Design used to follow function
My husband got me a Creative Zen Micro for birthday and he had added in a bigger HDD and a new battery, it really works like a dream. It was a bit difficult to get around at first as it’s from like 2004, but once I realised that I don’t need to mess around with my XP PC to get it work, that Gnomad2 exists and works smoother, I’m all good. And the sound quality is so good, 320 kbps MP3. And the player fits into my headphone case!!
// Hubby wants to edit to say that HDD was replaced with SD card adapter + 16 Gb card (only Sanddisc card worked on it.)
My old Garmin watch doubles as a mp3 player, is quite nice for running since I don’t have to carry anything
What’s your setup there? Can you think of a way to avoid using a smartphone app?
Yeah I’m old enough to remember how exciting it was when anti-skip CD players came out…
It was so cool I’d run with my CD player in my backpack, but sometimes take it out to violently shake it just to see the glorious technological achievement at work.
And they didn’t work at all :D 120 SECONDS ANTI-SKIP BUFFER! proceeds to skip within 5 seconds of jogging
Maybe you had a dud, cuz mine worked great. Biggest issue was how to carry it (Hold it? Put it in a pocket? Strap it onto a limb?)
Obviously it goes into the pocket of your cargo shorts
You gotta let it buffer first!
Seriously why is sending music to an iPhone from a Linux computer not directly possible in fucking 2026? I need to use VLC but its artist grouping sucks, it cannot assign the same track to multiple artists.
Navidrome > Tailscale > Symphonium (or any other player)
I know the pain. I had to use iTunes in a Windows VM. Now I have a Google Pixel with Graphene OS. No problems now.
People look at me weird when I tell them I have a dedicated MP3 player instead of using my phone.
No, I don’t want to run down my phone battery for music. Yes, I want a device I can leave sitting on the counter playing music that isn’t my phone I have to keep walking over to check.
That being said, SO many of the dedicated MP3 players out there are TRAAAAAAAAAAASH. My last one’s 3.5mm jack broke after a couple years. My new one’s SD card slot broke after 4 months. I guess the best method is just buying the cheapest one so when it breaks you don’t feel too bad about it. They’re all made by Asian companies that have no website or contact numbers or any kind of presence at all other than the Amazon page they’re selling their garbage on.
My dedicated mp3 player is an old phone
You might as well just buy a cheap Android phone to use as a music player. A number of the MP3 players out there are pretty much that anyways, except they actually delete the cellular modem.
The cheap phones are also more likely to have a 3.5mm jack and an SD card slot too.
Yeah I’ve considered that option. My last few MP3 players really have basically been phones. Touch screen. Android. 3.5mm and SD slot. Just without the cellular. It’s the cheapness that’s the problem. And that cheapness could still be an issue if I bought a cheap actual smartphone.
To be clear though, the last one I bought was $90-100. So not cheap cheap. I was eyeballing some that were as cheap as $50.
I use a Unihertz Jelly Star and I love it!
If it’s just the battery that’s the issue, put an inductive charger on the counter.
What do you have to keep walking over to check it?
Sounds like their problem is a phone addiction indeed
It’s a phone addiction if someone texts me and I respond?
Why would I want to walk back into a room just to respond to a text when I could just have a dedicated music device that I start and then leave where it is and my phone can come with me?
I’m old enough that I didn’t even have a mobile phone until I was in college and it definitely wasn’t a smart phone. There is no phone addiction here. Personally, I hate the fucking things. I’m not even responding to you on one.
Buy second hand
I mean, just buy a bluetooth speaker and leave that on your counter. Then you dont even need to walk back to change your music. Playing music doesn’t drain your battery that much.
Ugh, I bought one that rythmicaly squeaked when you used decent headphones.
I still use my iPod nano.
Not able to upload images anymore for some reason, but I love the Sandisk Clip Sport for this.
This seems to be the new version of the clip by sandisk. You would want light but also be able to download a podcast on it and this is always a lot of fiddling with a bare bones thing like that.
So annoying, this problem had been solved long ago and now I need an expensive watch or something to get the experience that an iPod had more than 10 years ago.
The clip broke off mine the very first time I used it :(
I had the one later generation of iPod nano that was a little square touch screen with a clip. That thing was great, I could clip it onto my clothing anywhere and go for a run and it wouldn’t move. I miss the days of iPod nanos and classics.
I miss my 8th gen nano. I accidentally got in the pool with mine :(
I do like this form factor, and have had some offbrand ones, but the color LCD with backlight drains the battery incredibly fast. The monochrome LCD on a Creative basically uses no energy and is perfectly visible out in the bright sun, even when fast forwarding through podcasts or audiobooks. Still, I’ll take the physical buttons over a touchscreen that can barely work once I start sweating. Also the physical buttons let me actually CONTROL it while I’m running while still paying attention to where I’m going - no need to take my eyes off anything.
I didn’t notice that the model in the link has color LCD! I have an older model which is monochrome and looks slightly different though the size and shape are the same. It has lasted for years and I’m very pleased with the battery life. Don’t think it is manufactured anymore but there might be used ones sold online or off brand models as you said. Agree that buttons > touchscreen during physical activity.
