So I have lost my old 2GB iPod nano and need to sort out another player. I kinda dislike iTunes and prefer good old Windows media player so I want to avoid another iPod. A new Sony MP3 player is around the £30-£35 mark, but I rekon I could get a half decent old mobile (Nokia Lumia maybe) second hand that will do the same job! Or an old Sony Xperia? Thoughts and suggestions please
IF you don't want anything expensive, you can buy 'fake' ipods on ebay. They come with small capacities but you can put a micro SD to bulk up the memory. Most of them are only £15 or so. If you're only looking for a throwaway to listen to every now and then it'll do. The sound isn't bad on these things either, I bought one a little while ago to cannibalise for parts.
Begs the question, what kind of mobile phone are you rocking at the moment, if its a smartphone why not just press that into dual service? I am a Sony Xperia aficionado, I just got an Xperia Z3 and am going to get rid of my old Z. The Walkman app on them is just ok, their are issues that make them inferior dedicated music players that are entirely acceptable once you accept that music playback is not the main function and are using the smartphone as intended. On the Z but not my Z3 yet, I have known music playback to drop, not often and only for an instant. I imagine this is due to the other processes running parallel and this has not occurred on my Z3 yet which is more powerful, you will not get a 2 year old Z for much less than £100, MP3 playback can be shoddy on low end smartphones, however if you were to switch everything else off who knows. The walkman app does a fair job of playback, but the music library management is fiddly and involves many sub menus or searches, the lack of dedicated playback and control buttons means navigating via touch screen can be a bit a of a chore. Sound quality I find is acceptable, lacks vibrance and punch, but perhaps I need to look at the levels. Out of the MP3 players I have used, I would rate the dedicated Sony Walkman MP3 players from about 5 years ago as having the very best sound quality I have ever come across, this is followed by the Ipod Classic and Touch, all were better music players but I do not carry 2 devices any more. I think the iphone sounds better too, I have not used a Windows phone.
My main phone is an iPhone 6+. But it is a works phone and I dont like the idea of taking out on bike rides and down the gym. If I had another phone that was on 02 I could pop the sim card in if ever required? like for long bike rides or camping, as if I break the iPhone i'm in trouble
Have you considered a secure arm band/ bike cradle/bum bag plus bluetooth headphones (I have Plantronics Backbeats), then the phone is relatively secure and the cable cannot tug it out. I have slid my phone off a tread mill dash that was inclining which was scary, I will try not to do that again but that was my own foolishness, definitely want to secure it somewhere in a bag or that stays flat. I have also left it under a rowing machine, but when I walked off the bluetooth headphones started to cut out which reminded me to go back for it, double win. Maybe a ruggedised case totally enclosed (perhaps they make one for divers?) if one exists plus the bluetooth is the way forward?
Stop going to the gym. Problem solved! Do you not have an old phone kicking around that you could use? if not I would look at getting a dedicated player for peanuts. http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9291803.htm#pdpFullProductInformation just for starters is £15 for a 4gb player. I am in no way endorsing said product though.
