Judging from the way mobile phones are fast becoming all-in-one multimedia devices, is there any reason to buy a standalone MP3 player these days
In case you haven't noticed, music phones have gotten better in recent times.
All major mobile phone manufacturers have models with dedicated music playback features, some with dock connectors and a whole range of audio accessories too.
With this in mind, is there any point in buying a standalone MP3 player?
The short answer is yes – simply because there are many pros and cons to having a music phone. We have brought together four very different music players in this group test.
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The iPod nano is still the best-selling MP3 player on the planet (according to Apple, at least) and is arguably the best-designed too. However, the Sansa promises to put up a pretty good fight.
And in the blue corner, we have the Sony Ericsson W300i and the Nokia N91 8GB. Both are music phones, but with very different approaches.
While the N91 is Nokia's top-of-the-line music phone (with a whopping 8GB hard disk and dedicated playback buttons), the W300i is Sony Ericsson's entry-level Walkman phone.
Also bear in mind that, while we are aware that the N91 and W300i have plenty of other features compared to the iPod and Sansa (they're phones, after all), the purpose of this article is to gauge their capabilities as a portable music player.
Similarly, we are aware that there are a ton of accessories for the iPod as well, and that the Sansa e250 has lots of additional built-in functions such as voice recorder, video player and FM radio but we will ignore these features as well.
With the introductions out of the way, let's see how the music phones stack up against the dedicated players.
Test 1: In your pockets
The main advantage of having a music phone is that you don't have to carry a separate MP3 player in your pocket.
This is a rather important point: While many people walk around without an MP3 player, how many people do you know who'd leave home without their mobile phone? Exactly.
We start with the Nokia N91, which is the size of a small house. It's about as big as a typical smartphone (113.1 x 55.2 x 22mm) and weighs about as much (164g), which means that it'll swing around in your pockets as you walk and will bring your trousers down to your ankles if you jump. It's big and you'll always be aware that it's in your pockets.
And thanks to its fragile 8GB hard disk, which parks itself at the slightest hint of danger (i.e. shock, vibrations, sudden movement, etc), you probably wouldn't take it for a jog either.
In contrast, the Sony Ericsson W300i feels half as big. It's smaller, lighter (94g) and will take quite a lot of beating. Its matte surface isn't easily scratched either and you don't have to worry about accidentally pressing keys (its Walkman-specific buttons are well designed and are hard to press by accident).
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The iPod nano is literally wafer-thin, and weighs just 40g, which makes it all but invisible in your pockets. Strap one to your biceps during exercise (with an optional arm-band) and you won't even know it's there. So yes, you can put it in the same pocket as your mobile phone, and it wouldn't add much more bulk or bulge to your trousers.
The nano's anodised aluminium skin is a lot tougher than its predecessor too (the original, scratch-prone, first-generation nano) and is quite resistant to knocks and scratches.
But if you're paranoid, you can simply slip it into one of the hundred-or-so third-party iPod protective skins.
And lastly, we have the Sansa e250. Though it looks about the same size as the nano, it's actually almost twice as heavy (74.8g) and more than twice as thick. It's still very portable, though, and is still smaller than most mobile phones.
Conclusion
Although music phones negate the need for having a separate MP3 player, they are significantly bigger and may not be as robust (especially if you're playing sports).
But for most other situations, a music phone should do just fine.
A big part of the portable music experience involves getting your music out of your computer and into your player.
Now, this wouldn't be a problem if you've only got a small number of songs. But what if you've got over a thousand songs? How about playlists? What if they're encoded in a particular audio format? Can I fit all my music into it?
This is where integration between the player and the software on your PC comes into play and can either enhance your experience or make your life a little more miserable.
In this test, we transferred 42 MP3 files (for a total of 224MB in size) from a PC into each of the players and timed them.
Nokia N91
Starting with the phones again, there are two ways to copy music into Nokia N91 – by manually copying files into its hard disk or by synching it with Windows Media Player 10 (WMP) or newer.
The main advantage of synching with WMP is that it automatically manages the songs on the N91, updating it if new songs are added to the music library on your PC.
The N91 also recognises and imports playlists, which is good. However, I couldn't get the N91 to import album art. And since it supports all popular audio codecs, you can be assured that the N91 will play all of your digital music.
In the file-transfer test, the N91 got the job done in 5min 10s. This equates to about 0.72MBps, which is slow but acceptable. In any case, its 8GB of hard disk space is enough for roughly 6,000 songs, which is plenty. Overall, a good performance from the N91.
Sony Ericsson W300i
This phone doesn't fully synch with any media player, though players like WMP can sync with files on its Memory Stick Micro (M2) card. However, you might as well just copy files manually in Windows Explorer since the W300i doesn't import playlists or album art.
The bundled Disc2Phone software is extremely limited and doesn't offer any added functionality either.
Worse still, the W300i is the slowest at file-transfers – taking 17m 45s to copy the 224MB of music (roughly 0.21MBps).
