Best MP3 Player Under $100 - 2012

A look at two of the best MP3 players on the market with a $100 budget for 2012. Two awesome gadgets, two awesome brands!

Choosing one MP3 player as the 'best' for less than $100 was difficult, seeing as the market is saturated with good - and not so good - products. First, you need to understand what it is exactly that you are going to get for $100. You are not (quite) going to get an all-round media powerhouse like the iTouch, what you will get however is a powerful MP3 player with a great storage capacity, easy navigation, and the ability to play short videos and peruse image files. After careful consideration, despite it being difficult to ignore the capabilities of the Creative Labs Zen MX range, I put my cards on the table and decided on this Sony Walkman....

Sony Walkman 16 GB Video MP3 Player

Sony were the kings of portable audio for around two decades before the emergence of the iPod in the early 21st century, with Sony simply being slow off of the starting blocks. Despite this, they are still releasing high quality portable music players to this day. So, what does this stylish little beast actually have to offer? See for yourself:

Sony Walkman 16 GB Video MP3 Player

This is an excellent, highly stylish, MP3 player which does a very good job of the simple things. Whilst the player itself is excellent, the headphones do leave a little to be desired - as is the case with most MP3 players. These will sound great with any high-end professional sound headphones however. If your sole objective is to easily arrange and listen to your music on the go, with a good quality audio output, then this player will undoubtedly meet with your requirements. You can never go wrong with any Sony audio device, those guys are just good at making them! This version is available in both 8 GB and 16 GB models, although the difference in price is minimal at time of writing - the 16 GB model certainly offers a much greater value for money.

Sony Walkman MP3 Player Features

16 GB storage capacity, equivalent to 4000 audio tracks which is generally going to equate to between 250 and 300 full albums.
Up to 30 hours of audio play or up to 4 hours of video play on a single full charge.
2-Inch 144-color LCD Display with 240 x 320 QVGA pixel resolution.
Easy to navigate hierarchical file based storage system (drag and drop!)
Numerous audio file formats supported including MP3, WMA (DRM), AAC, Linear PCM.
Numerous video file formats supported including AVC, MPEG-4, WMV (DRM).
The common JPEG file is used for image viewing.
One-year warranty

Buy 8GB

Sony Walkman E-340 Series 8 GB Video MP3 Player (Black)

Only $79.95

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Buy 16GB

Sony NWZE465BLK Walkman MP3 player

Only $109.99

View on Amazon

Prepared To Spend A Little More?

In the introduction to this article I touched upon $100 'not quite' getting you a player to rival the latest iPod's. The reason being that I could not press publish without alerting you to an astonishingly superior MP3 player which (at time of writing) comes in at just a little over a $100 budget. If your budget is flexible then I can truly recommend that you seriously consider this top-of-the-range Creative Labs Zen X-Fi 2.

Creative Labs Zen X-Fi 2

Although this player is also available in 16 GB and 32 GB versions, at a higher price, this 8 GB player has an SD slot for expansion should your music collection grow larger than the storage capabilities. In case you don't already know, SD cards can now hold anything up to 32 GB of files! That is not all of course, the X-Fi 2 has full support for iTunes as well as a very high quality 3-Inch Touchscreen and a powerful built-in speaker system. If you want 'more' from your MP3 Player, then a superior screen is a good place to begin.

With razor sharp video playback and image viewing, the 70 gram X-Fi 2 also offers an FM radio with 32 preset channels, a built in organiser, a calender, a clock with alarm, a voice recorder, the ability to read RSS feeds offline, and full compatibility with Amazon MP3 Downloads, Napster, eMusic, and iTunes plus! In addition, this is an MP3 which actually comes complete with great headphones! The free Creative EP-630 In-ear headphones retail at around $40 alone, and once had an RRP of $77.13! Those headphones have an average Amazon customer review of 4 stars out of 5 from 170 reviews! If you can stretch just a little further then there is no doubt which player you should be choosing...