08.07.2008

Musical phones. This class of devices emerged relatively recently, and just a few years ago, few would have even imagined that a phone could be bought to listen to music. This very idea seemed ridiculous, because players existed, they, as a market segment, had a long history. And yet, today we are seeing a decline in sales of individual players and an increase in sales of music phones. What is this connected with?

I believe that with that simple fact, which is called the word “laziness”. The consumer (especially in the summer) is too lazy to carry two different devices for communication and music. They still need to be recharged separately, they take up space. It would be nice to combine the player and phone. In addition, technological progress in this area has already advanced so far that high-quality audio components can be integrated into the standard hardware of the phone. That is, in terms of sound level, the music phone will be practically indistinguishable from the player. This offers a truly unique opportunity to ditch the separate audio player and have just one music-centric phone.

However, not every phone can be called a music phone in the full sense of the word. Today, manufacturers sometimes call budget models with the simplest support for the MP3 format musical. This, strictly speaking, is not entirely legal. In fact, only a device that offers separate playback control keys and (or) a control panel included in the package can be called a music phone. Such devices are already present on the market, but 3 years ago few of the leading manufacturers believed that the segment of music phones as separate devices could be successful and generate significant income. Company Sony Ericsson was the first to decide on a bold experiment in this area. To increase the likelihood of success, she secured the right to use Sony's popular Walkman music brand in her phones. This was the right step - this brand already had almost 20 years of history, having emerged back in the days of the first cassette players, consumers associated it with a famous manufacturer and sound quality. Thus, Sony phones Ericsson a priori received an advantage - after all, they were promoted under such a powerful name. And the attempt to create a specialized music line from the Swedish-Japanese alliance was crowned with success, phones under the letter W offered capacious built-in memory arrays (or equally capacious memory cards included), an advanced software player with an abundance of settings and capabilities for sorting songs, many accessories, including quality headphones. At that time, the combination of these aspects was unique on the market; competitors simply did not have anything similar, even Nokia remained out of business. The Finnish giant underestimated the potential of its competitor's idea, which led to an unusual situation - Nokia found itself in a catching-up position. Meanwhile, the Walkman line of music phones gathered armies of their fans, offering the most advanced technologies and features of their time, combined with good sound. Sony Ericsson experimented with the form factors of its music models, releasing music phones in slider and monoblock cases, and even the W550 rotator appeared. This made it possible to reach lovers of all form factors, offering them a wide range.

Sony Ericsson has certainly achieved success with the launch of the Walkman line, but it would be naive to believe that competitors will remain on the sidelines of the music pie of the telephone market. Nobody stayed! Nokia was the first to respond. She previously had a certain Xpress Music brand, which was mentioned on the boxes of her smartphones, but this designation was essentially meaningless, since there were no significant differences from products with and without such a brand. It was necessary to form a clear line of truly music-oriented devices as a counterweight to the Swedish-Japanese alliance. The Finnish company was able to do this. She analyzed Sony Ericsson's strategy in the field of music phones and identified several miscalculations. What was it?

To begin with, Sony Ericsson apparently relied on the strength of the Walkman brand in the minds of the mass consumer and on the software implementation of its players. In the latter they were strong - their “software” solutions were superior to competitors in the ability to sort songs and the number of sound settings. Consumers liked the MegaBass feature and other gadgets for changing the sound. This all played into the hands of the company and created increasing popularity for their line of phones.

