Bonkura
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Aug 29, 2003
- Posts
- 237
- Likes
- 10
I'm finding myself wanting a HDD mp3 player, as you all know lots of interesting things are happening in this department, but from what Ive seen its not that easy to choose between the currently avaiable (or shortly available) ones, Ive laid out my curent pro con list which ends in an inconclusive answer, I dont have any preference to the brands so Im going for the players themselves, I havent considered the philips as I dont know much about it yet
Anyone else think there are arguments to add? (Im sure lots disagree with my choices
)
These are in no particular order
Carrying case: iRiver+iPod
The iRiver case seems excellent, fully covering the player except for the holes for the connections, the only missing thing is the belt clip that the iPod case fetures, so iRiver case with iPod belt clip
Capacity/Price: Karma
Look & Feel: iRiver
Now this is a matter of taste, personally I like the rectangular shape of the iPod and iRiver better than the thick square that is the karma. the rectangular shaped players gives a better ergonomic feel for me, but this, again is a matter of taste and I have naturally not held the karma as its yet to be released
Codec support: Karma
Hands down, wish the others would get up to date on this as well
File transfer method: Karma / iPod
This is also a very subjective matter, as for me I prefer firewire since I have built in firewire ports on two of my pcs and for instance adding a bulky usb 2.0 card to a laptop seems a far inferior solution and also adding to the cost. In all fairness tho the karma should win as it has the ethernet port, and altho 2 pcs in this house has firewire and none has usb2, all 5 have ethernet, altho this is only available on the cradle
Remote: iRiver
Does the karma even have a remote(?) the iRiver one beats the iPod one hands down due to the lcd which makes it so much more handy
Battery life: Karma 40gb
Ive seen the Karma 40 rated at 20 hours, if this is a fact then thats really great, the 15 or so hours on the iRiver and Karma 15 are also quite acceptable tho, the iPod has one of its biggest weak points here imo
Features: iRiver
Radio, Recording and microphone to name a few, imo I think the ethernet port of the karma cradle is a really cool feature but overall this is iRivers bag
Connectivity: iRiver
Opical line out and in as well as analog line out on the player itself as opposed to on the cradle for the others, the quality of these and if they are "real" or not I dont know but at least they are there on the player whereas the others have only the analog on the cradle
Language support: iRiver (?)
Dont really know about the others, the iRiver doesnt seem to be missing anything Id want in that department tho
Apart from that, from what I can remember the only other argument weighing pro/con between the players for me is that fact that the iRiver doesnt have a cradle (yes, I like those handy cradles)
Anyone else think there are arguments to add? (Im sure lots disagree with my choices
These are in no particular order
Carrying case: iRiver+iPod
The iRiver case seems excellent, fully covering the player except for the holes for the connections, the only missing thing is the belt clip that the iPod case fetures, so iRiver case with iPod belt clip
Capacity/Price: Karma
Look & Feel: iRiver
Now this is a matter of taste, personally I like the rectangular shape of the iPod and iRiver better than the thick square that is the karma. the rectangular shaped players gives a better ergonomic feel for me, but this, again is a matter of taste and I have naturally not held the karma as its yet to be released
Codec support: Karma
Hands down, wish the others would get up to date on this as well
File transfer method: Karma / iPod
This is also a very subjective matter, as for me I prefer firewire since I have built in firewire ports on two of my pcs and for instance adding a bulky usb 2.0 card to a laptop seems a far inferior solution and also adding to the cost. In all fairness tho the karma should win as it has the ethernet port, and altho 2 pcs in this house has firewire and none has usb2, all 5 have ethernet, altho this is only available on the cradle
Remote: iRiver
Does the karma even have a remote(?) the iRiver one beats the iPod one hands down due to the lcd which makes it so much more handy
Battery life: Karma 40gb
Ive seen the Karma 40 rated at 20 hours, if this is a fact then thats really great, the 15 or so hours on the iRiver and Karma 15 are also quite acceptable tho, the iPod has one of its biggest weak points here imo
Features: iRiver
Radio, Recording and microphone to name a few, imo I think the ethernet port of the karma cradle is a really cool feature but overall this is iRivers bag
Connectivity: iRiver
Opical line out and in as well as analog line out on the player itself as opposed to on the cradle for the others, the quality of these and if they are "real" or not I dont know but at least they are there on the player whereas the others have only the analog on the cradle
Language support: iRiver (?)
Dont really know about the others, the iRiver doesnt seem to be missing anything Id want in that department tho
Apart from that, from what I can remember the only other argument weighing pro/con between the players for me is that fact that the iRiver doesnt have a cradle (yes, I like those handy cradles)
