Should I buy an MP3 player in 2019?

Modern man, having heard the word "MP3 player", first of all think about the mobile application. But there was a time when everyone knew that MP3 player is such a device with a tiny display and wired headphones, which is not capable of anything other than playing audio files.

Much has changed since then. Smartphones have discovered us access to a huge number of useful technologies. The alarmsand calendars, calculators and stopwathers went to the landfill. Travel guides, together with paper dictionaries, dust in attics. Uokman and Emptrishnikov also turned out to be among the things thrown on the side of life.

But wait, because stores continue to sell MP3 players. Is someone else interested in such an electronics format? It turns out yes. In this material we will look at the advantages and disadvantages of MP3 players and will try to answer the question - is it worth buying this gadget in 2019.

Brief History of MP3 Players

As a starting point, we take 2001 when Apple introduced the first iPod. Of course, portable audio players appeared much earlier, but the interest in such a format of music broke out with the release of an iPode.

At that time, the demand was used by cassette and CD players on finger batteries. These were the first truly portable musical devices, but many users complained about their weight and size: the players were heavy enough and were often not placed in his pockets (almost all had a clip for fastening on the belt). That is, portability was present, but the advantages she gave not so much. For example, to take such a player on a run or in the gym was not too convenient, although advertising often claimed the opposite. In addition, for storing music records - the most disks and cassettes - in the apartment had to organize a special place. And finger batteries quickly discharged.

In general, people waited from the technologies of something more perfect. And then Apple came up with iPod, and at the same time he opened the new chapter in the history of digital audio.

The peak of popularity of MP3 players fell at the beginning of zero. The usual physical media of music began to die out. Cassettes were separated from use. Those who at that time acquired a home computer often used the wheels only once - to transfer music from them to PC memory. In the future, tracks were launched from there or copied to an MP3 player. So a small audio player also took over the flash drive function.

But the time when MP3 players ruled the world, lastwhelled. It ended when smartphones came to the scene. "Emptrishniki" could not compete with the device, who was under the power of everything - play audio in headphones and without, showing video clips, twist the listening settings to the user and much, much more.

The attention of people switched to compact, but more functional gadgets, and the need for narrow-profile devices went to the decline. Today, MP3 players are most often interested in gicks, fastened in old technologies. However, to find an MP3 player on sale of great work will not be. The only question is whether it is worth spending money, gives out minute nostalgia? First, let's see what the advantages of this solution can be.

The advantages of MP3 players

MP3 players are oriented exclusively on playing music. It is here that the answer to the question is why they are not extinct.

is simpler = portable

Tell me how you use your smartphone for what tasks. We are confident that the two and three items do not limit themselves - there will be at least a dozen for at least a few more wishes for the future. The dependence here is this: the greater the functional you require, the more components of the manufacturer will have to be installed in the housing, and the physical size of the smartphone directly depends on it. But since each person has its own personal needs, companies have to look for compromises in which the hardware and program opportunities will arrange most users.

For example, to launch video and mobile games, the display must have a specific aspect ratio and the corresponding program options. Otherwise, the picture will look distorted or circumcised. This often happens when applications on monitors with non-standard diagonal: Some frame areas do not fit into the screen and, as it were, it turns out.

So that such problems arose as less as possible, the manufacturers of smartphones are forced to develop certain standards in their field and strictly observe them. On the one hand, such restrictions inhibit the development of mobile devices, but on the other allow you to achieve a balance, in which a wide range of buyers remains satisfied.

As for MP3 players, everything is much easier with them, because they perform one-sole function, and they do not need an excess filling. MP3 player itself occupies about the same place as cristed headphones. Incredible compactness makes it an ideal choice for outdoor sports.

MP3 players have a good autonomy

MP3 players are equipped with relatively small batteries, but they last a long time. The small display is not too energy hungry, the load on it is scanty, so the main part of the energy is spent on playing music, and it is spent very economically.

On the other hand, every smartphone owner knows firsthand what a power bank is, and has learned the location of sockets at home and at work by heart. If you love music but don't have much battery life on your smartphone, a dedicated MP3 player can kill two birds with one stone: it will reduce the load on your mobile phone and provide you with long hours of musical enjoyment.

MP3 players have a built-in FM receiver

Local music gets boring quickly. If you are tired of skipping tracks one after another, you can switch to radio, where the music is more diverse, and its supply is almost inexhaustible. Of course, you can also listen to the radio on your smartphone, but this is fraught with increased consumption of traffic and money. And in a dedicated MP3 player, the FM radio feature is free.

And also an MP3 player…

• sounds better than a smartphone (of course, this is a specialized audio device);
• costs less than a smartphone;
• can save several gigabytes of memory in a smartphone;
​​
• can be brought into the territory where there is a ban on the use of devices with a camera;
• has physical buttons: operate without removing gloves or taking it out of your pocket.

But since there are so many pluses, why did MP3 players lose their former demand? Let's move on to the disadvantages.

Disadvantages of MP3 Players

People began to abandon dedicated audio players mainly for two reasons.

Having to fiddle around with another device

The all-in-one trend has gotten rid of unnecessary stuff. The wired telephone, wall clock and alarm clock have disappeared from the apartments, the shelves in the cabinets are no longer crammed with books. A smartphone allows you not only to stay in touch, but also to have fun, listen to music, watch movies and even work. If you use your smartphone to the maximum, you don’t need an extra device like an MP3 player.

Streaming services are music without borders

It takes a lot of time and effort to maintain a local audio collection: tracks need to be searched through a computer, downloaded and copied to the player’s memory, distributed over folders. On the other hand, Spotify, Pandora and other cutting services are doors to endless spaces of music of any directions. At your service anything: complete discographs of performers, selection of top tracks in genres and years, the ability to create own playlists and much more. In other words, the main work on the classification has already been done for you, it remains only to start the account and pay the subscription. But since streaming services require an Internet connection, they can only work on smartphones and tablets.

Conclusion

So, it's time to answer the main question: is it worth buying an MP3 player in 2019?

Short response - no. Nowadays, buy a dedicated portable player makes sense if you need:

• Hard save the mobile battery charge;
• Take a small light gadget for training.

In all other cases with the MP3 player function, the smartphone can easily cope. By the way, there are smartphones created specifically for music lovers. They have an audible hardware - a digital-analog converter ( DAC ) and an amplifier for high-resistant headphones, and support for Hayrez codecs is also implemented. Together, all these features provide sound of impeccable quality.