Design used to follow function
Yeah I’m old enough to remember how exciting it was when anti-skip CD players came out…
It was so cool I’d run with my CD player in my backpack, but sometimes take it out to violently shake it just to see the glorious technological achievement at work.
People look at me weird when I tell them I have a dedicated MP3 player instead of using my phone.
No, I don’t want to run down my phone battery for music. Yes, I want a device I can leave sitting on the counter playing music that isn’t my phone I have to keep walking over to check.
That being said, SO many of the dedicated MP3 players out there are TRAAAAAAAAAAASH. My last one’s 3.5mm jack broke after a couple years. My new one’s SD card slot broke after 4 months. I guess the best method is just buying the cheapest one so when it breaks you don’t feel too bad about it. They’re all made by Asian companies that have no website or contact numbers or any kind of presence at all other than the Amazon page they’re selling their garbage on.
You might as well just buy a cheap Android phone to use as a music player. A number of the MP3 players out there are pretty much that anyways, except they actually delete the cellular modem.
The cheap phones are also more likely to have a 3.5mm jack and an SD card slot too.
Yeah I’ve considered that option. My last few MP3 players really have basically been phones. Touch screen. Android. 3.5mm and SD slot. Just without the cellular. It’s the cheapness that’s the problem. And that cheapness could still be an issue if I bought a cheap actual smartphone.
To be clear though, the last one I bought was $90-100. So not cheap cheap. I was eyeballing some that were as cheap as $50.
I use a Unihertz Jelly Star and I love it!
If it’s just the battery that’s the issue, put an inductive charger on the counter.
What do you have to keep walking over to check it?
Ugh, I bought one that rythmicaly squeaked when you used decent headphones.
My dedicated mp3 player is an old phone
Too lazy to check but do they make any portable music players that support opus and not just mp3?
My Nintendo DS (Moonshell) technically supports vorbis, but it struggles with its 4Mb of memory sometimes lol.
I have a belt now that works surprisingly well. Still stupid to run with a heavy phone but it works.
I had a nomad! it was… .aight…? like, it worked, and with the full size usb-A usb-stick form factor it was easy to load.
FiiO still makes a few reasonably sizes DAPs that could work for running.
I go on my little daily walks for my little mental health with a Fiio Echo Nano, works a treat and supports modern file formats and all
