MP3 Player vs iPhone/Smartphone

[Zovc]

My brother is going to be starting Law School soon, and the school provides supplementary Audio Books in .mp3 format. He asked me if he should get an iPhone or just get a cheap MP3 player.

I explained the differences in the devices (You'll just get music/audio books, but only spend like 20-60 bucks vs having all kinds of stuff at your disposal, and having everything on one device), but I can't actually answer his question as to what he should do.

The only reason I can't fully advise him is because I have no idea how big the files will be. I remember getting an MP3 player about five years ago and it only had 512mb of storage, I believe. That's enough for a lot of .mp3s, of course, because mp3s are small by nature.

But my brother thinks his .mp3s will be around 4 hours. I have no idea how big those files will be--can anyone help me put that into perspective? Or, does anyone have any experience with audio books?

(Goes look around to see the average size of .mp3 players nowadays.)

[Dr.Epic]

Well, I'd find out how much space the audio books actually take up. If space is not a problem, find out if all those extra features are worth and if not just save a lot of money. I'd personally go for the MP3 player, though that's just cause my cash situation is not ideal.

[Zovc]

Well, I'd find out how much space the audio books actually take up. If space is not a problem, find out if all those extra features are worth and if not just save a lot of money. I'd personally go for the MP3 player, though that's just cause my cash situation is not ideal.

I'm not sure where to start in terms of looking up how big audio books are. I guess I'll start by googling "audio book sizes." lol

[Tirian]

The size of the mp3 depends on the level of compression. There is no good reason why a lecture should be encoded as 128 kbit/sec stereo like music files tend to be, so if they went with a lower quality you could shrink the file by a factor of eight or sixteen without sacrificing comprehension.

That being said, I suspect it'd be hard to find an MP3 player these days that holds less than 8GB.

[BizzaroStormy]

If all he's gonna use it for is music/audiobooks, then you'd be better off grabbing an MP3 player (not an iPod). You could get a fairly high-capacity model for about $100-$140 and when law school is over, you have a decent device to carry your music collection on, and since it is not an apple product, you wont have very many problems with it.

[Eadin]

i'd take the mp3 to, maybe one with an extra card slot
If he also needs a new phone however, you should consider a smartphone
they have cardslots and make great organizers.

[Tirian]

I'm not sure where to start in terms of looking up how big audio books are. I guess I'll start by googling "audio book sizes." lol

Here (http://www.rvmsounds.com/calculator/) is a calculator. Just as a preview, a four hour MP3 at the standard bitrate rate is 225 MB. Of course, you could always just ask the school how large the specific files you will be using are.

[Zovc]

Well, in light of recent MP3 players, it looks like it'll either be a concern of cost vs 'desire'. MP3 players' storage is comparable to that of an iPhone/Smartphone. He's going to see what Dad wants to do. It's quite possible he's long overdue for an upgrade and can get a Droid (we're with Verizon) for cheap/free.

[Erloas]

If they save the MP3 files using variable rate compression they should be able to fit a lot of time in a fairly small file. Since the audio doesn't have a huge range and not a lot of audio is going on (just speaking, as opposed to several instruments hitting the full spectrum of human hearing) they should compress very well.

If you are looking at 4 hour lectures, if they are saved as a single file, you had better make sure that the device you get supports resuming at a specific point in a file. If you're 2 hours into the lecture and have to stop, you don't want to have to fast forward through those 2 hours again. If they are saved in 10 minute chunks, well then make sure you get something that supports playlists and specific folder playing.

One thing to remember about all smartphones is that virtually every one requires a dataplan to get and the total cost of ownership is generally in the $2000 range for the required 2 year contracts. Compared to the base cost of about $1000 for the cheaper phone plans for the same period of time. Of course there are a number of no smartphones that play MP3s too, so thats another option.

[Don Julio Anejo]

If you are looking at 4 hour lectures, if they are saved as a single file, you had better make sure that the device you get supports resuming at a specific point in a file. If you're 2 hours into the lecture and have to stop, you don't want to have to fast forward through those 2 hours again.
So much this. Which means the mp3 player or whatever has to have a decent interface (e.g. none of those mp3 players with only basic controls from 5 years ago). Although to the best of my knowledge, you can scroll through the little time scrollbar thingy on any decent player that has a large enough screen and is either touchscreen or has a few more buttons other than the mandatory play/pause/previous/next. They will cost $100+ though.

