, beyond the simple 'must add more storage' kick that most vendors are on. The maturity of devices does have two advantages to the wary consumer however. Being mature, most of the bugs and kinks should have already been ironed out, and arguably more importantly, with the fierce competition in the portable MP3 space, older devices should experience sharp price drops, leading (at least potentially) to some bargain offerings.
Apple iPod 15GB
Apple's iPod leads the way in innovative player design and quality features.
Creative CD MP3 Slim 600
There's one word to describe the Slim 600. That word is "Shiny".
Creative Digital Mp3 Player 2
The Digital Mp3 player 2 is very, very small. Be sure you don't accidentally lose it.
Creative Nomad Jukebox 3
Creative's grand old man of the hard-drive based Mp3 player market continues to impress.
Creative Nomad Muvo
The Nomad Muvo has handy storage features not normally seen in its price range.
Creative Nomad Zen 20GB USB 2.0
Creative's answer to the iPod is the Zen. How does it stack up?
Panasonic e.wear SD-SV50
Panasonic brings the smallest MP3 player to the table, redefining "titchy" along the way.
Philips AZ5150 Deck
Philips, conversely, offers the largest MP3 deck we've ever seen that can still be described as 'portable'.
Philips Expanium EXP 213
The EXP 213 is a bare-bones CD-R/RW playback device.
Philips Expanium EXP 431
It's small in size, and only works with 8cm CD-R/RW media, but the Exp 431 has a large feature set on offer.
Sony NetMD Walkman MZ-N10
Sony's flagship Minidisc-based player brings a hefty feature set and hefty price tag with it.
Sony NetMD Walkman MZ-N510
The MZ-N510 is an entry level Minidisc player that should suit those with a recording bent who just happen to need MP3 playback as well.
ZDNet Australia's Alex Kidman, Brendon Chase, James Pearce and Jeremy Roche contributed to this feature.
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Hi! I recently put a Sony MZ-N510 on layby of $350. It's my first update sine a discman. Should I keep it or find another one? Any comments are more than welcome! Thanks!