by Playfuls Staff |
24th September 2006
Keys, wallet... Something's missing. Oh yeah, mobile phone and MP3 player - nobody seems to leave the house nowadays without at least a cell phone and one other tech gadget [more] in their pocket.
But thanks to advances in mobile phones, some people are lightening their load. Mobiles have grown into well-refined pocket music makers that can even replace MP3 players.
Listeners no longer need to make major compromises in terms of sound quality. "On the whole, music mobiles phones are respectable replacements for simple MP3 players," says Henning Withoeft, phone expert for the German consumer testing organization Stiftung Warentest in Berlin.
This is at least the case for devices that are advertised as music phones, notes Markus Eckstein from the Stuttgart-based computer magazine "connect." After all, many phones can play back audio files. But in many cases they have enough power to handle ring tones in MP3 format, but otherwise lack proper music functionality.
The quality bottleneck is often the headphones, says Eckstein. Among other factors, users should ensure that a stereo jack is provided. This allows for any high-quality headphones of choice to be connected, which often provides an immediate sound bump. In many cases the manufacturer provides special adaptors. Another point to remember: if the cell phone only works with the delivered headphones, then it can be expensive to replace them if they get lost, Withoeft warns.
An MP3 collection requires space. The more storage on the cell phone, the better. In the view of Henning Withoeft, this is one area where music phones still lag behind high-quality MP3 players. Several gigabytes of storage space of the kind provided by an iPod are simply not yet available on mobile phones.
"The internal storage space is almost always too small," explains Markus Eckstein. By the same token, many phones can be outfitted with external storage cards - up to two GB depending on format. For those who frequently swap out cards, it's important to ensure that a proper input slot is available on the external casing. It's a bit more of a hassle if the storage chip has to be inserted underneath the SIM card.
Phones with hard drives offer more storage space - but there are only a few models available. Those products are inherently more mechanical - and hence more sensitive. Even if one or another of those models is listed in consumer tests as being robust, Withoeft recommends "a healthy dose of caution" in using them.
Just how much storage is required depends on the usage. Not every consumer truly requires space for an entire music collection on a portable playback device, says Martin Winkler, marketing director at Sony Ericsson Deutschland in Dusseldorf. The rule of thumb is that one minute of decent sound quality requires a megabyte of storage space, explains phone expert Eckstein.
Everyday factors are often neglected when deciding on purchases. Those who listen to a lot of music will appreciate easy-to-use controls, including separate buttons on the casing to switch music on and off or control volume, Eckstein says. Battery life is also an important criterion.
Music-ready mobile phones are often available for a steep discount or even for free when combined with cellular service contracts. Yet Withoeft does not see that as a bargain: "The savings on the subsidized purchase price are lost through fees."
By Berti Kolbow, Dpa
© 2006 DPA
