Ask Engadget: Best no-frills portable media player?
By Darren Murph 
posted February 25th 2010 11:09PM
posted February 25th 2010 11:09PM
We appreciate the brevity, Cam. In your spirit, we'll skip the usual coaxing and just demand that those with lovable gym-certified PMPs drop some knowledge in comments below. And... go!"I'm getting quite sick of my Sansa Clip, with it deciding when and when it doesn't want to work. I'm looking for a new PMP. The only requirement is that it has at least 4GB of storage, and supports FLAC files. Expandable memory would be cool too."
iPad.
@SonofUgly
Worse than saying "first" by a long shot.
@New Reformation I concur. Besides that....they said "no-frills". Wasn't there all kinds of confetti and pizzazzonia, bobbing for apples, and the like at their most recent event.
I'm an iMac owner. Quit making me look ugly too "Son."
Now on to the suggestions. I'm in the market as well. Can we make this informative before Engadget schools us again?
@jmcburna wow. As if you said 'I concur'
@SonofUgly lol i don't know if it was sarcasm or not
@SonofUgly
I was just kidding guys.
=P
@SonofUgly Oh lord. You had us worried. I bet you enjoyed that tremendously didn't you?¿?
@jmcburna
Isn't it confetti and pizzazzonia that convince people to play rigged games and buy useless product at carnivals and fairs? I've certainly never associated them with good craftsmanship.
Can I say a Flash Zune?
@AndrewAmazed Seconded. But I don't know if Zunes support FLAC or whatever. I've never even heard of that format. But I still love my Zune for pure touchscreen-free bliss.
@wellsley
Zune HD is great but unfortunately it doesn't support flac
@wellsley
FLAC stands for Free Lossless Audio Codec
Sansa Clip +
Or something by iAudio/Cowon.
@a12ctic I definitely second the Sansa Clip+. Virtually identical to the Sansa Clip interface, much more reliable, stellar battery life, simplistic and compact, expandable memory... it's like the ideal "no-frills" PMP with all the frills you could ask for.
@jonac13
+1 for sansa clip+
I also suggest Sansa Fuze, which has a better battery life.
@a12ctic
sansa clip+ for no frills
sansa fuze if you want a better display and battery
anything from cowon if you want that plus unsurpassed audio quality
my gf has a fuze, im using a cowon s9.
The guy says he's sick of his Sansa Clip, and so you guys go an recommend another Sansa Clip.
BRILLIANT.
@(Unverified)
A Sansa Clip+, not a Clip, genius.
Creative Zen.
IAudio 7 (good luck finding one), supports flac.
True story:
I purchased a iAudio 7 8GB Red in 2007, its battery died in 2009 and also the screen had a slight dent on it.
I sent it to Cowon for repairs. It came to about $57 USD, which was a good deal to me because it originally cost $144 CAD. So I paid less than half for it to be repaired and it only took 2 weeks.
It's got amazing battery life 30-40 hours w/ JetEffect and Equalizer playing flac music, very small, excellent for working out with, and it can even be used as a radio.
It's availability is scarce. Hopefully you can find one.
Alright, if you're looking for a PMP, you must begin looking in the direction of Cowon ( / iAudio).
If you look at the design of their products (which, I must say, are extremely good for whatever price range you're looking at), and you look at the amazing battery life each and every one of them has, and you look at the sheer number of formats they support (FLAC obviously includud), and you look at the rate at which they spew firmware updates (ones that actually improve stuff based on community feedback), and you listen to the sound quality (which is undeniably the most revered sound quality in the business)...
And you look at all that and you say... Nah. Then:
1) You're not looking for a good PMP, or
2) You're missing something else, like say ZunePass.
Now I have a Zune, but I never used ZunePass. Nevertheless, ZunePass is supposedly a great experience, and very much worth your money. The cool thing about Zune is that they're upgrading their devices (and ZunePass comes along with you), and integrating it into other parts of their huge ecosystem (XBox, Desktop, WinPho7?). i.e. when you have a Zune, you know you have a Microsoft product backed and supported by the largest tech company in the world.
Bottom line:
No frills: any Cowon / iAudio
Missing the experience around your PMP: any Zune
Both of these options are available at all price ranges too. Good luck with your new PMP!
I can't believe I am saying this but, take a look at the S:Flo2.