Meanwhile, from the very beginning, Sony Ericsson missed several important aspects. The most relevant of them are the unification of connectors and improvement of sound quality. It was these miscalculations that led to today's far from leading state of affairs in the Walkman line. And Nokia struck at these weak enemy positions. Its first “shot” was presented by the Nokia N91 model. It was a premium-class device with an unusual design, expensive case materials, the presence (for the first time!) of mini-USB and 3.5 mm ports on the case, a control panel included in the package, and most importantly - unprecedented sound quality at that time. Nokia put a lot of effort into the hardware implementation of the audio path of its flagship, and this led to the fact that the N91 was superior to almost all Walkman models in sound and convenience (after all, it had it and dedicated playback control buttons on the body), inferior only in one thing - price. Yes, the N91 was an expensive model, it was not a solution for everyone. However, the first step has been taken. Nokia has shown that it is able to do something that surpasses the competitor's products in terms of the sum of their characteristics. The only thing left to do is to beat the enemy in his price niche. To achieve this, the Xpress Music brand was essentially reorganized. It became the designation for a line of truly musical phones at the mid-price level. The first signs were models and. These were sliders with fairly budget parameters, but they had good sound and the same standard connectors. Then Nokia struck again. She combined her developments in sound and implementation of ergonomic music phone control with the power of the S60 platform. This is how music smartphones appeared. These are models, N81. They offered not only music, but also all the benefits of an open OS. It was a strong move. Sony Ericsson produced mainly phones, and its smartphones based on the UIQ interface turned out to be very controversial. They were clearly inferior to Nokia products. The matter was aggravated by the fact that the Swedish-Japanese alliance failed to qualitatively improve the sound of its models. While Nokia has made a significant leap in this area over the past couple of years, Sony Ericsson products have remained at the level of two years ago. Yes, the company has been improving and improving its Walkman series players, adding more and more new features. But the external, visual implementation could no longer compensate for the sound lag. The matter was worsened by the company's stubborn reluctance to get rid of the extremely inconvenient and, frankly speaking, archaic headset connector - the proprietary Fast Port. A simple example - a thin fashion phone W880 was released. It was good in design. But the large connector on the side was extremely inconvenient; it spoiled the perception of the device. Thus, today the Walkman line is an amazing combination of modern software functions (Sens Me for example) and extremely outdated hardware solutions. This causes a clear imbalance. Sony Ericsson doesn't offer any improvements. And the worst thing is that they are not yet in sight. The new flagship of the W980 line is equipped with the same old connector and does not have any dedicated audio processing hardware. What does this mean? Either the company is simply saving on the development and implementation of innovations, relying on the strength of the brand, or it is technically unable to implement all this. Meanwhile, competitors are moving away. Samsung and LG have joined the fight. Their new products are inferior to Finnish solutions, but superior to Walkman phones in sound. Motorola also came out with a new product. A strange situation has arisen - the founder of the music segment in the telephone market simply lagged behind the technology race and turned out to be an outsider. For some time, the strength of the brand will still keep the Sony Ericsson line afloat, but then (if nothing changes) the situation will change, and the word Walkman will become a simple set of sounds with nothing behind it. And it will be very sad!

Availability of a dedicated audio chip. Its presence indicates that the device is able to produce high-quality sound due to a separate audio processing solution. Today, phones from the Xpress Music series from Nokia and smartphones from the Finnish company (N81, N78, N91) can boast of such improved hardware. You can also add some phones from Samsung (F-series) here.

The presence of dedicated keys on the case for controlling playback and (or) a control panel included. So far only the Nokia phones(N81, N78). Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG have it worse.

The quality of the player implementation (that is, the number of settings, their implementation). The clear leaders here are Nokia and Sony Ericsson.

Availability of standard ports on the case. There is a nuance here. Many manufacturers equip their models with headsets with an adapter for a 3.5 mm jack. That is, formally, you can connect your headphones to such phones via an adapter. But it is worth remembering that any adapter affects the sound quality, introducing distortion. That is, it is preferable to have a 3.5 mm port directly on the body. Such models are offered mainly by Nokia, Samsung and Motorola. LG and Sony Ericsson are still lagging behind.

Availability and availability of accessories for sale. Sometimes music phone users want to buy something extra. It could be like portable speakers, as well as new headsets or something more exotic. Today the leaders in the music accessories market are Nokia company and Sony Ericsson.

Opening hours. This is an important parameter. It determines how long you can listen to music without the risk of draining the battery and being left without communication. Today, the leaders in optimizing energy consumption in their phones are Nokia and Sony Ericsson. Moreover, Nokia even came out ahead - its smartphones can play music for up to 20-24 hours.

Convenient loading of music into the device. This is also an important parameter. In particular, you need to find out whether it is possible to connect your phone to a computer in data transfer mode and copy music to it as if it were a flash drive, or whether you will have to use some proprietary software from the manufacturer. Copy speed is also important.

Availability of a slot for a memory card. Everything is simple here - I profess the principle “memory is never enough.” Even if you buy a music phone with a built-in 8 GB array, you may still encounter a lack of space. So it’s important to have a phone with a slot for a memory card; fortunately, current products support cards up to 8 and 16 GB. You can also have 2 or more memory cards with a set of different music and change them as needed. Plus, keep in mind that the speed of writing to a memory card via a card reader today is higher than via a cable directly to the phone’s memory.

These are, in principle, the main aspects that should be taken into account when choosing a truly high-quality musical device. Of course, there is an important note to make! Namely, you need to clearly decide - do you want to have a truly musical device for high-quality listening to music (and for you, music is the priority when assessing the functionality of the phone), or do you need a phone that will occasionally be used to play music? This is an important question and your requirements should depend on it. It is also worth considering your personal tastes - how demanding are you when it comes to sound, can you hear the difference between compositions of different quality? After all, there are people who do not care about the accuracy and detail of the sound picture. They shouldn’t choose top-end music products, because they still won’t feel the difference in sound. So it still comes down to your personal tastes and requirements. Because listening to music is a delicate matter, a matter of taste. And everything depends only on you.

Now let’s briefly look at the most relevant models today.

