Portable Media Players Test

Reviews on Portable Media Players

"Sony Walkman NWZ-A828"

Published on: 4/2008

On test: Sony NWZ-A828 (8GB)

Sony is the originator of the Walkman phenomenon. The new Sony Walkman NWZ-A828 offers many new features such as stereo Bluetooth. So is the Sony Walkman NWZ-A828 as impressive as previous models?

"SanDisk Sansa View 16GB"

Published on: 1/2008

On test: SanDisk Sansa View (16GB)

Most of the time in the technology industry, it takes a specialist with long experience to produce truly brilliant products. The best digital cameras, for instance, are invariably produced by people such as Canon and Nikon - not Mustek or BenQ. The best sat-navs are made by TomTom, who make nothing else. It's rare that a company just pops up and produces a range of products, seemingly outside its area of expertise, which sweeps all before it. And as Sir Clive Woodward proved when he tried to break into football after being so successful in international rugby - it's a tough thing to do, whatever industry you work in. Yet that's exactly what SanDisk has done over the past couple of years with its MP3 players. Its e-series of flash players targeted and soundly thumped the original Apple iPod nano in almost every area - they were much cheaper, looked great, were easy to use and had more features. And, more recently, it has done the same with Shuffle rival - the Clip. But time moves on, and though the e-series is still incredibly good value, other players - including the new iPod nano - are beginning to make it look old fashioned. Step forward the Sansa View - SanDisk's replacement for the e-series and its latest attempt to gain the coveted "why buy anything else?" recommendation the last player did. Can it pull the same trick off again?

"Creative Zen"

Computing Made Easy
Issue: 120

On test: Creative Labs Zen

Creative touts the Zen personal media player as a 'small wonder' and this proves to be a very apt description. The credit-card-sized player boasts an impressive LCD 2.5-inch screen happily encased in standard black. Unsurprisingly, the Zen is a little thicker than a credit card, but it still easily slips into a pocket and its depth is dictated by the inclusion of an SD card slot.

"MP3s get all touchy-feely"

Issue: 12/2007

On test: Sony NWZ-A815, Apple iPod nano 3G (8GB), Samsung Yepp YP-P2, LG Electronics Touch ME MFFM37

Smaller, lighter, cheaper, bigger capacity for music, plus better video abilities and sexy touch controls: what's not to like about the latest MP3 players?

Portable Media Players

Portable Media Players are an evolution of the MP3 player, which while retaining the main function of music playback, throw the extra benefits of video playback and picture viewing into the mix. It may not seem all that appetising to view movies on the 2” screen on many devices, but the best will come with the option of a direct connection to a television giving you the option of viewing your videos on the big screen.

When looking for a PMP the size of the hard drive is very important, there is no use in having a device capable of playing back music, video and photos when all you can fit on it is one music video and a picture of your dog. 20GB should really be looked at as the bare minimum and will let you keep a couple of albums and even full movies and television shows in your pocket.

With the larger screen, battery life can be an issue, but thankfully PMPs can often provide just as much power for music playback as a standard MP3 player. The previously undisputed king among MP3 players is the iPod, but Apple has yet to introduce a fully video capable player, the closest it has yet come is the 5th generation video iPod and the iPhone, which many consider to be the best way of getting video on an iPod.

PMPs have a slight price premium over straight MP3 players but some come with some extra features such as wifi connectivity or card slots that would be too large to integrate into a smaller MP3 device.

This category contains tests on PMP, MP4 player, MP3 player with video support, PMPs, MP4 players, MP3 players with video support.