MP3 players.(RATINGS)(Buyers guide)

As the Ratings show, buying an MP3 player doesn't end with choosing the brand and model; you often also need to select a capacity. Price rises with capacity, but performance, size, and weight should remain fairly constant within a model line. Our advice: Buy the biggest capacity your budget allows.

Flash-memory players typically run longer than their hard-disk cousins on a single charge--20 or more hours, in some cases--and are much smaller and lighter, to boot. But capacity maxes out at 8 gigabytes--or about 2,000 songs at standard MP3 compression format--about a tenth that of the most capacious hard-disk models. Hard-disk models offer more versatility and capacity than any flash player. But they're also bulkier. They generally have a shorter battery life per charge, even though times have improved.

All players accept music from CDs, which you convert into digital music files and transfer to the player using software such as iTunes or Windows Media Player. And all except the $300 Cowon iAudio A2 (30 GB) can play copyright-protected music downloaded from online stores. Non-iPods can play songs downloaded from a variety of online stores; iPods work mainly with iTunes, but you also can download songs from Real and Rhapsody. All players work with Windows PCs, but only some are Mac compatible.

Guide to the Ratings

Overall score is based primarily on ease of use, headphone quality, audio quality, damage resistance and audio playback time. Video and picture quality is rated but not included in the overall score. Due to test upgrades, results may vary from past Ratings. Tests were carried out by International Consumer Research and Testing, a worldwide group that includes Consumer Reports. Ease of use mainly covers player characteristics that enhance convenience, versatility, and portability. Headphone quality reflects judgments from a listening panel comparing the player and its supplied headphone to a test audio CD and a high-fidelity headphone. Audio quality reflects judgments from a listening panel comparing the player with a test audio CD, using a high-fidelity headphone for both. Damage resistance mainly reflects drop-test results; scratch- and wipe-resistance results were also considered. Picture quality reflects judgments based mainly on viewing angle, display size, and clarity and color in different lighting conditions, using the JPEG format. Audio playback time (hours) reflects lab measurements of continuous playback time to the nearest hour, using a selection of music tracks encoded to MP3 format at a 128 kbps constant bit rate (CBR); fully charged rechargeable batteries; backlight at the minimum setting; with included headphone; and volume set at a reasonable level. Our measurements should not be compared with those stated by the manufacturer, which may use different testing methods and criteria. Price is approximate retail.

Quick Picks

For maximum capacity in a flash-memory player: