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The Alternatives
Now
let's take a look at what's really out there and show you a number of
companies that truly do offer some excellent alternatives.
While there are plenty of options out there, these are what I
consider the very best alternatives.
Flash Players
While the Zune has been currently introduced as a hard drive based player,
Apple has had flash players on the market for quite some time now.
Their Shuffle is what I think is an inferior product, yet it still holds
most of the market share. Why? Well it is an "Ipod"
and that is all that matters. I don't know about many, but I would
want a screen on a player, regardless of whether or not is a flash player.
It astounds me how successful the shuffle is considering its lack of
features.
Three companies come to mind in this particular area. They are
iRiver,
mobiBLU and
Samsung. When it comes to flash players, all three have managed to
release a number of impressively designed products, some of which are
upcoming and will be introduced at this coming year's CES.
We start with a company that I personally
think has one of the most exceptionally designed flash-based players on the
market today. That company is iRiver and the products are the U10 and
Clix.
The U10 (reviewed here) and Clix, both of which are fairly close in both design and
features, are designed the way a product in its class should be. Both
are ultra small flash-based players sporting a large high quality 2.2" color
display and packed with features. They sport an excellent interface
that is easy to navigate by simply clicking on any of the corners around the
display area. They support lyrics, video, have an FM Radio and
excellent sound quality. On top of that, its recording capabilities
are excellent, With the U10 or
the newer Clix, you can not only do voice recordings, but also record from
the radio as well. It doesn't end there though. With the
superbly designed optional (TV-like) cradle, it will not only allow you to record from
a line-in source, but will double as a very suitable alarm clock as well. iRiver many not have what I consider the best hard drive players, but their
latest flash players are certainly worthy of consideration. They are
truly that impressive and if you have a chance to play with one first-hand,
I think you'll be just as impressed.
Hyun Won Inc, known to many as mobiBLU, is a
smaller company that focuses primarily on highly unique and innovative MP3
players. I would like to emphasize on that, as most of their products
are indeed in a class of their own.
It all started with the release of the Cube (reviewed
here). It was this particular product that gained the interest of
many and led to the high level of recognition. The Cube still remains
the smallest full-featured player in its class. Roughly a year later,
they released the Cube 2 (reviewed here).
The Cube 2 is remarkably small, yet is comes packed with features that most
larger players don't even offer. Despite just how tiny this player
really is, they managed to fit a color OLED screen in as well. It not
only supports video playback, but has a built-in FM Tuner and voice/FM
recording capabilities as well. The product also has podcasting
built-in, a feature that is implemented very well I might add. While
the interface needs some work to make it easier to navigate, it is a highly
innovative product that packs so much functionality into such a remarkably
small device.
The US2 (reviewed
here) is their latest flash player and one
that sports a more practical design. It is an ultra-slim device that
also does not fail in providing the highest number of features one can ask
for. Like the Cube, it is also quite unique as it is the only player
featuring to individual headphone jacks. It also sports an FM Tuner
with recording capabilities, lyric support, voice recording and full podcasting support. Also note that mobiBLU products will allow you to
switch between MTP and MSC, allowing you to use any as a mass storage device
as well.
While their hard drive players are not as
appealing, their flash-based players are also worth some consideration,
especially those looking for the smallest full-featured player money can
buy.
Finally, we look at none other than
Samsung.
Chances are many of you either own or have owned a product from the company.
When it comes to electronics, they make just about everything out there.
From microwaves to vacuum cleaners, they seem to dominate the market, only
leaving a very select few like LG as their main competitor in terms of
overall product competition. Personally, I'm quite fond of the
company. All the products I've owned from them are of the highest
quality. Simply put, they are a brand name to trust when on the market
for any type of electronics, particularly cell phones, displays and home
entertainment products. However, it is quite sad that despite their
huge presence, they can't quite manage to gain a strong hold of such a
market and compete with Apple well.
I've had the pleasure of playing with their
YP-T9JAB and was quite impressed with its performance and feature set.
However, they seem to be focusing heavily on providing a number of other
excellent players that seem to get more and more impressive. Their K5
is truly a highly unique product. It sports a very high-tech
design that features some touch sensitive controls and a built-in speaker
that actually sounds pretty decent. After playing with it for a very
short period of time, I will say its build quality is high and the FM Tuner
did sound crystal clear.
