Labs

MP3 players

When it comes to MP3 players, it is far too easy to make a buying decision based on looks alone. And it is easy to see why, too: the classy design of the iPod mini can push objectivity out of the window. While style certainly forms part of our conclusion, we have added some extra star ratings this month to more accurately reflect the MP3-player world. We now have Ergonomics & Design, Battery Life, Compatibility, Features, Value and Overall. Here's how we calculate each rating.

Ergonomics & Design

This is the most subjective rating. We pass the players among the team and find out which are the easiest to use. Looking nice is all well and good, but if it takes two hands to operate a player, or the navigation buttons are a pain, or if you cannot follow the menu structure, then scores will drop. A big and chunky player is less desirable than a svelte equivalent too.

Battery Life

For flash-based players, we set Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody at a moderate volume repeatedly until the battery dies. With hard disk players it is necessary to keep the hard disk active, as it would be in the real world - otherwise, a song could just be played from onboard flash memory. Consequently, we get each hard disk player to play a 200MB selection of songs until the battery runs out. Just note that battery life will be less if you are regularly skipping between tracks or speeding through songs.

Compatibility

Compatibility is becoming a big problem. Many PC users are buying players such as iPods, only to find that they will not work with their WMA-based music library. They then have to convert their whole collection. People are also buying encrypted tracks from online stores and finding their players will not play them. We give points for every format supported, but with an onus on WMA and encrypted WMA files, as these are the most common. Ogg Vorbis is also rewarded, while proprietary systems such as Apple's AAC and Sony's ATRAC lose out.

Features

If you look at the feature table, you will see a breakdown of each player's capabilities and accessories. We assign points for each feature depending on how important it is. We also assign points here for file-transfer speed. While this is not important enough for its own category, it is still useful. We transferred 37 tracks (exactly 200MB) using the main transfer method for that player. Flash and non-DRM hard disk players use UMS (USB Mass Storage) device transfer - drag and drop through Windows. iPods use iTunes and Napster uses, well, Napster. Otherwise, we use the excellent Windows Media Player because supplied applications are usually poor in comparison.

Value FOR MONEY

The value score is worked out by taking a weighted average of the players' totals in all the categories listed above, and then factoring in the price of the device. The Best Value award goes to the player with the highest score in this category.

Overall

This, very simply, is an average of all the other scores. We give a Labs Winner award to the one device that scores highest overall, with Recommended awards going to the closest runners-up.