Far from being dinosaurs, hard drive MP3 players are perfect for both budding Glenn A. Bakers and those with a penchant for viewing videos on the go. We pick the best.
Thanks to rise of cheap flash memory, hard-disk players have gone from ruling the world of MP3 players to being an endangered species. Like the dinosaurs they may well become extinct in the near future. Right now, though, hard-disks still have their place in the MP3 player eco-system: they can hold more and for much less than flash memory. That means they're perfect for those who have music collections vast enough to fill Lake Eyre. They're also perfect for personal video players (PVP), as movies consume considerably more space than music.
Yes, it's pricier than the other players we've selected here but with its stunning 4.3-inch, 800 x 430 screen the Archos 605 is, in our opinion, the ultimate PVP at the moment. Although there's a 4GB flash version, we'd stick with the pricier hard-disk models, available in 30GB, 80GB and 160GB flavours.
The Creative Zen Vision:W is not the slimmest device around but with its 4.3-inch widescreen and built-in CompactFlash slot, it doubles not only as a MP3 or video player for daily use but also as a photo storage device when travelling. Although it's not in same league as the others here we've given a guernsey to the sixth-gen iPod, or Classic in marketing speak. Its bugs, lack of widescreen and paucity of features are comfortably offset by sheer value per gigabyte.
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