Hard-drive based MP3 players

Round-up by: Chris Stevens

Last updated: 20 Sep 2005

So, you're in the market for a hard-drive MP3 player? Well, they might claim to be hard drives, but you're unlikely to catch any of them tearing themselves out of their Dixons packaging and rampaging about, smashing and terrifying the toasters in aisle three. There's a good reason for this: hard drives are actually mechanical devices that store your music on platters that spin at high speed -- like a really, really clever record player.

The revolution has already happened buster, and you're the last man standing -- while the literate hordes chill out to their personal music devices, you're out in the cold. Buy one of these before they all spot you and rip you limb from limb.

The advantage of a hard-drive player over a flash-based or microdrive-based player is the sheer number of songs you pack onto a fully fledged hard disk. The disadvantages of a hard-disk player are its increased weight and slightly increased susceptibility to shock damage during sports. Other features you might like to look for in your hard-drive based player are photo-viewing capabilities, voice recording and FM radio.