Prakaash Jumaani Asked me a Question –
Hi Amit, My wife is very fond of bollywood music and we have a collection of over 2000 cassettes (which incidentally I would like to auction and sell off) and 100 CDs, but it is too cumbersome to keep changing the sides/discs. This 20th Jan, on her birthday, I would like to gift her an I.Pod, wherein we can upload probably at least some 3000 songs. Which I.Pod is least troublesome, user-friendly, economical and has a very good life..? Can you please guide, since my knowledge on this is zero. My daughter too has been pestering me for a long time to get her one and probably your advise can help her too get one, if possible and affordable… She had even taken part in the Indian Idol and had cleared 4 rounds… Is it advisable to invest in a mobile with music feature…? My experience of the mobiles is that when they have too many features packed into one, they generally tend to hang up fast and do not deliver on the specific function, for which we got them in the first place…?
First of all you need to decide what you need ie a Music Player or a mobile phone with a Mp3 player feature. From the above said requirements you are looking in for buying a music player since that seems to be the main preferance. Next in case if you are looking for Mp3 players there are several products in the market based on your budgets and brands along with different features. If you are looking for listening to music and a low cost option you can go for cheap Mp3 players available in the market. Here are some options iam listing below which can give you a brief idea on what to buy for gifting it to your loved ones.
1Gb Mp3 Player – 550Rs/12USD – This player looks like a clone of Apple ipod shuffle and offers you with 1 Gb of storage space. It seems to be the cheapest Mp3 player available in the market with the most compact size. Comes with a total storage capacity of 240 P3, WMA and WAV format songs. The Battery life is around 2 hours which mainly depends on the volume. Can be connected through USB2.0 interface to your Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista and MAC OS 9.2. You need to connect this to your PC to charge it. Available on all major shopping sites like Indiatimes.com, in.com etc
Quantum 5030 1GB MP3 Player – 700Rs/15USD – Also called as the ipod shuffle clone offers you with the same features of what the above player offers but costs a bit higher at 700Rs/15USD. The product is from Quantum – qhmpl.com which is a compared which manufactures low cost pc web cams and related computer accessories. This Mp3 player is available in Black colour and weighs 20 grams. You can find this at ebay.in, in.com etc- Wespro 1GB MP3 Player – 1000Rs/20USD – This is another low cost Music
player which comes with a stylish look in a rectangular structure and offers multiple features like Fm Radio, Mp3, WMA, WAV, Digital Voice Recorder and lyrics display. You can connect this to your PC through the USB option and the display offers you to read the song name on the mini screen. One nice feature i liked in this player is the auto-power off after 5minutes which helps you save up your battery even though you go for a nap while the player is still ON. You dont need to carry your laptop for charging this player because it works on AAA Alkaline batteries which makes it completely independant. You can find this player at ebay.in & in.com - Philips 1Gb Mp3 Player 1900Rs/38USD – This smart mini
device offers you with a 27 hours non-stop music which means that the philips player has a high battery life and you dont need to charge up regularly. The player comes with a very small size which is somewhere around ipod shuffle’s size but offers you with a 3 lines text display on a 128 x 48 resolution LCD screen along with multiple equilizer’s like Funk, Hip Hop, Jazz, Rock, Classical, Techno. You can also record audio in WAV format directly or through the FM radio and save in the 1Gb NAND Flash based memory. You can also setup a keypad lock with a low battery indication option which is really helpful because you can know in advance when the battery is going to be totally exhausted. The device comes along with a USB cable to be connected to your pc for uploading around 225 songs. - Transcend T-Sonic 615 2GB MP3 Player 2200Rs/44USD – This is
another entry level MP3 player which comes with karaoke-style lyrics display and a advanced digital voice recorder. With the data transfer to the player done through the USB option. The Transcend T-Sonic Mp3 comes with a recordable FM Radio with 20 station presets and A-B Repeat function to continiously repeat tracks. This Mp3 comes with 7 Equalizer effects and offers you with 15 hours of continious music with a total weight of 28 grams. The best thing is the storage capacity which is around 2Gb at a very competitive price. You can get this player at rediff.com, ebay.in & in.com - Apple ipod shuffle 1Gb 2500INR/50USD –
This is the cheapest ipod available in the market which is a Apple product that comes along with a 12 hours of music playback and comes with a USB jack to connect to your PC to connect for charging or data transfer. You need to use iTunes in your PC to upload songs or remove them. The weight of this cute Mp3 player is just 15.6 grams and comes with different colours available at the apple.co.in online store or ebay.in , in.com and rediff.com
It completely depends on your personal choice on deciding the best Mp3 player from the above list because most of these are guaranteed products and you are recommended to research at big malls or online stores and then order one.
Tks for the prompt, competent and slick reply. However, per your data on Philips, 1 GB can store 225 songs, by mathematical calculation, 2 GB = 450 songs, whereas what I am looking at is 3000 songs… so I need something like 14 GB..? Do we add on a data card or go in for a higher configuration ?
@ Prakaash Jumaani : I missed out that point, if you are planning for that kind of storage space then each Mp3 player would range around 10000Rs which you can find at http://www.apple.co.in/store/ ie Apple ipod Nano or the main ipod 8/16Gb models. The above ones are for starters and are originally enough because after couple days of usage you are for sure going to get really bored with this stuff, hence investing money in a bigger Mp3 player would be waste of money in my opinion.
Wow cool ones for cheap prices.
I bought an iPod Nano for $170 and waiting for that to arrive, and now you posted this list.
But still, Nano has 8GB and some good features.
If you still didnt buy go for touch dude, you can access the web too and a wifi router is really cheap too.
I would suggest, go with ipod shuffle only. 😉
@Amit, he has already bought it and he’s coming on 31st. And touch costs $250 in that store, why to waste $80 just for the internet. Mac is enough for that.
Amit,
Your original posting was a very informative piece. But I would like to know whether the 1GB MP3 Player, the Quantum 5030 and the Wespro which you have reviewed are stereo players or mono. And also give your opinion about the sound quality of each of these. If you can suggest a good mobile phone which has stereo MP3 and costs less than Rs 3000 please do.
I have recently bought Quantum 1GB MP3 player. It really produces high quality sound with in built ear phones. Addition of Creative in ear phones, will surely boost up its sound quality. It’s an cheap & best sound quality MP3 player in the market. Looks like Apple i Pod Shuffle. Excellent…!!!
how many hours we have to charge QUANTUM 4 GB MP3 PLAYER . and how could we know that it is chareged and how many hours could we directly play it .thanku
The philips mp3 player looks the best and sleek, and although the price is at around 2k INR, it’s well reasonable for the design and the 1GB storage. The iPod shuffle by Apple is one of the best right now, but if one likes to increase their budgets, they should go check out the Microsoft Zune, one of the best.
Quite good list there, with the apple iPod alternatives listed out there.