Already a design classic and one of the most sought after consumer products this decade, the iPod rules the world’s MP3 market.
But how long can Apple hold onto its crown now that its competitors are producing funky audio players that have music lovers drooling? We’ve rounded up the top five iPod alternatives.
Creative Zen Neeon
If the iPod’s white monochrome is just too dull for you, you’ll love Creative’s Zen Neeon. Similar in size and design to Apple’s creation, the front of the unit is classic piano-black with interchangeable neon backing lights, and a choice of ten luminous colours ranging from hot pink to traffic light orange for the rear. What’s more, there’re dozens of clip on back covers – zebra stripes, sunflowers and jelly beans to name a few – to choose from. The Zen Neeon has two units – 5 and 6GB, capable of storing 2,500 and 3,000 songs respectively. Equally as colourful and easier on the pocket is the Zen Micro, Creative’s answer to the Mini iPod (pictured top, left). Read more.
Philips Sports Audio Player
Going for a jog with your iPod is just asking for trouble. Enter Philip’s lightweight Sports Audio Player, complete with a shock absorber button, which means you can undergo even the most rigorous workout and ensure your hard disk remains intact. Disc-shaped, it comes in four sizes: 512MB, 1GB (both capable of holding up to 250 songs) 3GB and 6GB (both holding 1,500 songs). Comes complete with an arm strap and a talking stopwatch. Read more.
iriver N10
So confident are iriver of the style factor of their latest MP3 player that the kit comes complete with an earphone neck chain allowing users to wear the unit like a pendant. Just over 6cm in length and weighing only 24 grams, the N10 is silver and black striped and is available with either 128, 256 or 512 MB of memory. Another plus point is the 12 hours playback time on a full battery. Read more.
Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder (bottom left)
If your music collection doesn’t stretch to the 10,000 songs it would take to fill up this multimedia player, you can always capture up to 50 hours of video on the built in camcorder or snap up to 200,000 photos. You can also upload and view pictures and video from your PC. Compatible with Windows Media Player 10. Read more.
Sony MP3 Walkman (inset)
New for November 2005, this range (which includes a 20GB Walkman style unit and a 6GB cigarette lighter sized player) is one of the sexiest audio digital players available, and comes in three superb colours: violet, silver and pink. The 20GB unit can hold up to 13,000 songs, while the smaller stores around 4,000. Both have unique new functions including a time button, which randomly plays songs from a given year, and the artist button, which finds songs similar in genre to the one playing. Not only that, but the larger model’s 35 hour battery life blows the iPod’s out of the stratosphere. Read more.
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