My Arcade Bases Loaded Pocket Player - Collectible Handheld Game Console with 7 Games (DGUNL-3278)

Product Information

If you live in the UK, you will normally be able to receive all of the popular BBC and commercial stations such as Radio 4, Radio 5 Live, TalkSport etc. as well as at least 10 extra stations you wouldn’t get on an AM/FM.

We are always impartial and do our utmost to make sure we are hearing every product at its very best, so we try plenty of different types of music (and music files) and give each plenty of listening time (and time to run in). We use a range of headphones at levels likely to suit a certain player, too. But all of the products in this list have one thing in common: excellent sound quality. And if you're here, that is probably the aspect that's most important to you in a portable MP3 player. How we test portable music players This could be a dealbreaker for some people, but if you only listen to music through streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, these music players aren’t for you. For a few years, we were recommending the Astell&Kern AK70, which did offer Wi-Fi connectivity. Sadly, it’s now out of production.i-Box’s portable DAB is one of the most popular radios available on the market. Since the establishment of the brand in 2012, i-Box have always had a strong focus on high quality audio and attractive styling.

We make sure to test each product against its chief competitors too, so you can be sure that if we say so, the product is the best bet for the money. We live with these players for well over a week and run them in religiously so that the components have 'bedded in' before we commence our tests, and we don't finalize our testing until we are certain of the sound quality. For many people the convenience of MP3 –you can fit more into your device's storage, streaming uses less mobile data and you don't need a really good internet connection – outweighs the loss of sound, especially if you're listening on the move. But MP3 is a fairly old tech now, and there are better options: Lossless Audio and Hi-Res Audio. If you’re looking for something to keep you company on long journeys, we’d opt for something with a longer battery life that also has more storage space. The Sony NW-E394 below should last you 35 hours, while three of the devices on this list come with a microSD slot for you to expand the amount of storage to accommodate even the largest of music collections. Can I use my MP3 player to stream music? Given its small size, the 12 hours of battery life is very reasonable, and the Ambient Sound Mode is a stroke of genius: it lets you tweak the amount of external noise that’s piped through the headphones, so you don’t get caught unawares by other runners or traffic. Storage space is limited, but for upbeat workout playlists, the 4GB should be more than enough. READ NEXT: Best running headphones The best MP3 players to buy 1. Sony Walkman NW-WS413 Waterproof 4GB: Best MP3 player for workouts

Wordle Helper

It's not just about sound quality, of course. If a product has noteworthy features – such as battery life, built-in streaming services and DAC-performing abilities, in the case of portable music players – we always ensure part of our testing involves testing the claims made by its makers. The player is built with a full version of Android, complete with Wi-Fi connectivity and the Google Play Store, which results in it being kind of like an Android version of the iPod touch, able to do much more than just play music. However, the Onkyo DP-X1A is built for super-high-quality audio, and it's an absolute dream. It supports a range of music formats, including FLAC, OGG, WAV, MP3, ALAC, and more. In terms of hardware, the device has two chipsets, one to power the overall device, and one to handle the DAC and amplifier – resulting in a noise-free experience.

Some people enjoy listening to MP3 players when they work out, so they don't have their phone with them. Whether that's also to keep calls and messages at bay or keep their phone safe. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. The Sony player is adept enough to turn its hand to various genres and can even discern the differences in file qualities, while all sounding comfortable to listen to for long periods. It's a pleasingly detailed and clean performance. In fact, there’s a familial throughline from the high-end NW-WM1ZM2 player to the A306 in terms of how mature and evenly balanced it sounds. It can also play at loud volumes without ever sounding harsh or confused. We'd like more dynamic punch and drive to songs that need it though; the Sony can sound a touch reserved when a song demands outright fun or aggression.

The best MP3 players to buy

Whatever your budget, you will be surprised at what you can get for your money these days. Every player here supports MP3 and AAC files of course, but we can all do better than that in 2023. All of the models above also support high-resolution audio files, from 24-bit FLAC and PCM files and even DSD.