Super Cheap iPods
"WHAT'S AVAILABLE
Major brands of MP3 players include Apple, Archos, Cowon, Creative Labs, iRiver, Philips, RCA, Samsung, SanDisk, Sony, and Toshiba. Brands from smaller companies are on the market as well. And MP3 playback has been incorporated into other handheld portable products, including CD players, cell phones, and personal digital assistants (PDAs).
Flash-memory players. These are the smallest and lightest players, often no bigger than a pack of gum, and they typically weigh no more than 3 ounces. They're solid-state, meaning they have no moving parts and tend to have longer audio playback time than players that use hard-disk storage. Storage capacities range from 512 megabytes (MB) to 32 gigabytes (GB), or about 120 to 8,000 songs. (All song capacities listed here are based on a standard CD-quality setting of 128 kilobytes per second, which requires about 1 GB per 250 songs. You can fit more music into memory if you compress songs into smaller files, but that may result in lower audio quality.) Some flash-memory players also have expansion slots to add more memory via card slots on the player.
Common expansion-memory formats include Compact Flash, MultiMedia, Secure Digital, and SmartMedia. Sony players may use a MagicGate MemoryStick, a copyright-protected version of Sony's existing MemoryStick media. Memory-card capacities range from about 32MB to 2GB. Memory costs have gradually dropped. Price: $40 to $280 for the player; $45 to $50 for a 1-GB memory card.
Hard-disk players. These range from palm-size microdrive players that weigh about a quarter-pound and have a storage capacity of 4GB (about 1000 songs) to bricklike bruisers that weigh more than a pound and whose 160 GB hard drives can hold up to 40,000 songs. Price: $140 and up.
CD players with "MP3" compatibility. Flash-memory and hard-disk portable players aren't the only way to enjoy digital music. Many of today's portable CD players can play digital music saved on discs but don't support the copyright-protected formats from online music stores. Controls and displays are comparable to portable MP3 players, and you can group songs on each disc according to artist, genre, and other categories. A CD, with its 650- to 800-MB storage capacity, about 150 to 200 songs, can hold more than 10 hours of MP3-formatted music at the standard CD-quality setting. You can create MP3 CDs using the proper software and your PC's CD burner. Price: $25 and up for the players; 20 to 75 cents or so for blank CDs.
Cell phones. An increasing number of phones have built-in MP3 players, some with controls and features that rival stand-alone players. Sprint, Verizon, and other cell-phone providers let subscribers download music over their networks. But songs are pricey: 99 cents to $2.50 per song. Song capacity is often determined by the size of the external memory card, as well as the phone manufacturer, carrier, or music provider. Price: Free and up with a 2-year contract.
Satellite radio. Some pocket-sized XM and Sirius receivers have built-in memory for recording up to 50 hours of satellite programming, and might also let you add your own MP3 songs to the mix. Not all models let you listen to live programming on the go; some must be docked at home. Price: $200 to $400 for the receiver; about $13 a month for satellite service."
This is a report From Consumer Reports. This website is not liable for any content contained herein.