Any advice on a good portable media (MP3/MP4) player?

[TH2002]

I've been looking for a portable media player so I can take my music and video collection on the go, but since everyone does that with their phones these days I can't seem to find anything that suits my needs. Speaking of which, there is the inevitable question of "why not just put all of that on your phone?".

For me, this is impractical for several reasons - namely my phone's flaky headphone jack, the fact that I find touch-based interfaces to be clunky for this sort of thing (I'd prefer to have actual physical buttons), and of course, sound quality is just better with a standalone media player.

Contemplated a 6th gen iPod classic, but those only support up to 480P resolution video playback and many of my files are in 720P. Beyond that, it's either the cheap plastic crap from Amazon or $300+ for something from a premium brand like Astell & Kern with seemingly no inbetween.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[Plasma]

I owned a Cowon J3 about a decade ago and the sound quality was great. It could play videos but they had to be encoded to a specific format/resolution and the screen was tiny. Cowon still makes audio players, but it looks like no video support anymore. I think it's better to use a phone or tablet for videos anyway.

 

[g4ugm]

I would counter the clunky interface by saying use one of the voice interfaces, google, alexa or bicby.
The only ones i can find are the Sony Walkmans and the top of the range isn't cheap...

 

[krebizfan]

The recent set of Portable DVD players include ability to play music and videos off a SD card. Those have physical buttons but might be a bit larger than you want.
The media players build around tablets but with an extra row of physical buttons seem to have dropped off the market.

 

[Trixter]

A second, second-hand used phone. Seriously. Turn off the wifi/cell radio and you should be able to get 6-12 hours out of it. Decent used phones suitable for media player use are readily available for roughly $50 US. The only drawback is that the batteries are suboptimal, but you can get an easily-serviced phone (like a first generation Google Pixel) with well-known ifixit repair instructions and a $10 replacement battery and you're good for another 3-4 years. (Ask me how I know this.)

 

[creepingnet]

I've been using 2nd/3rd hand Zunes since the Zune was discontinued. Never really had trouble with mine. I still have a red/black Zune 30 that I still use periodically, because it does not waste my phone's battery.

 

[mojorific]

I use a FiiO x3. It's an audiophile kind of device with a quality DAC and supports normal and high-end headphones. I don't think they make it anymore but FiiO makes a lot of high quality players.

FiiO Music Player--Born for Music

FiiO Music Player--Born for Music

www.fiio.com

If you like music and want good sound quality, I would go that route rather than get a cheap device.

 

[TH2002]

Weighing my options, it seems these three would be the most practical for me:

1. Secondhand Zune: Preferably a Zune 120 or Zune HD 64 since my storage needs are probably more demanding than most people's, but those tend to go for OUTRAGEOUS prices on eBay. The Zune 80 would still suffice, and although sellers routinely ask $100+ for those, you can still find them for under $100 if you get lucky. The main downside for me is that video support on the pre-Zune HD models is a bit finicky, but at least it's there I suppose.

2. FiiO music player: No video support, but they have great sound quality for the price - used X3 and X5 players seem to go in the $75-150 range on eBay. Still a tad more than I was hoping to spend, though it beats the hell out of the other premium brands.

3. Secondhand old smartphone: Cheapest option by far. Sound quality won't be quite as good and most smartphones haven't had physical buttons for the longest time, though some of them do (the Motorola Droid my dad used to have, for example).

Many thanks to everyone for your suggestions!