iPod Rivals 

I remember owning a Sony Discman which made me the envy of all my peers. But ever since it broke down on me after three years of intense music playback, there was nothing out there that could tempt me into buying.

CK Ng

One device that was quite tempting is the MiniDisc but it never gained mass acceptance. Then Napster came along and soon enough, MP3 players started cropping up like mushrooms.  With the emergence of flash-based and hard-disk based MP3 players, consumers are now spoilt for choice.

Comparing Apples with apples

These days, iPods are always mentioned in the same breath as MP3 players. Such is the dominance of Apple’s MP3 player. However, several brands are emerging with players that offer more functionality and better value for money.

Among the brands hoping to steal some market share from Apple are Sony and iRiver.
Let’s look at the would-be challengers to the hard-disk-based iPod (we’ll look at Flash-based players in the future). To compare Apples with apples, so to speak, let’s use the 20GB version iPod Photo as a benchmark.

iPod Photo

Apple is the undisputed heavyweight champion of the MP3 game. I really loved the scroll wheel as it enables you to control the iPod with just one hand. There’s nothing much to dislike about everybody’s favourite player, but having to transfer files via iTunes is a bit restrictive. The plug and play functions of other players offer more flexibility.

 

 

Sony NW-HD5 (20GB)

Ardent fans of the old Sony Discman will be delighted to hear that Sony is now in the MP3 arena as well.

The NW-HD5 player is Sony’s candidate to take on the mighty iPod and it’s a worthy contender.
Sony used to push its proprietary ATRAC3 format for music files, which was a big turn off for many people. Its ill-fated MiniDisc, for example, used to only support this format.

The NW-HD5, however, can play MP3 files as well. The battery life is a whopping 40 hours, making it the longest lasting of the lot. Quite impressive indeed.


 
 

 

 

iRiver H10

The iRiver H10 has a slick design and a variety of colours to choose from, just like the iPod.
The sound quality is superb and arguably better than even iPod’s, believe it or not.

The downside is the not-so-friendly user interface that takes some time to get used to. It’s hard to beat iTunes.


 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 
Creative Zen

With an integrated FM radio and voice recording, this already makes the Zen sound like a winner when compared to the iPod. However, the Zen’s monochrome LCD screen is a turn-off. The 11-hour battery life is also not too impressive.

Bottom Line

Most people will probably play it safe and just buy an iPod. If it’s so popular, it must be good right? Still, if you’re a bit adventurous and willing to try an  alternative, you won’t go wrong buying any of the devices described above. Each has its own strong points.