This is a thin and light monoblock, designed in a youth style, equipped with a 3.5 mm port on the body and a dedicated audio chip. The model is inexpensive (costs about 9,000 rubles), “summer” in some way due to its small dimensions and weight. I would recommend this product to connoisseurs of small and compact phones, as well as to young people - schoolchildren, for example. The device produces good sound when using high-quality headphones. It's a pleasure to use. So I recommend it.

This model will appear by September. Its main advantages are price and sound. It is an all-in-one PC with a fancy design that also comes with an audio chip and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It is capable of playing music for 20 hours, which is quite good. Considering its compact size, we get an inexpensive but successful product for music lovers. A direct competitor to inexpensive representatives of the Walkman line.

Another new product. This is already a smartphone based on the latest Symbian 9.3 OS. It is equipped with a powerful chipset with a 369 MHz core, supports all new services from Nokia like N-gage 2. It also has an audio chip and a 3.5 mm jack. The result is an excellent smartphone for young people with a pronounced musical bent.

Slider of the Xpress Music line (all of the above models also belong to it). It offers not only good music, but also a powerful 3-megapixel camera with autofocus. However, there is a minus - there is a 2.5 mm jack on the case, which forces you to use an adapter. However, the sound is still not bad. So this model is worth taking into account.

Music slider N-Series. Some people call it the successor to the legendary N91, but I wouldn't say so. Still, the 91st was a device with a better build, more expensive materials and even better sound. However, the 81st model is not without its merits. This is the presence of Wi-Fi, optimization due to dedicated gaming keys for the N-Gage 2 service, good sound and a mini-jack on the case. There are also disadvantages - a rather weak camera (2 Mpix without autofocus), mediocre assembly, easily soiled plastic, and a not very comfortable keyboard. So the device turned out to be imperfect, but it has already found its buyers.

Officially, this monoblock is not positioned as a music one, but its sound quality is at the level of the 81st model. It also has the advantage of a better build quality, bonuses in the form of a GPS module, a 3 Mpix camera with autofocus and running OS version 9.3. All this makes the N78 an interesting proposition. Don’t forget about the included control panel (it’s also included in the N81, by the way).

Inexpensive music slider. Suitable for undemanding users. There is nothing special about the model, plus there are traditional weaknesses of the software platform, such as the inability to install java in any way other than downloading from the Internet. But the sound in the model is not bad, it can be used for calls and music.

This is a more advanced model. The F400 is a two-way slider similar to the N95. You can slide the top half down and then get access to powerful speaker. There is a 3.5 mm jack and a proprietary Ice Power amplifier. All this results in good sound, which is comparable to Nokia products and clearly stronger than the sound in the Walkman line.

The company's most powerful musical offering, in my opinion. This is another two-sided slider, but also a smartphone! It is built on current hardware solution and based on Symbian 9.2. So we have a powerful and modern S60 smartphone focused on music. The sound in the i450 is really good, comparable to expensive players. Plus we have traditionally high-quality assembly (which is lacking in models from Nokia). So I highly recommend this device to all Samsung fans.

Well, this is already an uncompromising smartphone. A large but lightweight slider with a 5 Mpix camera and 3x optical zoom, equipped with Wi-Fi and GPS modules, and also with high-quality sound - what more do you need? It turns out that something is still missing - a more adequate price and smaller dimensions. Still, this device is more likely for those who are looking not only for music, but for an all-in-one solution. Then the G810 will be a good option.

I combined these two models for a simple reason - they produce equal sound quality. What can I say about LG products? Today this office is developing, and quite rapidly. It does not compete with market leaders in all aspects, but focuses on the implementation of some individual features of its products. So, while LG does not have truly strong music solutions, but there are the above-mentioned models that combine good sound (however, there is no 3.5 mm jack on the body, and the player is very ascetic in terms of settings), good cameras(KE990 generally has a 5 Mpix matrix), an interesting interface based on a touch screen and high-quality assembly. Considering the affordable prices, we get very interesting products, where the musical component is not the main one, but is not implemented so badly.

ZN5 is not inferior. So this candy bar is truly interesting! The combination of a stylish design, a powerful camera (even if it has weak video recording) and high-quality sound makes the ZN5 an extraordinary model.

Sony Ericsson Company

But here things are not very good! For one simple reason - the company still doesn’t have a single model with a 3.5 mm jack on the body and with high-quality sound. So, frankly speaking, I cannot recommend any of the products from this company as a musical solution for a connoisseur of good sound. The time of the Walkman line has already passed, and today their phones cannot compete with the solutions of other market players. The sound in the Walkman is average and a bit dirty. So I advise only ardent fans of the company to buy phones from Sony Ericsson; no one else should buy them. It's better to buy something from Nokia or Samsung. Or buy a Sony player. That's where you get really great sound.