It supposedly has unbelievable SQ, supports SD, and plays FLAC. The only real issue is that the battery life is not that great with lossless audio. Nevertheless, if you are looking for a PMP that you are okay with not having a ton of battery life and are expecting nothing more than a simplistic audio-centric user experience check it out.
@New Reformation
For an american player I would suggest spending a bit more and checking out the lower end Zune HD. You will enjoy the features and the sound quality. :D
@New Reformation
One of the requirements was support for FLAC. Zunes don't support FLAC. And all of the Zune devices are missing some features that are available on the Sansa Clip... such as a sleep timer.
@sracer
But if he/she has a library of lossless codec files (FLAC) any other lossless format (like WMA lossless) can be converted to without a loss of quality. I recently did something like this so I could buy a device that was actually supported here in America (though this individual may not be from the US...).
I digress. The Zune IS an option for this guy. Though admittedly it would require some additional effort on his end to make it work.
@New Reformation
No, the Zune isn't an option. It doesn't fulfill the basic and short list of requirements. FLAC is better. Why convert it to something that isn't better? In 20 years, his FLAC will be good to go and lossless.
And how much is the cheapest Zune? More than the cheapest devices that fulfills the reqs. Why pay more for less and justify it by saying 'do some work!'?
sansa fuze
No personal experience with it, but the Cowon S9 seems like a winner if you want a simple, no frills, robust player with good codec support and an oled screen.
Oh, and it supports FLAC.
@reiththestud
I have to personally thank you for reminding me of, "Bobby's World".
That is all.
@reiththestud i full heartedly support both comments above my own. +1
A Clip+ of course.
But Cowon and Archos has higher-end small players with good feature sets.
I say Clip+ They really improved it.
It is the best Non-video Mp3 player on the market.
I had the Sansa Fuze, didn't mind it. Especially now that it is dirt cheap because it has been out for a while. Seems like it's about time for some new Sansa players. Sansa+Android would be cool.
If you just want audio then a Clip+ easy, but if you want video then it is a little more complicated. Maybe an Archos 3 Vision? Really not sure though.
The Zune HD, definitely. And here's why:
1. It's cheap
2. It's really fast and responsive
3. It's got AMAZING battery life
4. Zunepass. need i say more?
5. The Zune desktop software
6. All the awesome artist info crap it downloads
7. Bright OLED Screen
8. Light, Awesome, Great quality sound
9. Zune Social
@hopskipnfall
Uhh...what part of $180 is cheap?
Btw...Zune HD is the polar opposite of "no frills"
Sansa clip+ = $45
@hopskipnfall
This comment has been up for 4 minutes now, I'm really surprised it hasn't been downvoted into oblivion yet.
@hopskipnfall or should I say hopskipnfail.....
Zune HD is NOT cheap. How can you compare a $50 Clip to a $200 HD? Zune Social? useless gimmick. Zune Pass? ok, if you like to rent your music. The OLED screen is indeed nice. The Zune desktop software is a pig that makes iTunes look slim and trim.
The Zune HD does not support FLAC which was a requirement.
@sracer
The Zune supports lossless audio (as I explained earlier you can make it work if you want it to...). Another BIG reason to like the zune HD is that its battery life is SO MUCH BETTER. The clip, for all of its merits, just does not have adequate battery life.
Let's not be 'PMP Nazis' here. The Zune HD is an option.
@sracer I wouldn't necessarily call the Social a useless gimmick, and I love the Zune Pass because I can discover new music without having to pay for it. If I want to keep it, I get 10 credits every month that lets me do that. Saves me $1.29 for every song I don't like. And the Zune Software is not a pig that makes iTunes look slim unless you are running it with the graphics option turned to full on a wimpy little netbook or something REALLY old. It runs just fine on my 4 year old MBP. If you think it runs too slowly, turn the graphics option down or off before you say anything. Ok, it's doesn't necessarily fit the "cheap" requirement or the "no frills" preference, but it's a great piece of hardware. Don't knock it. I love my ZuneHD.
As for "no frills", the device with the least amount of frills (read: none) would probably be the iPod Shuffle. The best MP3 player for the least amount of money, however, may just be your cell phone (depending on the phone you have). My RAZR2 V9x works very well as an MP3 player. It doesn't support FLAC, but I honestly think that's a pretty odd requirement since most people aren't even be able to distinguish a standard quality (128-192 Kbps) M4A from lossless audio files. Even so, most devices I've come across that support WMA files also support WMA lossless files. But you won't be able to fit very many lossless audio files on 4GB.