The phone came bundled with a 256MB memory card, which really isn't enough for a decent library of music. The biggest M2 cards are just 2GB at the moment, which isn't a lot. Plus, you need to open the W300i's back panel to access the M2 slot, which is a little inconvenient.
Overall, a poor showing from the W300i in the synching department.
For your information, we also tried the same test on a higher-end Sony Ericsson K618i, which was twice as fast (0.44MBps) but still somewhat slow.
iPod nano
Moving on to the MP3 players, the iPod nano impresses by offering extremely tight integration with Apple's iTunes 7 media player.
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I'M SYNCHING: The iPod nano integrates perfectly with iTunes 7 for synching your music, playlists and more. But if you're planning to use other synching software, you're out of luck. |
And it's fast too – it only 50 seconds to transfer our list of 42 songs. This equates to a transfer rate of 4.48MBps, which is incredibly fast compared to the music phones. In theory, it'll only take 26 minutes to fill the nano to capacity (8GB), which is mighty impressive.
If there's one problem with the iPod nano, it's that it only works with iTunes 7. If you'd rather transfer files manually or synch with a different media player, you're out of luck. Other than that, it's a fantastic showing from the little iPod.
Sansa E250
The Sansa is very similar to the N91 in that it lets you choose to either sync with WMP (with playlist support) or manually copy files to it. Like the N91, the Sansa also has an issue with album art, although there is a workaround (by manually editing your file's ID3 tags).
The Sansa transfers 224MB of songs in 2 minutes 10s or 1.72MBps. While not as fast as the iPod, it's still very much faster than either of the phones.
And although the player's 2GB of memory seems rather small, it has an easily accessible Micro SD slot for expansion.
The biggest Micro SD cards at the moment are 2GB, and they are convenient way to add more mileage to the Sansa. Overall, a very good showing from Sandisk.
Conclusion
As far as synching is concerned, it looks like the music phones still have some ways to go. While the N91 makes a very strong case for itself, it's still far slower than the dedicated MP3 players at transferring songs.
The N91 also seems a little outdated compared to the iPod nano – even though both have the same capacity (8GB), the N91 requires a bulky, slow hard disk while the nano manages with faster and more compact Flash memory.
Meanwhile, the W300i is very much a budget music phone. If you're serious about music (and impatient), you should invest in a separate card reader and M2 to Memory Stick adaptor for transferring your tunes.
When talking about ease of use, there are plenty of things to take into account – the layout of the players' buttons, the design of their onscreen menus, battery life and more. Get all of these things right, and it should be easier to live with.
Nokia N91
In terms of design, the N91 gets a lot right. It has big, dedicated playback buttons on its facia and remote control (on the hands-free attachment), a dedicated shortcut button that brings you to the currently playing song and a well-designed onscreen menu.
You can even edit or create playlists and search for your tunes via text input. The combination of joystick navigation with software buttons makes it all very easy to use.
But unfortunately, the N91 is slow. Very slow. It's very much like any other Symbian / Series 60 mobile phone, with a perceptible delay between key presses and onscreen activity. If you don't like such delays, the N91 will drive you insane. Otherwise, it's good.
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NON-PROPRIETARY: For a music phone, the N91 is a champion of industry standards. It uses a regular 3.5in headphone jack for music and a regular mini-USB port for synching data with a PC. |
Sony Ericsson W300i
The W300i is a pretty well-designed music player too, with menus and options which put many dedicated MP3 players to shame.
Its menu has a similar, easy to understand layout to the iPod's and feels equally snappy. It makes good use of the W300i's direction keys and software buttons too, with very good visual connection between the button mappings and their respective functions.
The dedicated buttons on the side of the phone are well positioned and allow you to pause, skip tracks and adjust the volume while the clamshell is shut. The W300i even displays track information on its small external LCD, which is a neat touch.
My only pet peeve is that you can't listen to music while charging the phone, since both the charger and headphones use the dock connector. Sony Ericsson is coming up with a charging dock that'll solve this problem soon.
Overall, a very good effort by Sony Ericsson and probably the best example of how to integrate music functionality into a phone.
iPod nano
The nano still has the best-designed interface and menus, thanks to its consistent column view and software button mappings, which makes it very easy to navigate.
The iPod's patented Click Wheel is still unique in the market and is probably the best control system for menu navigation. However, I find it's a bit hard to make fine adjustments on it since there's no tactile feedback.
If you have a huge number of songs on any other player, I doubt you'd be able to go through them as quickly as you would with the iPod.
Other nifty features include the ability to make on-the-go playlists and to perform text-based searches on your music library.
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Sansa e250
In comparison to the others, the Sansa e250 seems a little crude. Although functionally equivalent (i.e. with the same music browsing and sorting functions), the problem is how the Sansa maps its buttons.
It has a big rotating thumbwheel on its facia with a big "OK" button in the middle and four playback / option buttons on the outside (which are a little hard to press). There's also a menu button offset to the side and within easy reach of the user's thumb.
