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MP3 player buying guide

MP3 face-off: Flash memory vs. hard drive
MP3 players come in two major storage flavors--flash memory and hard drive. Common sense would tell you to get a hard drive version if big storage is what you crave for, and flash if something small swings to your beat.

But by far the most popular question is: Which is better? Unfortunately, there is no straight answer for that. What works for you may not necessarily work for others. It's a clear case of different people, different strokes.

So we are going to take a listen from both camps and let you decide what's best for you.

Flash is best

No moving parts

If you ever had a flash memory player drop on you, you'll likely not bat an eyelid. Without moving parts, flash-based MP3 players are more likely to survive with all your songs intact plus a few scratches. This also makes flash-based MP3 players ideal companions for a trip to the gym.

Here's an added virtue. Hard drives come with actuator arms to move the read/write head over a hard drive platter. That's a lot of movement and will wear out in the long term. Flash-based MP3 players do not suffer from such wear-and-tear.

It's smaller

Flash players can afford to be smaller because memory modules are invariably tinier than hard drives. Pick up an iPod nano and compare it with a regular iPod. The former obviously looks sexier.

Recommendations:
iriver S10
Apple iPod shuffle

Jacking in

For its smaller size, most users would be tempted to use their MP3 players as a spare thumbdrive. Some flash-based MP3 players do come with their own USB jacks to facilitate this.

Recommendations:
Creative MuVo V100
Samsung YP-U2
Sony E005

The hard truth

Lots of space

The biggest hard drive player now is 100GB, while the largest flash-based player is just 8GB. That's 13 times larger.

Hard drives also offer the best bang for your buck. Per megabyte cost is much lower than flash memory, and judging by current storage technology, it's a status quo that will remain for years to come.

Bigger screens

If you are looking for portable video as well, hard drive MP3 players are still the way to go. And it's not just their size� well, in a way, it is. The larger form factor allows for a bigger screen and, as any video aficionado knows, the gateway to video nirvana is a big-ass screen.

To do justice to the screen, the video would have to adopt a higher resolution. In order to do that, the video file size would naturally be larger. A hard drive can easily pack in more such larger files without storage bottlenecks.

Recommendations:
Creative Zen Vision W
Apple iPod

Data backup

With great size comes great responsibility. Data backup. Rather than go out and buy an external hard drive or spring for lots of DVDs, your hard drive MP3 player can do all the heavy work.

A USB 2.0 connection can make short work of all your critical data and, just for those days when you need to bring lots of office work home, your MP3 player might just be your hero.

Conclusion?
You heard both sides. What stirs your juice? You decide. It's your MP3 player after all. To help you make a more informed buying decision, read our reviews to narrow down your choice.

What else can I do with my MP3 player? »