With many phones doubling up as a PMP these days, the overall market for Personal Media Players is on a decline. However, if you're looking for a PMP this Diwali, your search ends here.
 

Budget (Less Than Rs 5000)

The Budget category can be differentiated into two types of PMPs: audio-only players, and those that offer video playback as well.

Audio-Only Players

Sandisk Sansa Clip+
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 3050 (eBay.in)

The Sansa Clip+ offers just one thing: good audio playback. It supports a majority of the audio formats and provides up to 15 hours of audio playback. It also provides a microSD card slot for increasing the device's storage capacity. Lastly, it is also equipped with an FM tuner and voice recorder.

Philips GoGear Mix
MRP: Rs 2000
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 1700 (Flipkart.com)

The GoGear series of PMPs from Philips is quite old. Among them, the Philips GoGear Mix offers a good price-to-quality ratio. Its sleek and lightweight design ensures that it is something you won't mind always carrying around. The audio quality is decent and is fairly loud at its maximum setting. If you are the kind of person who likes to break a sweat every morning, this is a good accessory for those long walks.

Audio And Video Players

Zebronics Zebmate Cinema 4.3
MRP: Rs 6800
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 4250 (Flipkart.com)

Featuring a 4.3" touchscreen, the Zebronics Zebmate Cinema 4.3 has 8 GB of storage with room for more expansion through a microSD card slot. Packed with features including a TV-Out, it is among the best PMPs out there simply due to the amazing price-to-features ratio. For starters, it can play 720p HD video in any file format you throw at it, that too with support for subtitles. It is very lightweight, making it easy to carry around wherever you go. It also has a younger cousin called the Zebmate Cinema 3.0+, which is slightly cheaper and has more or less similar features. You can read our complete review of the Cinema 4.3 to know more.

Mid-Range (Less Than Rs 10,000)

In the mid-range segment, you would want to receive great audio and video playback, with a decently-sized screen.

Sandisk Sansa Fuze+
MRP: Rs 7300
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 5400 (Flipkart.com)

The Sandisk Sansa Fuze+ offers great audio quality for its price range, and supports a wide variety of file formats for audio playback. Featuring a 2.4" screen with pixel dimensions of 320x240, it does support video playback too, although at such a small screen size, the feature is useless for all practical purposes. It is available in capacities of 4 GB to 16 GB, and can be expanded further with the use of a microSD card.

Cowon J3
MRP: Rs 11,000
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 9000 (Flipkart.com)

The Cowon J3 features a 3.3" widescreen capacitive touchscreen display, offering good video playback with support for the DivX and XviD codecs. Strong points include its large battery life providing up to 64 hours of audio and 11 hours of video playback, along with decent audio quality and plenty of options for audio customisation. It also has a microSD card slot and support for Bluetooth headsets. Read our in-depth review of the Cowon J3 to know more.

High-End (More Than Rs 20,000)

In the high-end section, you would want to have your PMPs deliver the most bang for your buck, since it directly competes with mid-range smartphones. It is expected that your device will have great audio and video playback, including support for third-party applications. It's no surprise then, that the recommendations for this category feature two of the leading mobile operating systems.


Apple iPod touch
MRP: Rs 15,400
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 15,400 (Flipkart.com)

As expected, Apple's iPod touch is the number one choice here. Falling just short of a full-fledged mobile phone, it has all the features you can expect from a PMP, and then some. With its huge App Store and the new iOS 5 features, it will always keep you entertained and occupied. Read our in-depth review here.

Cowon D3 Plenue
MRP: Rs 18,500
Street Price (As On 24-Oct-2011): Rs 16,350 (Flipkart.com)

The Cowon D3 sports a 3.7" AMOLED capacitive display with pixel dimensions of 800x480, and running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread). It can play Full HD video and offers decent sound quality, with support for a wide variety of formats. With the D3 Plenue, you can also make VOIP calls over Wi-Fi. The storage capacity of the device can be expanded with the use of its microSD card slot. Lastly, it also has an HDMI port for viewing content on larger screens.

Tags : Guides, Media Players, COWON, Philips, GoGear, Apple, iPod, SanDisk, Zebronics, Rizwan