However, the Sansa doesn't map its buttons the same way as the iPod. Here, the menu button isn't a "Back" button. Instead, it always brings you the top-level menu. So if you're browsing through songs, you'll have to use the four hard-to-press playback / option buttons instead. But once you've selected a song to play, these four buttons change their context (i.e. from forward/back buttons to playback buttons).
While not a big problem, this does make the Sansa a little cumbersome to use. There are several other user interface niggles here and there, though they're probably not worth mentioning.
Battery Life
As far as battery life is concerned, both the Sansa and iPod will play music continuously for at least 20 hours on a single charge, which is enough for most people.
It's a bit harder to gauge the lifespan of the phones, though – due to their purpose. Phone calls drain their batteries, as does network connections (such as Bluetooth or 3G) and surfing the Internet. Plus, Neither Nokia nor Sony Ericsson published battery life figures for either of these phones.
In our own tests, the N91 managed about five hours of playback with only a minor dip in battery life (about one bar), though it doesn't specify the exact remaining battery life.
In a similar test, the W300i's battery went down by 35% (which means you should get less than 15 hours of playback per charge, if the battery discharges linearly).
Conclusion
Although the iPod nano is still the easiest-to-use music player on the market, the W300i comes pretty close in terms of usability. The N91 is good too, though it is bogged down by a sluggish user interface. And once you understand how the Sansa's menus work, it should be easier to live with.
The problem with audio quality is that it's an entirely subjective matter – while one listener may find a sound system superior to another, a second listener may not notice any difference at all.
So before I begin, I should mention that all of these players offer very good sound quality. But if you're very fussy, you may find some of them better than the others.
To test the audio quality, we first evaluated each player with their bundled earphones. Then, we hooked each one to an affordable, but very decent pair of full-sized headphones.
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Nokia N91
The N91 in particular sounds rather fantastic, with very rich sounds and linear frequency response. Its built-in amplifier is quite powerful, and produces tunes with very good bass and mid-range.
The high notes are crisp and come without the ear-piercing quality found on most portable music players.
The N91's bundled earphones look cheap but are actually very good and complement the N91's audio qualities perfectly. And when I donned my full-sized headphones, the N91 had enough power to drive them properly and without any distortion.
Nokia didn't pull any punches with the N91. Acoustically, it's an excellent music player.
Sony Ericsson W300i
The W300i also put in a surprisingly good performance, though I believe this has a lot to do with its excellent in-ear earphones.
If you've never used one of these before, it's a rather strange experience – the rubber plugs on the earphones completely isolate outside noise (better than noise-cancelling headphones, in my opinion) and allow you to hear every nuance, every instrument in a song with utmost clarity.
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GREAT PLUGS: The W300i comes with in-ear earphones and sounds great. Neat little touches like song info on the external LCD and dedicated playback buttons allow you to use it even with the clamshell shut. |
However, the W300i doesn't have enough power to drive a big pair of headphones, which is a little disappointing. In any case, the W300i impresses me – Sony Ericsson surely knows a thing or two about audio.
iPod nano & Sansa e250
After such a good performance by the phones, I was a little disappointed by our MP3 players.
The main problem with the iPod and Sansa is that they're bundled with cheap earphones that don't provide enough bass and with ear-piercing treble. They're both very clear, mind you.
But once you don a pair of big headphones, both MP3 players start to show their true colours.
While not as powerful as the N91, the iPod nano's built-in amplifier is strong enough to drive a big pair of headphones and renders music with comparable levels of clarity, though its midrange and bass lacks the punch of the N91.
If you have an iPod, I highly recommend getting a new pair of headphones. It really does make a big difference.
In contrast, the Sansa actually suffers with big headphones – it's not powerful enough to drive them and actually displays a hint of distortion.
Its bass isn't particularly strong either – you can hear a bassline, but not necessarily feel it.
Conclusion
Surprise! Music phones are actually pretty good for listening to music, sometimes better than a dedicated MP3 player.
Picking a winner in this shoot-out is a tough choice. Given that all of these players have different sets of functions and features, each will appeal to a particular type of user.
If I had to choose a device based on the criteria in this group test, I'd pick either the iPod nano or the Nokia N91.
But real life isn't as simple, and some of us have practical needs that will determine our choices.
The Nokia N91 is perfect for those who want a fully-featured phone with excellent music quality. But it's big and is quite expensive too.
The Sony Ericsson W300i strikes a good balance between a phone and music player – doing both jobs admirably, though not class leading in either.
The iPod nano is the perfect music player: Small, light and robust. But that's all it does. If you're planning to surf the Internet, watch a movie or need voice recorder capabilities, you'll have to look elsewhere.
The Sansa e250 is a very good music player, which is a bit bigger than the nano but does have loads of other features like voice recording, an FM radio, video playback functionality and the option to expand its storage with Micro SD cards.
So there you have it. The facts are all here – now it's up to you to decide which to buy.
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