This is how I will end this article. My statement about Sony Ericsson and the state of affairs in its Walkman line is quite bold, no doubt. But it is based both on my personal tests and on the opinions of my colleagues. Nevertheless, comments, additions and objections are accepted... Write. [email protected] , [email protected]

Oleg Kravchenko

IN lately It has become possible to use a mobile phone as an audio player. And all this thanks to the massive appearance of miniature flash cards. Before this, melodies in the format mp3 was only used for calls. The main multimedia function was only FM radio. But times are changing.

Nowadays we can say about any phone that it is musical. Actually this is not entirely true. Music phones have special features that other devices do not have.

WHAT YOU NEED TO REMEMBER WHEN CHOOSING A MUSIC PHONE

IN first of all, large amount of memory. Moreover, the memory can be either built-in 8GB, 16GB, and expandable through memory cards [ microSD, miniSD, memory stick micro and others].

Secondly, the set of real “musicphones” includes a special headset “tailored” for listening to music with 3.5 mm mini-jack connector. Through long research and tests, it has been proven that in modern devices The sound quality largely depends on the headphones!

Another important point is presence of a separate audio processor in the phone, which is designed for audio processing. By distributing the load on the main processor and on the music processor, the mobile phone does not slow down and allows you to achieve a brighter sound of compositions. It is worth noting that this parallelization leads to an increase in the operating time of the telephone from charge to charge.

Long time battery life in music playback mode without the radio part being turned on is also one of the main features of a music device. Who wants to constantly run with charger and look for a nearby outlet?

Besides this, most musicphones are simply must have additional keys to control the built-in player. As a rule, these are touch keys, navigation wheels or regular buttons.

Perhaps all of the above will not make sense without high-quality elaboration user interface. After all, in practice we do not communicate with the hardware! It's corny for us we need a simple, understandable and functional player. This is where the ability to customize music playback comes to the fore.

COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR MOBILE ON “YOU”

TO the main functions of built-in players that are worth pay attention, include playback modes, equalizer capabilities, three-dimensional sound settings, background playback, and working with music stores. But first things first.

Musical devices must be able to play music in random order, and also repeat all files of the created playlist, separate track or even a fragment of a composition.

Almost all modern music phones have ability to sort tracks by artist, albums, titles, musical styles, as well as by alphabet and date.

Alas, due to the peculiarities of the Russian alphabet, Cyrillic tags are displayed incorrectly in some devices. Instead of the names of musical compositions, you can only see incomprehensible “crazy words”. But mobile phones perceive tags in Latin without any problems.

The equalizer can also be considered an integral part of a multimedia device. It allows you to give a musical composition bright colors of sounds. As a rule, several settings are preset: default, bass boost, classical, jazz, pop, rock, trance and others. The user can easily adjust the sound of his favorite track to his liking in a new way.

Most modern music phones support multiple compression formats or bitrates. Mostly from 64 to 320kbit/c. Actually, the larger it is, the better the quality and the larger the file size. The most common audio files now are with a bitrate of 192kbit/s.

One of the most important advantages of music devices is the ability to play audio files in the background. This means that the built-in player will work even while viewing email or during SMS correspondence, etc.

In addition, the so-called online music stores. Thanks to these resources, users can easily download files for a fee. There is also the opportunity to pay a monthly fee [called a “subscription”] to get unlimited access to multimedia content. This is how you can find an online music store on the Internet. iTunes Apple, Nokia Comes With Music and others.

TOP BEST MUSIC PHONES

M There were and still are ringing phones one of the most popular areas in product lines of manufacturers. It is in this sector that new products are announced consistently every three months. And this is not surprising, given that the main consumers of such devices are young people.

To promote special music phones, many companies have created separate sub-brands. For example, at Motorola is ROKR, y Nokia - XpressMusic, y Samsung - BEAT, y Sony Ericsson - Walkman etc.

The Internet publication “Mobile Chelyabinsk” has compiled a TOP list of the most interesting and popular music phones.

TOP list of musical devices is not of an official nature and is intended to make life easier for those who are planning to soon purchase a new mobile phone.

Fortunately, modern technologies allow us not to carry our favorite book, music player, camera and many other useful, but not convenient for constant carrying, things with us. All of the above can easily fit into your smartphone . An electronic library, video player, player, camera are always at hand.

Every modern “smart phone” comes standard with this set. But quite often we place very specific requirements on a gadget.

For example, if you are a lover of high-quality photos, then first of all, you will look for a smartphone equipped with a powerful camera and an appropriate display.

Or you read voraciously and don’t leave home without a book. Then you will need a phone on which you can install (or already pre-installed) a special reading application, plus a display with a large diagonal. You can give a lot of similar examples, but the essence is clear.

When searching, you will definitely encounter one problem: all smartphones have approximately the same capabilities, BUT the manufacturer often relies only on some parameters (screen, camera, audio player, etc.) - the ideal phone does not exist. But having a guideline, it is easier to choose the most suitable model.