I still have my screenless Creative nomad muvo, and really wanted the one with the screen back then
From the era just after, the Bluetooth audio player + FM radio Sony Ericsson MW600 was absolutely brilliant with a touch sensor along the side for volume and buttons for media controls, and built in selection menu for what to connect to
I’m getting a permission denied error lmao
“You do not have permission to access this document.”
Huh, maybe it’s region restricted? This sometimes happens to me depending on which VPN server I’m using. But searching for “Sandisk Clip Sport” will turn up the right image :)
I’ve been getting a “problem uploading image” error anytime I try to post one from my device which only started recently.
Probably, it’s just so absurd to get this kind of error on a manual page lol
sandisk made the best mp3 players
Looks cute :3
FiiO still makes a few reasonably sizes DAPs that could work for running.
Too lazy to check but do they make any portable music players that support opus and not just mp3?
My Nintendo DS (Moonshell) technically supports vorbis, but it struggles with its 4Mb of memory sometimes lol.
Maan, I had Exactly that mp3 player, big and bulky and not especially better IMO. You slid out the whole part with the display to access the USB-A IIRC.
Same. I remember it generally held about 65 songs.
And you could use it as a thumb drive too! Just pop it in and slide those mp3s and text giles or whatever in there! 128MB Baby!
Apple: please install our shitty proprietary software everywhere first, and buy all mp3s (again).
You did! I had the same one too and I liked that I never had to try to find the right chord. People hadn’t really settled on micro USB for most things yet, so you still had 5 different flavors of usb cable floating around.
Yeah, you just removed the “darker part” with the display and plugged it in a classic usb A right?
You got it!
VLC on a phone?
I had a nomad! it was… .aight…? like, it worked, and with the full size usb-A usb-stick form factor it was easy to load.
Same, I had that exact mp3 player and it still is the easiest to load music player I’ve owned. Just plug it into any computer and it shows up like a flash drive, drag and drop in your OS file manager. No software, no bullshit. Only downside is the storage space, mine was tiny. I think I could only get like 50 or so songs on it if I remember correctly.
Do they not make those arm strap things to hold your mp3 player/phone on your upper arm anymore? I can control the music through my headphones (with voice or actual buttons) so the thing actually playing music doesn’t matter all that much, personally.
They do, but they are INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. Running 10km with an unbalanced extra weight on one of my arms is torturous to me, to say nothing for the skin issues that I get from one of those bands holding the sweat against me the entire run.
Then, on top of that: slipping down the arm, tan lines, the bouncing of it, snagging it on things, how filthy and disgusting they quickly become, how they’re still damp the next day getting ready for a second run…
Get a belt.
Oh, the bouncing is even worse there. I don’t want a phone slamming into my hip repeatedly in the exact same place with every single step for over an hour. When you are running EVERYTHING that isn’t locked down immediately resonates with your run, and if the weight isn’t trivial it throws off your entire stride.
Am a runner. A tight fitting elastic belt holds everything close and tight and is comfy. Best solution ive found.
I’m sure a tight belt is a good solution for most people, but I’m going to run right into the same problem I have with armbands - tight elastic is going to trigger my eczema as soon as I start sweating.
And then even if a phone weighed absolutely nothing, I’ve still got to look at the screen to control it, which means either stopping motion or taking my attention off where I’m going, it’s still got to be set to the highest brightness to see anything on the display, and as soon as I’m sweating, the touchscreen becomes almost useless anyway.
Do what works for you, but at the end of the day, I will never be satisfied trying to square peg a general purpose smartphone into the round hole of a run. Devices that were made specifically for this purpose and did it brilliantly used to exist, and don’t now.
Your headphones can control the audio. Make a playlist and then its easy to skip.
Good luck 👍
Appreciate the perspective. I’ll keep it in mind, but I generally use extremely cheap headphones with no controls because they don’t last long for me anyway. Between the sweat and the rough use, they only last a few months, and the extra cost for controls is an ongoing loss for me.
If it comes down to it though, I’ll keep your suggestions in mind.
A belt should hold that down so that it’s not bouncing at all. It’s worth finding one that’s comfortable, and you can get used to it pretty quickly.
I didn’t like mine touching my skin so I would tuck in my shirt while running with a belt.
For a bigger ergonomics/comfort challenge, you might even extend out to run lengths where you have to bring your own water. I switched between handheld water bottles and backpacks, depending on length of run and amount of water needed. At that point, the weight and size of a phone is pretty insignificant in comparison.
I don’t run as much anymore, but these days I’m on a smartwatch plus wireless headphones. The watch doubles as a payment card too, in case I want to buy something while I’m out. Like
candyfuel for my run.
You have to look with a magnifying glass to find music players without touchscreen.
AliExpress: so no screen at all it is then
I need a music player to replace AIMP. F-droid so far has been unable to provide me with a suitable drop-in replacement.
Musicolet is the best player I’ve come across. Unfortunately, not on F-Droid.
It looks like it also can’t be grabbed through Obtainium. Such a shame.
