Today, every smartphone is a portable media player; however, prior to the smartphone explosion in the 2007-2012 time frame, a variety of handheld players were available to store and play music.

(1) A handheld device that plays video in the MPEG-4 movie file format. See MP4 and portable video player. (2) Any media player software or Blu-ray/DVD player that supports the MP4 movie file format.

Suitable for digital signage applications, home theaters and office work. 【Portable Media Players】Compact and travel design due to the palm size, the pocket USB media player is easy to carry.

Astell&Kern has taken all of the best features from its top-of-the-line SP3000 player and packaged them in a smaller, less ...

There was a brief time in the early 2000s when we carried cellphones, wallets, keys, and a bespoke digital media player loaded with a small selection of our music libraries. Devices like iPods ...

[Bram] wasn’t satisfied with the portable music playback devices that were currently available. He craved an offline music player that had a large storage capacity but found that this was only ...

What Hi-Fi?, founded in 1976, is the world's leading independent guide to buying and owning hi-fi and home entertainment products. Our comprehensive tests help you buy the very best for your money, ...

Best Buys If you miss the iPod Touch or want to up your portable music player game, we've got plenty of iPod alternatives on this list... Best Buys Whether you're hitting the beach or lounging beside ...

When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.

At this point, there are really only two major players in the high-end portable music space: Astell & Kern and Sony (where the Walkman brand still lives on). We've used earlier versions of each ...

The converted file can still be played in VLC, but the accessibility of its newfound MP4 format means it can also be shared and played in many other media players as well.

Here’s how it works. Want to cut the lengthy explanations and just find out which digital audio players are the best? We're here for it – here they are. You can also jump to a full review of ...