After a lyrical digression, let’s move directly to the topic of the review. Which phone is ideal for a music lover? We suggest that you familiarize yourself with best phones 2014 – mid 2015.

iPhone 6

Compared to its predecessor, iPhone 5S, the sound quality has deteriorated slightly and the amount of noise has increased slightly. But there is no need to say that the 6th model sounds bad. “Apple smartphones” have not previously stood out for their loud speakers, but there have never been any complaints about sound purity.

The quality largely depends on the headset used. The better quality it is, the more pleasant it is to listen to music. The Cupertino company always pays attention to detail.

To confirm this, there is a set of standard headphones that are included in the kit. EarPods are considered unjustifiably the best headset, which is spreading massively.

The problem for every beginner is working with iTunes. A couple of tries and you're an ace. The application allows you to download almost any audio file to your smartphone.

Let us immediately note that, as a purely music player, the iPhone 6 will not be the most budget-friendly solution. The price is not only steep. It can make a significant hole in your finances.

Sony Xperia Z3

Another not the cheapest smartphone on the market. The sound quality of such Sony technologies is, as always, at a high level. True, not all music lovers like it.

When developing this smartphone, much attention was paid to the most powerful software noise suppression. The sound is crystal clear, which is unusual for our “spoiled ears.”

When creating your audio collection, you should take this into account and select only high-quality processed tracks.

For connoisseurs of clear and deep sound, SONY XPERIA Z3 is the best option. Branded headphones paired with installed software will suppress almost 98% of external noise. Quality at its finest.

HTC One M8

The Taiwanese smartphone has already become a sound standard. The developers have done a lot to bring the sound quality to perfection. An interesting BoomSound technology was used, which helps the smartphone work efficiently with low and high frequencies.

The sound is clear and the volume is adjustable according to user preferences. In addition, the gadget is equipped with high-quality stereo speakers and an amplifier. You are unlikely to hear unpleasant humming when listening to music without a headset. The aforementioned BoomSound technology increases volume by 25%. The HTC One M8 may not be the loudest among its competitors, but it is definitely a leader in terms of sound clarity.

Vivo Xplay 3S

A Chinese smartphone little known to our customers, which has already established itself as a high-quality music phone. His main feature– special sound chip and paired stereo speakers.

A Texas Instruments amplifier is also installed on board the smartphone. This set of characteristics allows us to say that VIVO Xplay 3S is equipped with built-in speakers, which, as a rule, you have to buy yourself.

Separately, it is worth mentioning the large number of settings that adjust the sound to the user. Standard headphones are of fairly good quality. It’s not easy to buy a smartphone like this in our country, but if the opportunity arises, don’t miss it.

Meizu MX3

From the first day of sales, the smartphone has been positioned as a music smartphone. Its capabilities speak for themselves: Wolfson WM5102 audio chip (provides high-quality sound), intelligent system Smart PA (automatically increases power, increases speaker volume and enhances bass), Dirac HD technology (responsible for surround sound, enhances low frequencies).

The smartphone easily handles your favorite well-known audio formats. All your music can be conveniently sorted into folders.
And now a few words about more budget models.

FLY Tornado Slim

In addition to the fact that this smartphone has become famous throughout the world (registered in the Guinness Book of Records) with its incredibly thin 5.1 mm body, it also has an attractive design and good sound characteristics.

This is an inexpensive gadget that offers high-quality sound. Sound is projected both from external speakers and through the headset. The speaker is clear and powerful. The user is offered a large number of settings and audio modes.

BesAudEnh deserves special attention - a mode that makes the sound more vibrant and emphasizes the bass.

Philips Xenium W7555

The budget model is very underrated by music lovers. For little money, the smartphone boasts serious characteristics. The device is equipped with a WM8918 audio chip from Wolfson (a leader in the digital chip market).

Philips Xenium W7555 is equipped with 2 high-quality stereo speakers, which are still inferior to the sound from headphones. It's nice to have an equalizer that helps you customize the sound.

OPPO Clover R815

Inexpensive music-only smartphone model. Due to its precise positioning, the capabilities of the device are limited. A good audio chip is installed on board, the music player has a convenient user interface.

If we compare models with a MediaTek processor, the OPPO Clover R815 has the best sound in headphones.

The above smartphones are the best of their kind. But when choosing a model “for yourself”, look for the phone with which you will be most comfortable.

