Music Players
They’re smaller, lighter, and cheaper
Many MP3 players are significantly smaller, lighter, and cheaper than smartphones. This makes them great for situations where you wouldn’t want to carry a smartphone.
Less smartphone battery drain
Many people find their smartphone batteries are already dead before the end of the day, and that’s without the battery drain of listening to music for hours a day. If you’re struggling with your smartphone’s battery life or you avoid listening to music just so you can keep your phone’s battery from dying, an MP3 player with its own built-in battery can save you stress.
MP3 players have longer battery life
MP3 players just do one thing, so they won’t drain as fast as your smartphone. Some include extremely long battery life. For example, the Cowon X9 MP3 player offers 110 hours of battery life on a single charge. If you want to listen to music on a long trip where you won’t be able to recharge your phone, a device like this one can keep playing long after your smartphone is dead.
MP3 players have physical buttons
MP3 players often come with physical buttons for Play, Pause, Next, and Previous, allowing you to quickly skip through songs without digging your smartphone out of your pocket. You could get headphones with built-in controls for your smartphone, but these can be hard to find if you’re not using an iPhone.
Some MP3 players allow for additional storage via SD cards
Many modern smartphones — the iPhone included — include a fairly small amount of storage and don’t offer SD card support. If you purchase an MP3 player that supports SD cards, you can get all the additional storage you want by purchasing cheap SD cards. You can even juggle several SD cards if your entire music library doesn’t fit on a single one. SD cards are cheaper than internal flash memory because they aren’t as fast, but they’re more than fast enough for listening to music.
Why Smartphones Are Replacing MP3 Players
Less Devices
You probably already have a smartphone. That’s one less device to purchase and carry around. If you don’t listen to music that often, a smartphone will be more than good enough. A smartphone may not be the best in all situations, but it’ll suffice.
Music Streaming Services
Smartphones allow you to listen to music from music subscription services like Spotify . You can use the service’s app to “pin” this music to your device offline. If you’re willing to use your smartphone’s data plan, you can just stream music from services. These services save you from the hassle of building your own MP3 library.