Let's not forget the upcoming YP-K3 that will
be featured at this year's CES. This will be their slimmest and
sleekest MP3 player to date, set to compete well with Apple's
Nano.
Also, unlike the Nano, it will feature a built-in FM Tuner as well.
Like its larger brother, the K5, it will sport some touch sensitive controls
and a 1.8" color OLED display.
Hard Drive Players
When it comes to hard drive players, two
companies quickly come to mind. Hint? They both start with the
letter C. Yes, you guessed it, it's products from both Creative and
Cowon Audio.
I would like to start of with none other than
Creative, only because I have good and bad to say about them. However,
if there is one established company that has struggled hard through the
years to competed against the Ipod, it is certainly Creative. They
have been producing a number of quality MP3 players over the years, some of
which are truly impressive. The question is...Why haven't they gotten
as much media hype as the Zune? Well, the only reason I can come up
with is their extremely poor marketing techniques. There is certainly
some improvement to made in this area, especially if they want to stay in
the game and keep up with the competition. However, despite the
company's flaws, some of their products are certainly worth some
consideration. One of the very best alternatives happens to be their
Vision:M (reviewed here).
Introduced just over a year ago, it is an
impressively designed player that offers a great deal of quality and
functionality. If many would at least take the time to play with
it, I think you'll be quite impressed with all it has to offer. Yes,
some of its design choices where not exactly the best and I think they tried
a bit too hard to capture the interest of Ipod lovers. However, in the
end, the Vision:M is one quality player that is actually better than the
Ipod in a number of areas. We begin with the screen. The
Vision:M has what I think is the most impressive screen featured on any
product of its kind. Yes, this includes the new Microsoft Zune.
If you have the chance to play with one, I think you'll agree. Most
importantly though, Creative doesn't pack this player with a number of
features that are completely worthless. Instead, they seem to focus
primarily on one thing...that's playback. Their on-the-fly playlist
support is among the very best on the market and its sound quality and file
support is about as good as it gets. Add an FM Tuner with recording
capabilities and exceptional support for Windows Media Player, and you have
yourself a product that will meet the needs of many. Also, I would
like to emphasize that its GUI is among the very best and designed to help
you browse a large collection of files with ease. Finally, I would
like to emphasize on support of the product. I've owned countless
products from them over the years and they are one of the best in this area.
They release firmware updates regularly and sometimes quickly when there is
something that needed to be improved. Own a Creative player, and
expect a high level of long-term support.
Finally, we end with a couple of products from
Cowon Audio.
The X5 comes in many varieties, offering higher storage and battery life.
While certainly not perfect by any means, it is a player of choice among
many audiophiles. I owned the X5 for a short period of time up until
the Vision:M became available. The X5 is a player offering not only
impressive battery life, but also sports a fairly intuitive interface that
is both easy to use and loaded with features the Ipod still fails to offer
out of the box. In addition, it has some excellent recording
capabilities, allowing you to not only do some voice recordings, but also
record from radio and a line-in source as well. The only thing that
holds this product back is the lack of more user-friendly controls.
Slap some touch sensitive controls on this player and get rid of the moving
parts that are prone to malfunction, and you have yourself an excellent player
that should last you for quite some time.
One of their most recent players is the iAudio
6 (reviewed here). Its size may confuse
many as to thinking it is a flash player. However, the iAudio 6 is the
quite innovative in the sense that it is the first player to sport an ultra
small 0.85" hard drive. What does this mean to the consumer?
Well, it offers a higher capacity without the higher cost. That's not
all this player has to offer though. Its design and features are
impressive and it is much more functional than almost any Ipod. You
have a built-in FM tuner, lyric support and a touch based interface that is
easy to navigate. On top of that, this ultra small player has
excellent recording capabilities, not only allowing you to do voice
recordings, but also allow you to record from radio and any line-in source.
The player also has a USB host function that will allow you to direct
connect a majority of digital cameras for picture transfers. It was a
bit flakey during testing, but it did work and is another feature
nonetheless. Finally, its file support is exceptional. It
supports WAV, MP3, OGG, FLAC and ASF formats. For those who are not
fans of the MP3 format, this is one of the few players offering this kind of
flexibility and higher support.
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