How many times will I first say that the article is a set of subjective thoughts of the author on the topic of music phones. Sometimes incoherent. Sometimes there may be a rational grain. Music phones are to some extent my favorite segment, largely because I can’t imagine myself without music. That is, every day, every morning I turn on a small high-quality stereo system in the bedroom, tuned to 89.5 FM. Then I have breakfast, look through email, forums, go to the shower, and the work day begins. And first of all, JetAudio is launched on the laptop with a rich playlist. I listen to everything, both new and old, different styles, different directions, from Soviet military songs to some sophisticated electronics. When I have to leave the house, I always take a music phone with me, and very rarely a player. Lately, I very often use the SE W705 rather than the iPhone, largely because it’s easier for me not to use iTunes to transfer files, but to connect the 705 with a cable and quickly “throw” the tracks downloaded at night onto the memory card. Music is everywhere. This is probably the only way to somehow save my head from the inevitable destruction of information flows, not only am I hiding like this, Eldar is constantly with music, and Artem, and other members of the editorial team. Someone with a player, someone using a wireless headset, someone deliberately chose headphones, and someone had a bear step on their ear. Doesn't matter. The fact is that over the past six months the battle between music phones and players has entered its final phase.

Struggle

I don’t want to be unfounded, so let’s figure it out. There are such products - audio players. With their help you can listen to music. Most modern players are capable, in addition to music, of showing videos and photos to their owner; rare examples have Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. I don’t want to go deep into the terminology now, there are players, there are PMPs and playdrives, all of these are players. What are players better at? mobile phones? If you answer quickly, you get the following set of advantages:

• Most players can outlast mobile phones
• Players have better playback quality
• More music formats supported
• Some players are capable of recording from the radio
• Players have better and higher quality built-in voice recorder
• All players have a 3.5 mm jack for connecting any headphones
• There are quite good players for a thousand rubles, but there are no such music phones

What do you think of the list? If you take a quick look, it really turns out that music phones will not replace players yet. However, I will try to argue with each statement and see what happens. Well, for example, about working offline. Here you can take as an example Sony players Walkman, the operating time is touted as a strong marketing advantage, reaching forty-five hours in some samples. A huge number, don't you agree? But let's look at the Sony Ericsson W980i, it's a music phone. He can play music for about thirty hours. A comparable figure, considering the fact that this is a multifunctional device, and in addition to playing music, you can use it to make calls, write SMS, browse your favorite sites, and so on. So, I don’t think that operating time is any significant advantage of players. This was once the case, but now this parameter is not so important. And consumers would rather look at the appearance, brand, and functionality of the device than at the operating time; this marketing advantage is not total.

The quality of music playback, of course, is much better on many players than on phones. But there is an iPhone in the world, which is essentially the same player. By connecting high-quality headphones, you can get much better sound than many inexpensive specialized devices. Many blame the fact that I often used the Nokia N91 as a general measure, well, good, somehow I forgot that Apple’s product has gone far ahead. But the fact remains that if you look at the overall picture, players play better than phones. But is this really important for the vast majority of consumers? Does this matter to an ordinary Russian student who is thinking about how to wisely spend the five thousand he earns? I think it doesn’t, and here players, with their huge advantage, lose to music phones, which, although they don’t sound so good, but provide a much better price-functionality ratio.

The picture is the same with music formats. Most of our fellow citizens use empatri in their daily activities, and when something incomprehensible is suddenly downloaded from a torrent that does not open Windows Media, they start asking on the forums how to open a file with the .flac extension. Will you argue? I hope not. Surely there will be a citizen who will say on the forum in a discussion of an article, “But I use...”, yes, please. The point is different: rare formats that are not generally accepted in the broad sense of the word are used by a very narrow audience. These are either real music lovers who collect mega-collections for listening on mega-equipment, or professionals, or someone else unknown to me. Music phones generally support traditional file types, with the iPhone being an exception.

Recording from the radio is a very good thing, but there are music phones in the world that allow you to do this. In particular, a number of devices from Samsung. I would like to believe that this initiative will be continued. Although I highly doubt it.

As for the voice recorder, players may indeed have more settings, and the microphone may be of better quality, and the recording will be better. But, again, not everyone needs a voice recorder, be it good or bad. I use a regular Olymlus voice recorder to record conversations and interviews, and only once did I interrogate a person using the SE P990. And it turned out quite well.

As for the connector, the truth is - every player has a 3.5 mm connector, this is a generally accepted standard. And not all music phones can boast the same. Even in 2009, not all companies will use it in all music phones. I won’t continue, there’s nothing special to add, you’re probably interested in how the SE will fare, but I guess I’ll keep silent. For Nokia, Samsung, Motorola, Apple, this connector is becoming commonplace; LG is still in an observation position. In order not to edit the article, I’ll say about LG’s response that just arrived in the mail - we will have a 3.5 mm jack. This is good.

