Using a phone as an MP3 player

Reeve · 12 Apr 2007 at 11:50

with my ipod nano now being almost unuseable i was thinking of getting a new phone and an mp3 player at the same time but im worried that the battery life will not be as good as a standalone mp3 player

i would also prefer if i could keep using my current 3.5mm earphones instead of having to use the ones supplied with the phone that have a wierd connection (do any phones even allow you to use standard earphones??)

the models i was thinking of getting were either the nokia 6300 the se w810i or the new w880i(all fo those require me to use the earphones supplied though). i would prefer a small phone if possible

can anyone who regularly uses a phone as an mp3 player give me a good idea of how long it would last playing music at a loud volume?

also how would the sound quality compare to a normal mp3 player? im assuming the difference would be negligible

Davyb · 12 Apr 2007 at 12:48

I use my n73 as an MP3 player while cycling to work and back. Sound quality is just the same as any mp3 player i have. I also bought a convertor that converts the pop port to standard phono jack for my own headphones. Dosent appear to use that much extra battery power.

Christo · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:05

The only mobile I know that have 3.5mm jack straight from the phone are the N91 and N95, but most modern phones have an included jack that you can plug your normal earphones into.

Reeve · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:17

Davyb said:
I use my n73 as an MP3 player while cycling to work and back. Sound quality is just the same as any mp3 player i have. I also bought a convertor that converts the pop port to standard phono jack for my own headphones. Dosent appear to use that much extra battery power.

how much battery life would you expect on average to get from a full charge if constantly playing music?

Reeve · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:22

Chrisp7 said:
The only mobile I know that have 3.5mm jack straight from the phone are the N91 and N95, but most modern phones have an included jack that you can plug your normal earphones into.

i know my k750i did not have one but i bought that about a year ago (it got washed recently so its borked). is this a more recent thing? im not into phones much so i presumed they were never included as i didnt get one with the k750.

Davyb · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:27

Reeve said:
how much battery life would you expect on average to get from a full charge if constantly playing music?

I use it for about an hr a day to listen to music and only charge it up every 3 days or so.

SAM81 · 12 Apr 2007 at 13:42

i use my w950i as my main mp3 playr. sound quaity is excellent, even with the supplied in-ear phones. battery? well i listen to it pretty much constantly for an 8hr shift and ive still got over %65 left at the end of the day. it all depends on how much music you'll want to take with you, i find 4gb enough for me

oyeah doesnt have 3.5m jack, you need to use the rmote that comes with it which has a 3.5m attached to the end of that

SAJ · 12 Apr 2007 at 23:01

I use a pair of senheisers with my w810, I think all the walkman phones have a socket on the handsfree lead that is a standard headphone size.
Sound is very good , but you go for models that use walkman 2.0 (w850 w880 w950 etc).

Ive not managed to outlast the batteries whilst playing music, they should be good for atleast ten hours, more if you use music only mode.

daven1986 · 12 Apr 2007 at 23:21

when i used my w800i as a walkman my battery life went up......

either way it lasts forever when i listen to music and that is with the phone on too not just the music player.

Mike UK · 13 Apr 2007 at 16:13

Used to have a W800i now got a W810i Excelent phones/walkmans with a bigger memory stick (512mb standard stick)

You can buy adaptors to plug headphones straight into the bottom of the phone also like what was mentioned previously the standard headphones have a 3.5mm jack on the mic

Reeve · 14 Apr 2007 at 18:21

Mike UK said:
Used to have a W800i now got a W810i Excelent phones/walkmans with a bigger memory stick (512mb standard stick)

You can buy adaptors to plug headphones straight into the bottom of the phone also like what was mentioned previously the standard headphones have a 3.5mm jack on the mic

thanks for the info everyone

the w810i does indeed have a 3.5mm jack on the mic so i will probably get this phone myself, seem to be really reliable from what i hear(or dont as the case may be) plus theyre not too expensive and you can pick up a 2gb sd card for less than £30 now. bit larger than i would have liked but you cant have everything i guess and im a bit of a meiser (and this is definately the best phone in its price range)

shame the white version is more expensive than the black version...

bledd · 14 Apr 2007 at 18:54

Reeve said:
thanks for the info everyone

the w810i does indeed have a 3.5mm jack on the mic so i will probably get this phone myself, seem to be really reliable from what i hear(or dont as the case may be) plus theyre not too expensive and you can pick up a 2gb sd card for less than £30 now. bit larger than i would have liked but you cant have everything i guess and im a bit of a meiser (and this is definately the best phone in its price range)

shame the white version is more expensive than the black version...

they take mem stick duo pro's not sd cards!

