Top 5 MP3 Players of 2009

It’s that time of year when we lay out our top picks for the year. 2009 was the year of the touch player- consumers demanded them and manufactures responded. If you notice that this year’s list resembles last years and that’s because many of the manufacture’s this year made some awesome incremental improvements in their current line of players. Without spoiling anything else, read on for this year’s top 5 list.

#5: Sony Walkman X-1000

The Sony would have been higher on the list, but the cost of the player is at the highest end of the spectrum of any MP3 player. The 16GB version debuted at $300 and the 32GB at $400 about $100 more than its competition! Its price has dropped 20-30% as of Christmas ‘09 but still remains at the top in terms of price.

Even though I think the price is a bit high you are getting a lot of player for that price with features like a web browser, Youtube app, and internet streaming though Slacker Radio. The feature set is something that rivals Microsoft’s Zune- in fact we might call the Sony X Series a more open Zune not being tied to one piece of software.

Build quality top notch and similar to Sony’s A series of Walkman’s with a beautiful OLED screen. The textured side paint job and metal skeleton give the player a substantial rock like feel, grounding it steadfast in your hand.

The user interface makes the player very approachable and easy to dive right into your music collection. The touch screen sensitivity is one of the best I have seen on any device with the Zune being the only other this ultra-responsiveness class.

The feature that I think hurt this player was the built in noise cancellation. While it did work well, not many people cared to have that feature and it ultimately drove up the cost of the player. Really, price is what the X-series centers around. It is one of the best players, but is the worst in terms of bang for the buck.

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