Regarding prices - indeed, a more or less normal player can be bought even for less than a thousand rubles. But here's the Nokia 5130 Xpress Music, which will cost a little more than three thousand rubles. This is a very beautiful phone, there is a 3.5 mm jack, hardware playback control keys, a two-megapixel camera, and so on and so forth. What is better, a flash drive with the ability to play music that costs a thousand or a full-fledged music phone for three thousand? I suppose the latter is somehow preferable. You can object, say: “But if there is no money at all, there is only a thousand?” I’ll answer simply: then it’s better to buy food and eat with it. Moreover, it is unlikely that a player costing a thousand will be much better than the Nokia 5130 in terms of playback quality and ease of operation. I believe that in the current situation, prices for the device can be adjusted, but the current situation can be deadly for player manufacturers. In the end, this is not an essential product, like a telephone (communication is still more necessary for many).

As a result, we can draw a simple conclusion: not a single player at this historical moment has clear advantages over current music mobile phones. If we talk about PMP, then purchasing such a specialized item may be of interest to an extremely narrow audience. Moreover, PMP can more than replace a netbook and provide much more opportunities. The Archos company responded to the alarm bell; the first netbook from this company is painfully reminiscent of some existing model (under different brands).

Player phones

The idea of ​​writing this material was inspired by the Samsung YP-P3 player, in particular, the key marketing features. Imagine, now when you press the screen there is vibration. You can use widgets in idle mode. Bluetooth is still here, you can use it wireless headsets, share files. There are games and so on. And I look at the P3 and think: such a cool device, but why was it modified in the “telephone” direction, and this is what the main emphasis is on? Was there really nothing more to add to the multimedia player? In the first chapter, I somehow forgot to say that the past advantages of players in the amount of memory on board, special filters and music settings are also disappearing. Of course, there is an iPod Classic, which is capable of storing a huge number of tracks, but Apple is aware that there are not many fans of such large storage spaces. As for filters and other things, this is a very illusory advantage to mention at all.

So, I look at the P3 and think: here we could add a telephone part, and it would turn out to be a very good music phone. Or I look at the Cowon S9 on the company website and see how the design of the device, the AMOLED display, the presence of Bluetooth and, finally, at least something for the player are especially emphasized - equalizer presets, special software “improvers”. I look at this and remember how at first digital camera manufacturers tried to use marketing techniques typical for phones. But someone didn’t take into account a simple fact: people change their phones often, but their cameras very rarely. Either if it breaks or due to obsolescence. And with players the same picture is essentially the same. Well, what good is it for me to give up the good old iPod Shuffle if I am completely satisfied with it and there is nothing superfluous in it?

Something is wrong with the development of players. They reach for their phones, but when they come to them, they simply disappear.

What does the coming year have in store for us?

What will happen in 2009? What will producers do? I’ll be that same old woman who said something to someone. It's a very enjoyable role. At first I wanted to set up a recommendation department here, asking what to choose and so on. But then I abandoned this idea; the place of the best of the best music phones in my personal rating was taken by the iPhone, but it may well be that it will soon be replaced by another device from one of my favorite companies. But for now let’s talk about something else.

Nokia – double Xpress`so

At the end of 2008, the minds of many consumers were captured by such a new product as the Nokia 5800, but I personally much prefer the above-mentioned Nokia 5130, an inexpensive but in many ways brilliant phone. In general, if we talk about Nokia, then personally I’m not even waiting for phones, but for the company’s music store to appear in our open spaces, this is what attracts me extremely. We shouldn’t expect a continuation of the Nokia N91 in 2009; no one else will give us (us maniacs) such a gift, the device was too expensive to develop, which had to be dumped in the end at completely ridiculous prices. The appearance of the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic, a music phone with QWERTY, is indicative; I assume that young people may like this “mix” - both music and convenient communication (SMS, ICQ, and so on). Otherwise, “musicphones” from Nokia are already fully formed; it’s good that the company does not abandon the player control keys on the body in most of these devices, in particular, even the budget Nokia 5130 has them.

I’ll say a seditious thing, but I can’t help but say it: many gentlemen constantly talk about poor quality sound from the same SE Walkman, but personally I don’t really like the sound of many music devices from Nokia, I was only impressed by the 5800 model. The presence of a separate chip for audio processing, by the way, here may rather indicate the weakness of the processors used, which need such an “assistant” . I would like to see progress in this direction. Besides, don’t you think it’s strange to have three connectors on the case at once? Maybe one microUSB will be enough for both charging and connecting to a computer?

Samsung – Let the Beatz go on?

The company has an interesting situation with music phones; by and large, almost any device from Samsung can be called such. At least judging by the quality of playback. In addition, there is no way to separate musical models into a separate direction. Ask a regular reader of our site what Walkmans are on the market, the answer will follow immediately. Ask what pure music phones Samsung has, and you won’t get an answer. Of the latter, I liked the thin and pleasant M3510, inexpensive, but loud and of high quality. I think that in 2009 the company will not have time to separate lines; music devices will still be “blurred” into different segments. A symbiosis between a phone and a Samsung player may well arise; such a “musicphone” could incorporate the strong features of the company’s portable audio, in particular, special equalizer settings, interface design, and so on. Although 2009 is not the time for bold experiments.

