The Sony Walkman has long been a staple of the MP3 player market, and this latest model keeps the brand firmly in the game. The Sony NW-A306 is a remarkably petite and light device, but still capable of putting out powerful, authoritative audio with a wealth of detail. The player is built with a full version of Android, complete with Wi-Fi connectivity and the Google Play Store, which results in it being kind of like an Android version of the iPod touch, able to do much more than just play music. However, the Onkyo DP-X1A is built for super-high-quality audio, and it's an absolute dream. It supports a range of music formats, including FLAC, OGG, WAV, MP3, ALAC, and more. In terms of hardware, the device has two chipsets, one to power the overall device, and one to handle the DAC and amplifier – resulting in a noise-free experience. There are other benefits: if you’re out and about without your phone charger, playing music through a portable music player isn’t going to drain your phone’s battery. You’ll also be able to take your entire music collection with you, without filling up smartphone storage that you’d rather use for apps, photos and videos. But most importantly of all, the SP1000m sounds almost transparently clear, utterly in control and entirely assured. No detail is too fine or too transient to elude it, and no bass frequency is too deep or too textured to defeat it. It communicates in torrents, but never in an analytical or show-off sort of way - it just paints a big, full picture and uses all the colours. On the budget end, they can go places that you might be afraid to risk breaking or losing your phone—and plenty of them are smaller than the standard smartphone to boot.

This could be a dealbreaker for some people, but if you only listen to music through streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, these music players aren’t for you. For a few years, we were recommending the Astell&Kern AK70, which did offer Wi-Fi connectivity. Sadly, it’s now out of production. At this price the M11 Pro couldn’t be described as a bargain. But everything’s relative, of course - and if you consider the FiiO’s painstaking specification, premium materials, bank-vault construction and beautifully realised interface, you might consider the asking price could be worse.

While some of the more premium players on this list are great, you don't exactly want to bring them on a run or to the gym. If you're looking for an MP3 player that is rugged enough to handle a workout but won't cost too much to replace if something goes wrong, the SanDisk 16GB Clip Sport Plus is your best bet. Bottom line, a music player you wear as often as your favorite sneakers have got to sound great. The Clip Jam™ player does. It delivers sound so rich and deep you’ll wonder how it can be so small or so affordable. You’ll get the best results using decent headphones and playing high-resolution files – lower-quality headphones and compressed files lose a lot of the detail, to the point where you may as well be using a smartphone. The 16GB Clip Sport Plus supports Bluetooth, which is nice as wired headphones can get in the way with certain workouts. On the other hand, if you do decide to opt for wired headphones, these act as an antenna to let you use the built-in FM radio.

Some MP3 players feature Wi-Fi and support for streaming services like Spotify. This varies from player to player, so keep this in mind while shopping if this is an important feature. Why would I use an MP3 player instead of my phone? If you pair one of the devices in this buying guide with a set of the best headphones you’ve got the ultimate in premium, portable music: high-quality music that you can take on your travels. It’s almost 10 years since iBasso developed the world’s first high-resolution Android portable music player (24bit/192kHz, numbers fans), and it’s been honing its range of players ever since. So by rights the new DX160 should represent the state of the midrange PMP art. The Fiio M11S does an excellent job of gently undercutting its closest rival, the Astell & Kern a&norma SR25 Mk II. You've got so many great options, such great sound, and such high-spec parts that it's very easy to look at the saving and decide it's worth putting into a nice high-capacity microSD card instead of its higher-priced rival.

Speaking of phones, you may find the touchscreen to be a little sluggish, compared to what you’re used to, but with some patience, it’s easy enough to navigate for anyone familiar with the Android launcher. If you can overlook these minor flaws, the Sony NW-A306 is more than worthy of the Walkman legacy and a great way to enjoy your favourite music. Plug your MP3 player into your computer via USB, and most players will appear as an external hard drive. Then you can drag and drop music files onto your player like any other files on your computer. How do I reset my MP3 player? And if you’re keen on the idea of hi-res audio, you’ll need to shell out on a dedicated player to get the most out of the latest hi-res albums. What is the best type of MP3 player? Some people enjoy listening to MP3 players when they work out, so they don't have their phone with them. Whether that's also to keep calls and messages at bay or keep their phone safe.