The Horror of selecting a MP3 player

I went out to buy a MP3, with in mind to keep it simple because I all want is my music when I exercise. This went completely wrong when I visited Panthip plaza, Bangkok largest computer and technology mall, the selection was way to massive to make a selection within a day. They had Creative, iRiver, Sony Apple and maybe a few hundred brand name I never see before. And if this all was not enough, all brands had had several models, which of course where all better then the other brands....

I was considering a Creative Zen Stone, which is a 1GB player from a brand I actually know. I have some speakers and a audio card for one of my computers from them.

Suitably tough, although ironically quite lightweight, the Creative Stone may lack sophisticated menus, long battery life, video playback or anything resembling a swish finish. Indeed it may have fewer outstanding features than most no-name MP3 players I saw, yet sonically, it punches far above its price tag, sounding better than the Apple iPod Shuffle and iRiver rivals.

The Creative Zen Stone is also streets ahead of its competitors when it comes to simplicity of use. You drag and drop MP3 and WMA tracks into the memory and use the four-way controller to skip and adjust the volume. Repeat, shuffle and skip-folder commands are available and ... that's it.

The absence of a hold button is a major bad thing... Otherwise the Creative Stone was ready to rock, it's a terrific budget choice, if you forget the no-name offerings.

Okay the Apple iPod Shuffle, it wins on styling, brushed-metal front and jogger-friendly clip, the second incarnation of the Apple Shuffle trounces the competition in the style stakes.

The Apple iPod is lighter then the Creative Zen Stone, this is strictly for the beautiful people – it's so tiny, it would vanish into the folds of an obese person. The little iPod is so tiny that the body that there isn't even room for a USB port, so you're stuck with Apple's propriety dock for charging.

Transferring music from iTunes is simple and elegant, and there's useful Auto Shuffle feature if you can't be bothered selecting tunes. But when you're dealing with a piddling 1GB of storage, drag and drop is arguably a better bet. There's no screen, but the limited features are a cinch to use. Skip, play, and important, pause controls are on the front, with a shuffle/play-through switch on the side. At 12 hours, battery performance is, like sound quality, solid but not great.

After a light meal at the food-court, I decided that I would go for the Creative Zen Stone, great designed style does for me little when I'm exercising.