SE – running man

I will express only my assumptions (smiley). The connector that everyone dreams of will come. You can probably use both regular headphones and the entire range of the company’s headsets (FastPort is here to stay). But this does not apply to all models; most likely, this may affect the upper segment; in the middle and lower segments, FastPort will still reign. We have already seen one of the 2009 models, this is the SE W705, a music device with Wi-Fi, it represents exactly the “mainstream” - neither left nor right. The music parameters are average, a fairly large screen, a good headset included, a metal flip... What else can I add here? If the price remains the same as planned, then there will be an interesting offer. Last year at this time I was happily using the W910i; W705, although it has a lower index, is a worthy continuation. I think, if we talk about top-end Walkmans, then a logical continuation of the W902 will appear (think for yourself what’s interesting about it), plus we haven’t seen music smartphones for a long time (I hope we will). As for services, for now these are the well-known SensMe, TrackID and so on, oh further history is silent; and so much when compared with devices of other brands. In addition to medium-priced and expensive devices, the entry-level ones will probably not be forgotten either; if I say what will be there, they will destroy me morally (smiley). There will be something interesting, as Eldar wrote in LiveJournal, I am pleased with the assembly, colors, design, especially the assembly. For Walkman, in my opinion, 2009 will be an even year; I personally was pleased with the models I saw. It's gratifying that there are no experiments like the W980i or W960i, or not yet. Although I like the 980 model, it is more for Sony fans.

I note that in terms of sound, most likely, there will be no hardware changes, but software changes always take place.

Motorola – ROKR this party

And Motorola, by the way, is also one of Dolby’s licensees; let’s remember the S9-HD headset; it’s impossible to say whether this technology is used in phones. But we can say that “motor scooters” have very good quality sound, 3.5 mm jack, and this applies not only to musical devices. In 2009, the company will do well, and we will certainly see interesting, attractive models.

I say this without any irony. I really love Motorola. And it’s good that they canceled a certain “semi-sensory” ROKR, let it rest in the land of eternal hunting.

LG - don't overdo it

Well, in 2009, LG, as far as I understand, will begin its little blitzkrieg. In particular, there will be a number of models with a 3.5 mm jack. This time. Two - Dolby Mobile technology will be used with all its might, and not only in models in the upper price range. This, accordingly, should affect the sound quality. Three - masters of their craft are involved in cooperation, for example, Mark Levinson, who also “participates” in the audio systems of the company’s televisions. Accordingly, I personally will be very curious to look at the brand’s musical products.

Instead of a conclusion

I wanted to say a lot of things with this article, but it turned out, in my opinion, a little wrong. In my opinion, modern mobile phones can already replace players. Yes, not all formats are supported, not so good, maybe the playback quality, operating time, but all this is nonsense, headphones with the logo of the phone manufacturer fit tightly in very, very, very many ears. The way some top models of players are now being presented once again indicates to us that these products are very close together, a dangerous approach for players. In 2009, music phone manufacturers will make several more steps that could become a real breakthrough for portable audio. This includes price, music stores for mobile phones, the use of special software to improve music, and the expansion of all kinds of services that will be tied to the phone’s ability to go online. Also indicative is the example of headphone manufacturers, who are increasingly including headsets designed for certain mobile phones in their lines.

Neither phone manufacturers nor player manufacturers have yet said their last word, this is understandable. But, it seems to me, at this rate the victory of a multifunctional device over a specialized one may well occur.

The mobile phone is designed to work autonomously in the cellular network, which is in demand and is developing dynamically. It has become an essential means of communication for users. This is a high-tech device that identifies the subscriber using a SIM card. There are many types of phones.

They are different compared to each other technical characteristics, functionality, design. The cost directly depends on the capabilities of the device, its manufacturer, quality and form factor. There are main types of mobile devices:

• monoblock with keyboard;
• slider;
• cot;
• mobile phone with touch screen.

Modern technologies

Progress does not stand still, and now the smartphone has become in maximum demand. This is an “intelligent” mobile phone that functions at the same level as a personal computer. He has operating system, and also works with a variety of programs, applications, it has WIFI, GPS modules. This makes it radically different from a simple telephone.

The phone catalog contains latest models devices. Main characteristics of modern smartphones:

• operating system;
• amount of RAM, built-in memory;
• permission;
• camera;
• monoblock type.

The higher these indicators are for a smartphone, the higher its price will be.

Where to buy

Online stores offer a wide selection of device models from the most popular, trusted global brands: Samsung, Alcatel, Fly, Lenovo, HTC, Nokia, IPhone and others. New, improved models are appearing. Prices for phones, additional accessories, components, spare parts can be compared using the Aport website. In addition, the site will help you evaluate market offers and choose the best seller.