iPods vs. wannabes.(Up front: news / trends / advice)

Apple's phenomenally successful iPod players have dragged the digital music player (aka the MP3 player) firmly out of geekdom and into the mainstream. Now other companies are trying to match the iPods' distinctions, which include huge capacity in a compact, stylish box and a hassle-free link to buy music online.

While the iPods are the best choices for many people, they aren't the only decent performers from our tests of two 1 iPods and seven other high-capacity players. All the players held at least 1,000 songs on their tiny hard drives. Prices ranged from $200 to $400. (You can also find less-expensive players that hold up to about 250 songs on a memory card.)

The signals from some MP3 players produced near-CD-quality sound; the others were very nearly as good. The supplied headphones were a bit better on some models than others, though even the worst performed respectably.

But none of these performance differences may be noticeable to you in typical, everyday use. Choosing the right high-capacity MP3 player mostly means dealing with other considerations:

Capacity. The 4-gigabyte players, including the iPod Mini, can hold about 1,000 songs; the 20-GB models, about 5,000 songs. Decide how much music you need to carry, since as capacity rises so does weight and price, as a rule. Note that the player's capacity can be used for any data, including digital camera images and the like.

Getting music onto the player. A digital player should accept music you already own on CD, which you convert into MP3 files and transfer to the player using supplied software and a computer. The unit should also allow you to shop from one or more of the growing number of online stores, where you can download music for less than $1 per song. The iRiver iHP 120 and the Archos Gmini won't presently work with any online music store. The Sony player works with Sony's own Connect online store, but cannot accept MP3 files unless you first convert them to ATRAC, Sony's own format--a slow extra step. The other players accepted either MP3 files or downloads. The iPods use Apple's iTunes site, to which the players' software is seamlessly married. The remaining players work with the many online stores that use WMA format.

Finding music on the player. With potentially thousands of songs on a player's hard drive, easy navigation through them is a critical consideration. The iPods and the Creative Zen Touch have a touch-sensitive touchpad or click-wheel that lets you scroll through a playlist of songs with a swipe of your thumb. But most of the other 20-GB players also make song selection relatively painless.