The portable music player has been in constant evolution.  Contrary to other products, they are rapidly evolving with time and gaining in capabilities.  We no longer have the simple digital player which replaced the CD player, which in its own right replaced the Walkman, and there is now the portable multimedia device capable of reading many protected and unprotected audio formats.  This pocket sized product is also a means of buying new music thanks to its software or partnerships with music distributers.  The video screen allows us to watch music videos and podcasts and therefore serves as a vector of information, instruction, and fun.

To provide this additional capability, the average memory capacity has been considerably increased.  Video still consumes much more memory than audio and 4 GB is becoming the standard.

Of course, this current market doesn’t make the consumer’s choice any easier and in stores we may find ourselves wondering what device is best suited for what type of use.  Some are more destined for video and aren’t too practical for audio while other miniaturized models aren’t capable of satisfactorily displaying video.

We therefore decided to update our survey of portable music players with emphasis on the best use of each product.  Some can be very mediocre in one characteristic but can be very strong in another area.

The most obvious example is Apple’s iPod Shuffle. A player equipped with 1 GB of memory and without a screen can quickly become a nightmare when looking for that one particular song.  Other products definitely can do so much better, however, there aren’t too many competitors others that have the Shuffle’s subtlety.  We still will use the same notation system, but special attention will be given to what type of use the player is most suited for.
This is an on-going survey and as usual we will continually add tests, for example, the Shuffle’s  competitor, the Zen Stone Plus. In this way, you will be able to compare like products as the market develops more.