Reeve · 14 Apr 2007 at 18:57

bledd. said:
they take mem stick duo pro's not sd cards!

yeah i know what i mean just gave it the wrong name, using the right name would require me to look up information again and im simply too lazy to be doing that.

Christo · 14 Apr 2007 at 19:17

daven1986 said:
when i used my w800i as a walkman my battery life went up......

either way it lasts forever when i listen to music and that is with the phone on too not just the music player.

So using your mp3 player generates electricity..interesting

Reeve · 14 Apr 2007 at 20:14

Chrisp7 said:
So using your mp3 player generates electricity..interesting

steorn's secret free energy device EXPOSED!!!

SAJ · 15 Apr 2007 at 02:30

Dont get me wrong, I really like my w810 , but I wouldnt recomend buying one anymore.
Its achilles heels are lack of stereo bluetooth, walkman version 1.0 and storage of 4gb tops on mem-stick pro duo.

If I was buying a phone now I would be looking at the w610, which has none of those limitations nor does it compromise battery life or camera like the w880 does.

millsy888 · 15 Apr 2007 at 08:27

i use my w810 as my mp3 player, i have no trouble whatsoever with it, very happy.

Why carry a phone and an mp3 player when 1 device can do both and more ?

Reeve · 15 Apr 2007 at 09:47

SAJ said:
Dont get me wrong, I really like my w810 , but I wouldnt recomend buying one anymore.
Its achilles heels are lack of stereo bluetooth, walkman version 1.0 and storage of 4gb tops on mem-stick pro duo.

If I was buying a phone now I would be looking at the w610, which has none of those limitations nor does it compromise battery life or camera like the w880 does.

the first and last points you mentioned do not bother me in the slightest.
1. i wont be using bluetooth earphones
2. i wont put every music track i have on my phone, will probably have 1.5gb or so max in music files

i shall look into this phone, but i cant seem to find a lot of info about it or anywhere that currently sells on on pay as you go (i have only just started looking though, nvm orange does them)

what are the differences between walkman version 1 and 2 ?

edit: from what i have read the w610 uses a more expensive memory card and can only support max 1gb atm

second edit: this is very confusing, you can get 2gb micro cards and they dont cost that much more. does anyone know if the w610 would support these? according to sonys site they wouldnt but it would be a rather big bo-bo if their newer generation of walkman phones couldnt support more than 1gb cards

SAJ · 16 Apr 2007 at 01:58

Reeve said:
what are the differences between walkman version 1 and 2 ?

Walkman 2 has albums, queueing,album art ,better support for tags, and (apparently) better sound.

Reeve said:
this is very confusing, you can get 2gb micro cards and they dont cost that much more. does anyone know if the w610 would support these? according to sonys site they wouldnt but it would be a rather big bo-bo if thier newer generation of walkman phones couldnt support more than 1g cards

S/E are really bad at this , they keep on quoting max supported size as the largest supported available size.
ie; if the largest available size m2 card was 2gb, and their latest phone could use it(which they all should), they would describe 2gb as being the largest supported size, which sounds rather more final than it actually is.

In reality the largest supported memory card size should be down to the fat version being used by the phone.
The w810 uses fat16 and can use mem up to 4gb, the w850 uses fat32 and can use mem stick pro-duo up to 8gb, it should be able to use higher capacity cards but it seems unlikely that sony will make them.

If the w610 used fat16 for its file system (highly unlikely) it would be able to use cards up to 4gb, so sony are wrong already in saying that it only supports 1gb. Its far more likely that it uses fat32 , in which case it should be able to support cards up to 32gb, should sony ever make m2 cards that size.

A (very) long way of saying "sony are idiots when it comes to product information".

james.miller · 16 Apr 2007 at 02:18

millsy888 said:
i use my w810 as my mp3 player, i have no trouble whatsoever with it, very happy.

Why carry a phone and an mp3 player when 1 device can do both and more ?

because phones are average at best. they are a good compromise but people who want quality will always have a seperate player. Neither the w810i or my n95 are a patch on my Cowan d2, wether it be sound quality, storage size or batter life (great, 8gb and 50 hours respectively by the way).

my n95 doesnt sound bad, but it doesnt compare either.