Every music lover sooner or later comes to the conclusion that he needs to purchase an MP3-player. Many will say that mobile phones have eclipsed these products, but this is not at all the case. Very often, a smartphone simply does not have enough power to play music normally in the subway or minibus, and the sound quality itself leaves much to be desired. Therefore, even cheap players have a higher quality of melody playback than phones.
Among other things, it is very convenient to have a mobile device with you for listening to music, the charge lasts much longer than in the phone, and if it sits down, you don’t have to worry that you will miss some important call. But you need to try to choose a quality MP3 player, the price of which will be below the average level (the cost of the simplest models starts from 1.5 thousand rubles).
Player type
MP3 players can be distinguished by different criteria, but in the case of cheap models, the main difference is where the music files are saved. They can be on the built-in hard drive or on a flash drive (similar to a regular flash drive).
The hard drive usually hasmuch larger volume, but the cost will also be higher. As for reliability, with HDD players are less reliable, because if they fall they can easily fail. According to these reasons, it has become more and more difficult to find cheap hard disk players in stores lately.
Today, MP3 players with flash memory are sold in all stores, their price is very affordable, almost every music lover can afford a purchase. A few years ago they were not very popular due to the support of small flash drives, but now the maximum amount of memory can be well over 100 GB.
Memory capacity
Separately, we can note the MP3 player "Samsung". Models of this company have both HDD and flash drives. The best option would be a player with support for 4 or 8 GB memory cards. More than enough for a good collection of your favorite music.
If the Samsung MP3 player has an integrated memory, then the price immediately rises noticeably (the cost of some items can reach up to 30-40 thousand rubles). There are already models that have more than 100 GB of memory. If you look from the technical side, then this is undoubtedly the progress of the developers. However, for an ordinary consumer, few people need so much memory.
To understand how many songs fit on a certain amount of memory, you can make some simple calculations. Data calculated from an average size of 5 MB per song and -10% of the total memory for system files:
- 4 Gb - 900 songs;
- 8 Gb - 1,800 songs;
- 16 Gb - 3,600 songs;
- 64 Gb - 14,400 songs;
- 128 Gb - 28,800 songs.
Next, everyone must decide for himself how much memory is needed for the normal use of the MP3 player.
Display
In this category, the players are divided into three types: without a display, with a display, with a touch screen. The touch display is only in expensive models, but this does not mean that this is a big plus. An MP3 player should be small - manufacturers know this and make tiny players with a small touch screen. This leads to the fact that a person cannot use the player normally, because it is quite difficult to get to the right part of the small screen with a finger.
Mostly cheap MP3 players are made with small conventional displays or none at all. In the latter case, this means that it is simply not needed. There are all the necessary control buttons, and the battery lasts much longer, since the energy is not used up on the screen.
Take, for example, the Apple iPod Shuffle 4. The model has been on sale for many years, but it is increasingly bought and gaining popularity, although there is no display at all. Reliability and relatively low price, in comparison with other products of this company, pleasantly pleases consumers.
Power supply
All electrical appliances must take energy from somewhere, from which they will be powered. There are multiple power sources:
- Removable batteries. They can chargefrom the mains.
- Built-in battery. It also has the ability to charge the device from the mains, but you need a special power supply, usually sold with the player.
- AA or AAA batteries.
It's hard to make a specific choice of power source - they are all good, but have some drawbacks. Removable batteries hold a charge well enough, and in case of breakage they can be replaced. But if a person is often on the road, then it will not always be possible to find a network to recharge the batteries.
Built-in batteries have even greater capacity: depending on the manufacturer of the gadget, the charge can last from 50 to 100 hours of continuous play at medium volume. But there's one big downside to the built-in battery: if it fails, you'll have to buy a new MP3 player. The manufacturer does not provide for the repair of fixtures in this case.
Regular batteries are also quite good in the sense that they can always be replaced. They are sold in any store, but they hold a charge worse than all other models. Therefore, everyone has their own priorities, and it is necessary to choose what is more suitable in terms of individual needs. But in technical terms, the best option is a player with a built-in battery.
Additional features
Mostly cheap players have a standard set of functions: FM radio, voice recorder and directly listening to music. More expensive models have Wi-Fi functionality. In this case, you can download your favorite songs without resorting tohelp of a computer. Quite a useful feature, especially for those who are constantly on business trips.
Conclusion
In today's world it is hard to imagine a young man who does not like music, so almost every boy or girl has a personal MP3 player. The price for them can vary greatly, it all depends on many technical factors and the manufacturer's company. The most popular manufacturers of inexpensive models of MP3 players are: Samsung, Transcend, Texet. All of them are good and reliable in their own way.
When choosing cheap players, you need to start from the conditions in which the device will be used. Is it for short commutes or extended use? Whether there is a need for a display or it is not needed and will only interfere - you decide. Cheap does not mean bad, so you need to choose exactly what suits a particular person.
