Flash-based Players

Flash-based audio players are what most people will buy to hop aboard the portable digital audio bandwagon. This is mainly because they cost less than their hard drive (HDD) based compatriots, are lighter and more portable.

Display
There may be an LCD color screen display or an OLED display. OLED displays consume less bat­tery power compared to regular LCD screens.

Playback
Today most players sup­port playback of MP3, WMA, WAV and ASF files. While MP3 and WMA support are bare minimum require­ments for players today, it is better to buy a player that supports more file formats. Though MP3 and WMA are more mainstream, other formats, such as OGG and AAC, are rapidly gaining acceptance. Though AAC is a proprietary codec, OGG is not, hence you should look for players that sup­port the OGG format at least.

Battery Type
Most of the players have internal Li-ion batteries. However, some of them may have room for AA batteries. Some other players do not contain any internal battery, and generally opt for an AAA battery solution.

While having an AA battery in the player does increase its weight, it generally provides more battery life when compared to the other types. On the other hand, players with AAA batteries generally look much sleeker and less bulkier.

Battery type is an important deciding factor, since internal bat­teries become weaker as time pass­es. In the long run, external battery solutions seem to be the better option.

Remember
Granted that not having a display does increase battery life, but managing or listening to songs on a player that lacks a display can be quite cumbersome. Nowadays, features such as text and image viewing are available on quite a few products. Also, features such as video is also entering Indian market.