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MP3 & Digital Music Guide

MP3 players are hugely popular these days, and with so many different models available, and at many different price points, it can be difficult to find the right one for you. Here we'll guide you through all the important technical aspects and give some advice on how to select your perfect digital music player.

Apple's iPods are still the most popular MP3 players on the market.

What's the use?

The first thing to consider is what you'll be using your player for, and how often. Is it for use while jogging, on the daily commute to work, as a gift for someone else, or as a portable storage device for all your music?

Gym goers will want something small and light, such as the iPod shuffle or Sony NZW-B range, while for frequent and extended listening look for devices with bigger capacities and larger screens to help you find what you want.

Don't forget that nearly all mobile phones come with the ability to play music files, the best of the bunch is the iPhone, but the Sony walkman phones have come a long way in the last few years and are great if you only want to carry one gadget with you.

Memory size

The amount of memory - usually measured in gigabytes (Gb) directly effects the amount of songs and other media that you can store on it. It's one of the main factors of cost and should have big effect on which model you choose. The table below gives some approximate guidelines on the number of photos, videos and songs that you can fit on different memory sizes:

Memory Capacity	Hrs of Video	No. of Songs	No. of Photos
1GB	4	500	330
2GB	8	1,000	660
4GB	16	2,000	1,330
8GB	32	4,000	2,660
16GB	64	8,000	5,320
80GB	320	40,000	26,600
160GB	640	80,000	53,000

A 160 Gb device can store around 80,000 songs, which equates to over 6,500 albums, depending on the quality of the recordings! Obviously more than most people have in their collection, so these devices are only really needed by people who want to use it to store and watch videos. 1Gb is enough for around 500 songs, about 40 albums, or around 4 hours of video. If you listen to a lot of music, or want to use your player while on longs trips, you may want more capacity.

Screen size

Best buy for gym-goers:
Apple iPod Shuffle.

Screen sizes can range from the very large, to the non-existent, and like memory size is one of the biggest influences on price. If you're going to be watching video regularly you'll want a crisp, large screen, and look out for the ability to switch between horizontal and vertical modes - the latest iPods do this automatically when you tilt the device. Current king of the screens is the iPod touch, although for clarity the Archos players are very good, and are geared towards video playback.

Headphones

As a general rule the headphones that come bundled with MP3 players pretty poor, and Apple's, while funky and fashionable, are some of the worst, leaking lots of sound to the outside world. Save your ears and those around you buy upgrading. If you're a commuter look for in-ear styles that block outside noise. These let you keep the volume lower, saving battery life as well as helping avoid damaging your ears.

Our top picks

Here are our top choice MP3 players:

iPod Classic, from around £160

Still one of the best on the market, with great sound quality, huge capacity up to 160Gb, and great ease of use. Plays videos obviously links up perfectly with the iTunes store.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV

Sony NWZA828K, from around £170

From the makers of the original Walkman the NWZA828k comes with 8gb of memory, and wireless headphones.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV

iPod Touch, from around £150

Visually stunning media player, that's basically an iPhone with the phone bits removed. The same fantastically responsive touch screen and, and a capacity of up to 32gb.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV

Creative Zen X-Fi, from around £100

Creative have been knocking out great MP3 players for some time and the X-fi is their latest. About the size of a credit card the Zen has the benefit of an SD Card slot so you can expand the memory.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV

iPod Shuffle, from around £30

Perfect for gym goers, the baby Apple has no screen and only the most basic of controls, but it's absolutely tiny in size.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV

Archos 605 Wi-Fi, from around £150

This French company makes top-end media players, and this version is available with a choice of 4gb-160gb, a 4.3" touch screen, Wi-Fi, and with a separate adapter will even record TV.

Try these stores: Argos, Currys, HMV