I don’t know what to do. I’ve already got through three MP3 players at the gym, but all have either failed, or didn’t work. In short, my first one had a crappy battery compartment that gave out. The second one was an upgraded model, but couldn’t handle the same MP3 Podcasts my old one could for some reason, and finally, my most recent one simply would not stay connected via the USB cable; you had to hold in place in order for the connection to register. Plus to change volume, you first had to hit a button to enter “volume mode,” then toggle a switch from there --ugh.
So I’m a little miffed.
But the one thing all three had in common is that they were relatively cheap ($80 or under) and came with an armstrap, which is awesome for the gym. But now I don’t know what to do – I don’t want to go too cheap again, since those previous ones had problems, but I also don’t want to get too pricey, as I don’t want to get my sweat something worth a lot.
For my money, you really can´t beat the iPod Shuffle at the gym. Yes, admittedly, there are players from other manufacturers that can do more at the same price point. But the limited functionality of the Shuffle works for me in an exercise-type scenario. (And I have the old ¨stick of chewing gum¨ Shuffle, not the new ¨matchbook¨ size one!) If you´re not keen on iTunes (as I am not), there are alternative ways to load and interact with the Shuffle.
I am very happy with my SanDisk Sansa. I bought the 1GB version for $38 (price is down even further now), but I wish I’d gotten the 2GB version, which is still quite a bargain at $59. Both amazon and newegg have a lot of positive reviews, so I figured I was getting a decent player for a great bargain. Other than the included earbuds, which I have since replaced with a more comfortable set, I’ve had no problems with the device. It has a radio tuner and you can record voice. It has an equalizer and sounds pretty good with the right earbuds. The screen is easy to read with intuitive menus. The buttons look good, are responsive, and make sense.
It’s very small (about the size of a keyless entry fob) and very lightweight (so light I sometimes forget where I clipped it to myself because I can’t feel it). The clip is well designed and doesn’t feel as if it’s going to break or wear out and it holds tight even while bouncing around (probably also due to its minimal weight).
SanDisk seems to be a pretty reliable brand for compact data storage and I think they’ve done an excellent job here. I highly recommend it.
Thanks both for the responses. I was actually looking at the Shuffle, but unfortunately, I don’t think I could live with not being able to select my song (it would be a pain to find my podcasts), and the lack of the screen is a bit off-putting. Though it is tiny and sleep looking.
Brown Eyed Girl, the Sansa sounds pretty damn appealing. Couple questions for ya if you don’t mind: Is the volume control easy to use, and does it have a slider or is it buttons? Also, does it fast-forward through tracks pretty quickly (yeah, I know, a weird question, but some of my podcasts are 3-hours long
The volume control is a rocker on the right side of the device under the headphone port. It’s easy to manipulate without looking at it. Press the top part near your headphones jack (you can use the jack to direct your fingers to the button) for volume up and the bottom part for volume down. You will need to disengage the locking mechanism to adjust volume though if you’ve locked it out (one thing I wish was different.)
You lock the device by pushing the power slider (on the left side) down instead of up. It clicks when it’s locked and displays a lock on the screen. You can’t accidently turn the unit off though because you have to hold the power slider up for a second or two to shut off. It does also have a power saver that will turn off the unit if you’ve paused your music for 5-6 seconds and it remembers where you left off if you paused before powering down.
Other than the menu button on the front (and side buttons), the main controls are just like iPods. It looks cool backlit in blue and is just the right size for large or small fingers and has comfortable play. There’s a button in the center of the ring that acts like an ENTER button. It turns on the backlight on screen that goes off when you’re just listening and selects items while scrolling.
I don’t really have much experience with podcasts, so I’ve never fast forwarded through files, but I gave it a little test. Pushing down the forward button on the round rocker button on the front goes to the next file. Holding it down starts the FF through the file. The longer you hold it down, the faster it forwards. I don’t know exactly how fast, but it doesn’t seem very fast for short files. It took roughly 9 seconds to fast forward through a 5:30 minute song. It started out skipping 2 seconds per tick, but by the end I think it was skipping 3 or 4 seconds at a time. Not sure if that helps much.
One more thing that I thought was a brilliant design: having the port on the side, as opposed to the top, puts less stress on the headphone jack when it’s clipped to your belt. It doesn’t end up poking into your back and bending the wire too much. Who thought of that? So clever.
Okay, just bought the 2gig one for $25 off Amazon (after their $30 discount for opening a new credit card). Heck of a deal, given your praise and the reviews. Thanks again for pointing me toward it.
This is Sony’s walkman that I use when I go running/gymming. It’s hard-wearing, water resistant and easy to use. The only downside is Sony’s awful Sonicstage software, but there are drag and drop alternatives available.
It has a step counter which gives fairly accurate estimation of your workout, it’s only ever been 200-400m out on a 5-10k route.
Wow! Great! Let me know what you think of it. Only one more suggestion: when you decide to replace the earbuds (which you will, if you don’t already have some decent ones), stay away from this piece of crap. I should have known that sometimes the old adage “you get what you pay for” is still applicable.
I do believe you’re gonna love the new player, though.