As for iPhone: I personally love mine and would recommend it over and over again. But... Does your brother actually need a new phone and actually wants an iPhone and not something else like a Droid? If yes, buy one. If no, well, tell him to get an mp3 player and use his current phone. Also, if you want a single device, Blackberries suck for music playback - well, they were the original "busy bee business suit blackberries" (I just made that up so I could get a cool alliteration). Great for text and email (especially with the little keyboard), not as great for multimedia, and the ones with touchscreens have crappy battery lives. Not coming from personal experience though, just listening to my friends complain about theirs.

PS: never, ever, ever buy popular smartphones (iPhones especially) from wireless providers. They will take an arm and a leg and on top of that charge you for removing them. Get a new or used unlocked iPhone off craigslist or a friend or ebay. You won't be forced into a plan or locked to a provider and it'll cost you about half of what they would charge.

[The Succubus]

Well, in light of recent MP3 players, it looks like it'll either be a concern of cost vs 'desire'. MP3 players' storage is comparable to that of an iPhone/Smartphone. He's going to see what Dad wants to do. It's quite possible he's long overdue for an upgrade and can get a Droid (we're with Verizon) for cheap/free.

I have a Motorola Milestone - the Blighty equivalent of the Droid. It's an awesome phone and I have no doubt that with a large enough memory card it would make a passable MP3 player

BUT

The battery life is extremely dire. I get about 7 or 8 hours use (with fairly frequent 3G/EDGE activity) between charges and I suspect that if it were used as an MP3 as well, the battery would take even more of a hammering, depending on whether you used earphones or headphones.

[Rawhide]

On MP3s. If they're compressing them right, they shouldn't be that large. it is a university however, so there is every likelihood that they are not compressing them properly.

On iPhones. I have an iPhone, I love it and would recommend it to anyone. It's a very good phone and excellent MP3 player. It can also play some decent games, and has a veritable tonne of useful applications ranging from free, through free, to very cheap. Plus, having a portable web browsing device comes in real handy.

On MP3 players. I personally would recommend an iPod touch if you're not going to get an all-in-one device. Has most of the features of an iPhone (no calls, obviously, and portable web browsing is limited to Wi-Fi). You might consider an iPod Nano if you really need to save money (but still want to buy good quality). I would not recommend any MP3 player without a screen. I have played with other brands, but have not yet found one that matches the quality of the Apple products. Doesn't mean they aren't out there though.

[Zeb The Troll]

Well, in light of recent MP3 players, it looks like it'll either be a concern of cost vs 'desire'. MP3 players' storage is comparable to that of an iPhone/Smartphone. He's going to see what Dad wants to do. It's quite possible he's long overdue for an upgrade and can get a Droid (we're with Verizon) for cheap/free.Alarra has a Droid. She loves it muchly. The only thing that kind of sucked is that we didn't shop around enough. We got hers for $200 because she was due an upgrade and could get the whole 2 year commitment price. A week later we discovered that if we'd gotten it at Sam's Club we could have gotten it for $100.

[drakir_nosslin]

In this case, I'd probably go for a mp3 player, because the battery lasts longer in those (if you buy a good one, which you should) and in most smartphones the interface for playback isn't as good as in a dedicated player. The exception here is of course iPhone, but I really don't like that phone for other reasons.

I use a Cowon D2 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowon_D2), and while it is a bit bigger than the ipod nano, I've found that the quality is well worth the extra weight. It has 16 Gb internal memory and I've added another 16 Gb SDHC card. Oh, and the battery lasts for 50+ hrs.

[Ostien]

just butting in here. I'm looking for a "MP3" player (want it also to play OGG and FLAC). Also I'm staying away from iPod/iPhone devices. I run Linux mostly and don't want to have to use or deal with proprietary iTunes software. My ideal device just functions like a Mass Storage Device. I had a Creative Jukebox Zex Xtra back in the day but that brick of a thing has long since died.

my partner got a SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GCQ3KM) recently and I am leaning to that now because of the micro SDHC slot.

^: thanks for mentioning Cowon, haven't head of then but now looking into them.

Also similar to OP I would like something that can record audio well so I can bring it to grad school lectures and listen later. The SanDisk one records decently from my experiments with it.

Any other suggestions for a device that would fit my purposes?