@sracer
I came here expecting fanboys to suggest an iPod Touch, instead it was a fanboy suggesting a Zune HD.
the guy wants a "no frills" player. The Zune HD is definitely not "no frills".
But I've got to call you out on saying the Zune software makes iTunes look slim and trim. Even with all the highest settings and running as much stuff as I could through Zune I could never get it anywhere near the memory usage of a fresh install of iTunes...God forbid you want to try out Coverflow. Just admit you've never used the Zune software and nobody will care.
@insky Yes. I get it. My post completely failed to comply with the original post. But for the record, I've been using the Zune desktop software since it looked like an orange windows media player... iTunes makes my computer run so much slower, and it has like a two second lag, and the apple updates don't leave me alone. I like the way Zune organizes music, I like their deeper collection of underground labels, their video marketplace is enormous, I love wireless sync. The interface is clean and fast. iTunes is buggy, laggy, and annoying. The whole "Genius" thing doesn't give great recommendations, but Zune's SmartDJ is fantastic. The end.
@hopskipnfall I agree. I have had several iPods and iTunes slowed down my PC to a crawl. Was more than happy when I sold my 5G iPod and picked up my 16GB Zune HD this past Christmas. The sound quality if the best I have ever heard and I can just bring over my .mp3s without having to reformat like I had to do with my ipods. Very nice. Good to hear that they are going to be releasing them outside the US later this year so the rest of the world can enjoy them - well, at least those with windows software. :)
The Zune Player is incredible. It blows the iTunes player away in presentation and of course especially in ease of transferring files.
No, it's not the cheapest PMP out there and definitely not of the "no frills" variety - if you wanted to trade up from your current media player, you definitely want to check one of them out. Here is a review:
http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/zune-hd-16gb-black/4505-6490_7-33750785.html?tag=mncolBtm;rnav
@kstagg
my nexus > any zune hd/iphone/cowon
it's a machine by itself, it doesn't even need to sync to a puter... but it can be synced by many media players or old fashion drag n drop works too! plus with tons of third party media players on the app market, u can pretty much play any kind of file u can find. hell, u can even unzip/unrar downloaded files on a nexus.
i use stereo bluetooth headphones from sony called drbt50 with playback buttons right on the headphones themselves. does iphone 3gs/zune hd even support stereo a2dp bluetooth?
Sansa Clip +
I will not part with my .ogg collection. Thank you Sandisk, now I don't have to.
I can't believe no one has mentioned the Cowon D2 yet!
@Spork
+1 on the Cowon D2! It was the first thing I thought of.
Not only does it have native FLAC support and exceptional sound quality, but expandable memory AND a ~52 hour battery life
@Spork
I'd also agree with the D2.
The UI isn't as pleasent as it could be but it excels almost everywhere else.
Huge Battery life, can't even remember the last time I charged mine properly.
Plus it has that SD card slot. I got the 16GB model and keep that for my music and drop in a SD card loaded with Vids for whenever I travel.
@spruceyb +1 to the D2 from me as well. I've had mine for over two years (actually maybe three now). Besides a bit of natural battery degradation, it works perfectly. One of the most durable gadgets I've ever had, and you can get them dirt cheap now. Honestly, if mine broke right now, I'd buy another just like it, maybe with higher internal memory. It's an absolute classic, in my opinion. If you need apps and super fancy features and stuff, get a smartphone. If you want the best music player and nothing more, get this.
Well, first off I have to question your requirement of FLAC. This is a portable media player which means it doesn't have the high end op amps and components to even output the audio and a high quality and unless your buying some 200 dollar Kipsch or Sennheiser headphones the signal is going to be even more distorted once it gets to your ears. There is also background noise from being outside. Basically this all means you're not going to notice the difference of FLAC quality with your portable media player. the only reason I can think that you would need FLAC is if you don't want to convert all your files before you transfer to the PMP. If i've done the math correctly:
4Gb = 4096MB
Let's assume a FLAC file is at least 20MB
Total songs = 4096/20 = 204 songs.
If you convert to 256 VBR with avg of 8MB/song
Total songs = 4096/8 = 512 songs.
You're getting almost twice the amount of songs at the same music quality with minimal effort. I'm a FLAC guy myself but I only play it through an Auzentech Forte with Z5500's if i'm looking to play music on the go I suggest putting your money towards a nicer cell phone with a 3.5mm jack and just upgrade the SD card. FLAC has it's places and PMPs does not seem to be one in my opinion.