MP3 / MP4 player or Smartphone?

[admin_exported]

I was all set to get an Archos 43 IT from Santa for music, surfing, casual gaming and media playback (in that order of importance) and then they seem to have made a real mess of it with the Froyo 2.2 update capping performance below that advertised and suffering terrible slowdowns and freezes. I'd still rather avoid Apple because I really quite dislike iTunes, I can't stick a card in the thing and it's all a bit too proprietary for me anyway - just a vague personal opinion and no reflection on anyone who likes Apple. The forthcoming Cowon 3D seems to be based on Windows 6.0 CE and I'd prefer Android. The Samsung Galaxy 50 isn't out yet but looks like a not so good iPod Touch and I don't want to cut off my nose to spite my face. Poor experience of Sony software in the past has put me off that brand (although SQ is great) plus no Android and not really suited to browsing or gaming.

That seems to limit the options pretty drastically and before I end up being dragged down the iPod Touch route kicking and screaming, I've started to wonder if I shouldn't consider a smartphone with a Micro SD card added. I actually use my existing mobile very little - a glorified alarm clock really - but never having owned a Smartphone (bit of a luddite where phones are concerned), I'm just a bit nervous of battery life which seems to be brutal in some cases.

So can anyone advise how often one would need to recharge, let's say an HTC or Samsung something-or-other smartphone, if playing music, a bit of casual gaming and surfing wirelessly at home for a few hours in the evening (with I guess as many as possible of the snazzy smartphone functions turned 'off')? I would really appreciate the advice of Smartphone owners before making a potentially expensive mistake...

Oh, and would anything less than an 800MHz processor slow it down intolerably or would that be OK for my purposes, as that seems to be one of the possible trade-offs for better battery life...

Finally, what is SQ like on a Smartphone compared to a 'proper' MP3 player?

Or should I just bite the bullet and apologise to Mr Jobs by buying an iPod Touch?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lee H]

I have a HTC Desire. It replaced my iPhone 3GS and I also have a BlackBerry Torch (yes, a phone geek). The Desire does need to be charged every night but I have every update under the sun turned on. The beauty of Android is of you don't like the stock player you simply download a new one. I find the quality to be as good if not better than my iPhone, I can expand it up to 32GB through Micro SD too. I have it set up on a Bluetooth car kit so I can play my tunes in the car. Chuck in the Spotify app and I'm all set!

In terms of player, there's the old favourite available on it; Winamp and RealPlayer along with some really very good others that can add in Flac support.

In short, I've ditched my standalone player and do it all through my phone

 

[The_Lhc]

Lee H:
I have a HTC Desire. It replaced my iPhone 3GS and I also have a BlackBerry Torch (yes, a phone geek). The Desire does need to be charged every night but I have every update under the sun turned on. The beauty of Android is of you don't like the stock player you simply download a new one. I find the quality to be as good if not better than my iPhone, I can expand it up to 32GB through Micro SD too. I have it set up on a Bluetooth car kit so I can play my tunes in the car. Chuck in the Spotify app and I'm all set!
In terms of player, there's the old favourite available on it; Winamp and RealPlayer along with some really very good others that can add in Flac support.

I downloaded the PowerAmp app (note, I don't believe this has anything to do with dbPowerAmp) for my Desire, that provides flac support and, given the limitations of the supplied headphones, seems to sound reasonable (I've never tried a decent set of headphones, so I really couldn't pass any proper judgement on the audio quality I'm afraid). Doesn't go loud enough for my liking but I think that's pretty standard with EU restrictions these days.

My phone gets a 4 hour charge every day as that's how long I spend in the car, I have every update turned OFF but doing anything that uses Wi-Fi and so forth can drain the battery pretty quick. I've no idea how long it would last listening to music though, I don't do a lot of that really.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Lee - the one I was contemplating was maybe the HTC Wildfire as the Desire is a bit too rich for my blood! Really appreciate your input.

Edit - just seen lhc's post (and apologies again, sir, for this morning which snowballed beyond the point of reasonableness) so maybe I should think about pushing the boat out for the Desire. If you pay monthly it doesn't really count does it?!

 

[Lee H]

I have poweramp too. Plugged it in to a set of B&W P5s in John Lewis over the weekend and it sounded very good.

Honestly, try and get the Desire over the Wildfire. There's some pretty good deals out there at the moment and it is a substantially better phone.

 

[Anonymous]

Another nod for the HTC Desire. It does need charging every day, but there are some great music players available (I use Double Twist) and it sounds decent enough. The internet browsing experience is great, and supports Flash which comes in handy. I also use it for video playback and you can usually get 6 hours of video out of it.

If you turn off all the stuff that auto syncs then you can probably get much longer out of it than I do. I find the biggest drains on battery to be GPS and 3G/HSDPA data usage.

EDIT: My girlfriend has a cheaper Android phone, and despite the guy in the shop saying that it was as good as the Desire because on paper the specification was similar, I knew it wouldn't be as good. To be fair, it's less than a third of the price of the Desire, and for the price I think it's a cracking phone, but the Desire is much nicer and better to use. If you can stretch to it something like the Desire is worth it.