Product Review: Portable MP3 Players

AUDIO/MP3 Znews.com --
Portable MP3 players are the Walkman on steroids. With some players able to hold over 1,000 music tracks, you can now put your entire CD collection onto a little gadget that you can slip into your pocket and take with you anywhere.

Storage capacity is an important factor when choosing your portable music player. There are a couple of different classes of Portable MP3 players. The Apple iPod (see below) or SONICBlue's Rio Riot (not reviewed in this article), for example, are hard-drive based and hold a lot more songs than the Intel or the Samsung, which use memory cards for 64-128 mb of music storage. Another option is the iRiver SlimX CD/MP3 player. With this ultra-slim unit you can rip a CD filled with up to 150 MP3s, and use the excellent remote to manage all the tracks.

Though the iPod or the Rio Riot cost a lot more, you can download hundreds of songs onto them. The Apple, for example, with its lightning fast firewire connection and 5 GB of storage, is a powerful monstor compared to the slower USB connection and 15-20 song capacity of the less expensive 64-128mb models, which are smaller and cost much less. If you really need a lot of storage space, the Rio Riot boasts 20GB of capacity, compared to Apple's 5GB.

Prices and features vary, but you can't go wrong with one of the portable MP3 players listed below.