[drakir_nosslin]

my partner got a SanDisk Sansa Fuze 8GB (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GCQ3KM) recently and I am leaning to that now because of the micro SDHC slot.

^: thanks for mentioning Cowon, haven't head of then but now looking into them.

Also similar to OP I would like something that can record audio well so I can bring it to grad school lectures and listen later. The SanDisk one records decently from my experiments with it.

Any other suggestions for a device that would fit my purposes?

The SanDisk Sansa series is, in my experience, very reliable and user friendly, so one of those isn't a bad idea. However, I haven't used any of them for the last two years now, so I'm basing this on old information.

As for recording lectures, that can be quite hard if you have as large lecture halls as those I'm used with (200 people +), I have a few friends who does this and they have all bought digital voice recorders for it. I haven't tried it myself though, so I don't know how much of a difference in quality there is between that and a phone/mp3 player.

[Syka]

MP3 Player.

I love my iPhone to death. Lovelovelove it. But I still utilize my Zune when I have need for a music player. I'll use Pandora on my phone sometimes, but not usually.

I also don't plan to get rid of my MP3 player anytime soon and will be replacing it should it die. I got my 8GB Zune for about 170$ about 2.5 years ago. It's the smallest storage model they had (I know...I had a 5GB Creative Zen before that...I was a sad panda since I didn't need that much space lol).


Frankly...I just don't think it's good to have all of your electronic items in one thing. Conveinent? Sure. Asking for trouble? Heck yeah. I still have a camera, computer, and MP3 player. If my phone breaks (which it has), I don't lose everything. I don't have to reload everything. I have exactly 0 songs on my phone.

And you REALLY don't want to be risking that with school texts.



Tip: If he goes to Best Buy, he should be able to get a 2 year replacement plan on an MP3 player. I got my original (a Rio) for graduation in 2005. 9 months later I switched it for my Zen, since the case was separating for no reason. Just under 2 years later I switched the Zen for my current Zune because apparently Vista hates Zens. XD I forgot to switch my Zune out this year (my Best Buy folks have never once questioned why I was bringing it in...just "I need to get a new one" "OK, pick one"). Thankfully I like my Zune, it's a lovely little thing.

All I had to do was pay another 20$ for a new 2 year plan. :smallamused:



EDIT: I can echo the Sansa love. My mom and sister both have a Sansa and adore it. I think my uncle does, too. I'm the black sheep. :smallwink:

[Zovc]

@MP3 player suggestions, if you have suggested a specific model (that you've used), does it have a good seek feature? Erloas made a rather good point mentioning that.

@Syka, Indeed, consolidating 'all of your stuff' onto one device can be a bad idea, especially in the case of failure. Then again, my brother will probably just put the audio books on his device, so he'd have a Phone + Audio books. To be honest, I don't think my brother even listens to music (not that I'll ever understand how anyone I know who is 'like that' can live like that).

And don't worry about cost, Playground. I'll help my dad and brother make a fiscally wise move within the boundaries of the decision they make. If I can't, you can be sure I'll be asking for help again. :P

[drakir_nosslin]

@MP3 player suggestions, if you have suggested a specific model (that you've used), does it have a good seek feature? Erloas made a rather good point mentioning that.

Well the Cowon D2 uses a touch interface, so navigation is fairly easy. It's not as fast as on a computer, but if you listen to long tracks it's a lot faster than using buttons.

[tehjohnli]

I guess it really depends on what he wants with his mp3 player. If all he wants is music, then I guess a non-iPod mp3 player with a lot of memory would be the best for him, but if he wants a device that can do quite a lot of stuff, then he'd go with the iTouch. Personally, I like the iTouch better than an mp3 player, but that's because I use my iTouch for so many different things, like browsing the web, watching movies, or checking my email.

So it's really up to him. :/

[Mando Knight]

Well, in light of recent MP3 players, it looks like it'll either be a concern of cost vs 'desire'. MP3 players' storage is comparable to that of an iPhone/Smartphone. He's going to see what Dad wants to do. It's quite possible he's long overdue for an upgrade and can get a Droid (we're with Verizon) for cheap/free.

If you've got Verizon, then you can only have a Droid or an iPod Touch, not an iPhone, since you need the AT&T contract in order to use one...

...unless you jailbreak it, which makes Steve Jobs eat another hat in a rage against consumers who want to actually have control over what they use their devices for/with. :smalltongue: